This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
I was transitioning between two freeways in my 2004 Toyota Prius and had started braking/decelerating for a looming traffic jam up ahead when the gas engine stalled and all dash warning lights came on, along with the nav system screen saying "problem" and a red car icon. My speed could have been anywhere between 70mph and 35mph at the time of the stall. The electric motor was still functional, so I exited the freeway, parked the car, powered it off, then powered it back on. The red triangle of death was still lit on the dash, as well as the engine check light, but the gas engine was now operating normally and was recharging the almost-depleted electric drive battery. I was able to drive home without any further incident. The next day, I took my car into Toyota of huntington beach for repair, and they "reprogrammed [the] electronic control module". my symptoms seem related to the PE05029 defect investigation and the NHTSA ODI complaints of other Prius drivers. This desperately needs to be a recall item because a sudden deceleration to 40mph on a freely moving freeway with other traffic traveling at 75mph could be a very dangerous rear-end collision risk.
Driving downhill ~50 mph when all warning lights came on. Car wouldn't accelerate. Gas engine would not start and battery charge was dropping fast. Limped ~1 mile home at 25 mph. Turned off car, too late to call Toyota that night. Turned car on and gas engine started right up. All warning lights still on, and main battery nearly drained. Slowly drove around on local streets, battery charged. Parked and turned off car. Later in day, turned on car, all warning lights were off. Took it to dealer when we got home. Dealer claimed computer had no record of the problem. Prior to this event, Toyota had upgraded the computer software on this car as described in hv ECU software update 00204. We were told this fixed the stalling problem, but obviously does not.
For the second time my 2004 Prius has stalled while driving and shut down. I have attached my previous report to you when it happed in May 2005. The first time the ECU was reprogramed. This time I was driving on the freeway going 65 miles per hour on July 2, 2005 when the emergency engine lights came on on the dash board. The vehicle quickly loss power before the engine shut down. The battery meter confirmed the loss of reserve. I had the vehicle towed approximately 50 miles to maita Toyota where I have my Prius service. The vehicle was keep from July 2 - 12, 2005. The service department was not able to identify the problem. I picked up the vehicle and drove it home today. Now I have to watch for the next time that it happens for Toyota to research the problem more. A file was open with Toyota #2005 00071145 but without any help to identify the problem. Contact 1-888-dash-2-dot (1-888-327-4236) tty ' 1-800-424-9153 or ' 1-202-484-5238 ' ' ' consumer information name : Mr. Christopher smith org. Name : address : P O box 1543 city, state, zip : carmichael, ca 95608 usa daytime phone : 9163908494 description : 5/6/05 my 2004 Prius with 20,400 miles without warning loss all power and shut down while driving hazard light came on warning to take to Toyota dealer. The vehicle would not start. The battery meter level was completely dead. The vehicle had to be towed to maita Toyota 2500 auburn blvd, sacramento, ca 95821, 916 481-5353 for repair. The work order stated the cause was the ECU which was reprogramed which cleared stored codes. Code pulled P3191. Is this a new finding in the Prius? incident date : 5/5/05
Engine failure at approximately 55 mph. Had just come through a toll gate and merging intersection. While accelerating through about 55 mph the dashboard lights all lit up and the engine died. Travelled to a safe location via battery power and called dealer. Car has been towed to Toyota dealer in leesburg, but they can not work on the car until a battery charger is revieved from Toyota. They say there is only one in the 4 state region so it could be a week or so. No explaination by service department on what causes this problem.
- Leesburg, VA, USA
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(1) engine stalled when accelerating from stoplight. Weather was cool (low-50S) and rainy. Dashboard warning lights lit up ('red triangle of death', check engine, braking system) (2) driver pulled to side of road using electric power only (3) driver called husband, who advised wife to cycle the power off and on, possibly multiple times, until the engine restarted. Cycling power successfully restarted engine, but 'red triangle of death' and check engine warning lights remained lit. Car operated normally thereafter. Dealer applied tsb EG047-04 at no charge. Problem has not returned. Suspect this is another instance of 'Prius stalling' problem. Given the number of incidents (1), the dealer response (satisfactory) and the recoverability from the problem (power cycle), I consider this a minor problem. Otherwise highly satisfied with car.
Toyota Prius gas engine stalled 3 times, twice while driving on highway and on ramp. 1) May 13 2004 stalled in busy intersection going about 40 mph, electrical engine still worked, so speed dropped to 20 mph, and consumer stopped on the side. All warning lights were on. Vehicle was towed to Toyota, and they said nothing was wrong except dirty gas. They reset warning lights, and told it was safe. 2) June 1, 2004, while merging onto a highway going up the ramp at about 50 mph car jerked and slowed to about 25 mph without warning. Car behind M had to go onto shoulder to avoid rear ending consumer's vehicle. All warning lights were on again. When checking engine display only electrical power was working again. Gas engine had stalled, causing the immediate decrease in speed, without brake lights so car behind didn't know what was happening. Towed to Toyota. They said nothing was wrong again except dirty gas. Consumer changed gas stations and used their recommended ones since the last incident. Consumer refused to take the car back. Had two toddlers who were in the