Help, Wont Start After Rear Brake Pad Fitted

[unclepoo]

Car is a Auris hsd 2011 ...had it mot`d a couple of days ago, got an advisory of rear brake pad low...so had my usual mechanic fit rear pads. was reversed into the garage without any issues...went to start it after fitting rear pads and no go....dash says ..check synergy drive system.., then put into "p" to start.

He plugged his snap-on obd reader into it, said HV Battery high...or something like that.

Can anyone help !!

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Not really.

It depends if he did the job correctly. Many mechanics who had zero experience with a Toyota hybrid do all sorts of weird/stupid things such as leaving the car in Ready - assuming because the engine isn't running that the car must be switched off. Or they don't know what to do with Park or the foot operated parking brake and leave the car in Neutral. That is one of the worst things to do as if it is left like that for a few hours it will run the HV Battery lower than it should and the car then won't have the power to spin the electric motors to start the engine. It's also possible the mechanic left all the doors open all day with the interior lights on, which in a traditional car with its bigger 12v isn't an issue. In a hybrid with a small 12v it is. This could have run the 12v too low to boot the computers to start the car.

You could ask the mechanic what he did, but chances are they weren't sure or aware of what they were doing, so unable to confirm. They may also be frightened they've damaged your car and may deny they didn anything wrong.

Oh, if they have left the car in Neutral and run the HV Battery too low it could have damaged your HV Battery if you were really unlucky, but more likely it will just need taking to a Toyota dealer who have the right equipment to charge it. Also, you hope the mechanic wasn't messing about with the orange jumper on the HV battery or tried to jump start the car not knowing what he was doing.

Maybe disconnect the 12v (correctly and carefully), leave the car 30 minutes to reset and then reconnect again. This may clear some issues and allow the car to start. Maybe remove the 12v and check its charge and charge it up too if it was low? You will lose radio presets though.

I assume you're aware of the regen system on the hybrid and how it's merged with the friction brakes? There is a special way when replacing pads.

This youtube clip is for a Prius but gives an idea of what your mechanic should have done. Read the comment lines;

[CPN]

Hmmmmm... What was that I was saying the other day about not using a none franchised garage to carry out repairs on a Toyota Hybrid?

[unclepoo]

This video is exactly what he`s done...the keys were in the car, keeping the brakes pressurised...working on the rear brakes caused the fault. all is now well, but i`ll be keeping an eye on all the warning lights and display. I take your point on using toyota for service and repair too.

[unclepoo]

And thanks very much for the help guy...very much appreciated.

[Mike169]

Hi Stuart.

I almost feel sorry for you mate as reading this has opened my mind to the technology on cars today. In my past i have fitted 100's of sets of pads and/or disc's without any problems.

Cars today are so hi-tech i do virtually nothing to my Rav 4 as things need to be reset and usually by a system called TechStream. You can buy snyde copies off eBay but personally i don't think it's worth the aggro if you don't know what you are doing or not computer literate with confidence.

I think a car with full main dealer history if you can afford it is the way to go as it increases the trade in price.

Hope you get your car sorted and do let us all know the end result, i for one am interested.

Regards, Mike.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

I think a car with full main dealer history if you can afford it is the way to go as it increases the trade in price.

Not by enough normally to warrant some of the higher dealership premiums commanded most of the time though.

[Mike169]

I think a car with full main dealer history if you can afford it is the way to go as it increases the trade in price.

Not by enough normally to warrant some of the higher dealership premiums commanded most of the time though.

I totally agree with you Jonathon but i feel if your car is still within it's warranty period you are almost 'tied' to Toyota and as the vehicle gets older then your local garage if they are cheaper may be the better option but i still feel using genuine OE parts is a good idea, if again you are prepared to pay their prices.

I had a really nice Celica years ago, had it serviced at a local garage and they used 'copy' parts namely the oil filter. The engine developed a big end knock afterwards as the filter fitted, even though the parts book indicated it was a direct replacement, didn't have a non return valve fitted so the big ends run dry so on start up it was noisy so i part-ex'd the car only to hear they serviced it with genuine OE parts and all the noises went....if i had known that before i would of kept the car.

Regards Mike.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

And many dealers will price match (within reason), so you can get the properly trained mechanics with the dealer backup and not end up paying silly money.

One of the problems with fixed price servicing is that in London or the South East the prices might be pretty keen, but more to places where average or less than average wages apply and these fixed rates can be a little pricey.

At least the OPs car is sorted now and appears no long term damage was done.

[unclepoo]

Car was sorted at about the same time grumpycabbie posted his reply ( thanks again fella)....but I now tend to agree about using toyota to service...for peace of mind if nothing else. We all invest thousands of pounds in our cars, and it`s all for nothing if its sat on the drive but unable to start it.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

You're not the first and unlikely to be the last to have had 'fun' using a normally experienced mechanic who has no hybrid experience.

The best one is when inexperienced mechanic does an oil change - after stopping car on ramp they assume because the engine is not running the car is switched off (especially as keyless confuses them), so they empty the oil out. The car is sitting in Ready mode and suddenly detects the drop in oil temperature (because it's no longer there), so fires the engine up to warm up. Bang, clatter, bang, pop - unless the mechanic was quick to switch the car off.

Many a Prius has met a premature end this way - at least on the US forums where skimping on oil change costs is a national obsession.

[PeteB]

... at least on the US forums where skimping on oil change costs is a national obsession.

mind you, I don't know if they still do, but the recommended oil change interval there was 5,000 miles!

I can't remember where I saw this, but I read about a guy some time ago who every 6 months sent a tiny sample of his oil to one of the chemical analysis companies. I think by the time he chickened out and changed it, he'd done 40k or something, and the oil was still above spec.

Now I'm happy to have it done every 10k, maybe even 12½k that some cars now have as their servicing interval, but 5k?

[unclepoo]

I told him about this when I was picking the car up when he`d sorted the fault.....he tells me there is 2 service modes that the car needs to be put into before being worked on.....as I always say, "every day is a school day"

[kithmo]

My oil gets changed every 5K anyway, that's all I do in a year. Mind you 75% of my journeys are 3 miles or less, so I guess you would call that a heavy duty cycle.

[PeteB]

fair comment - I'm heading that way, only 13k last year - for many years I did about 25k in my Gen 1 Prius, plus for the year I became a London minicab driver I did 46k in company Gen 2 Prius, another 7k in mine (and 4-5k in other cars)!

[Grumpy Cabbie]

... at least on the US forums where skimping on oil change costs is a national obsession.

mind you, I don't know if they still do, but the recommended oil change interval there was 5,000 miles!

I can't remember where I saw this, but I read about a guy some time ago who every 6 months sent a tiny sample of his oil to one of the chemical analysis companies. I think by the time he chickened out and changed it, he'd done 40k or something, and the oil was still above spec.

Now I'm happy to have it done every 10k, maybe even 12½k that some cars now have as their servicing interval, but 5k?

It used to be but Toyota is one of the few US manufacturers who now recommends a 10k mile oil change interval if using the 0w20 fully synthetic oil. Notice I said a 10k oil change interval? They still insist on the car being serviced at 5k miles. Canada still insist on a 5k mile (in km equivalent) oil change.

They're incredulous when I mention that Toyota intervals at 10k are classed as low here and some manufacturers recommend double this for petrol cars. If synthetic oil is used then there won't be any issues, even under hard use. I worked with a taxi driver who never changed his oil - ever. You'd never have known and he never had problems THOUGH his engine would sound tired about 100k miles. He still ran the car to 200k. His thinking was the money earnt and time saved in not servicing the car would offset the time involved in regular servicing. He probably had a point, but not one I dare risk.

Personally I do think oil level is more important. Let it go too low once and your engine will have a reduced life at the very least.

[kithmo]

I imagine his oil filter was doing nothing at all, as all the oil would have been going through the by-pass valve when the filter got blocked.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I imagine his oil filter was doing nothing at all, as all the oil would have been going through the by-pass valve when the filter got blocked.

I agree. He would top up the oil when needed.

And it would be a noisy old rattler towards the end, but he worked on a certain calculation over a 5 year life span or 150k miles. I guess the time off the road and servicing costs were balanced by the noise? How much does 150k miles of servicing cost, including the time off the road - even half a day for the service.

I think he was the only one who did this, but it wasn't for me. I could tell when my car needed and oil change by the way the engine ran. 10k mile intervals in the taxi trade, even with synthetic, was just a bit too long. I wouldn't want to go any further past 10k.

[kithmo]

Just going on Toyota's prices, ~£150 for an intermediate and ~£250 for a full service, call it average ~£200, service every 10K miles, 150K miles, 15 services = £3,000 saved in servicing costs, even more if it was a Merc, Audi or such.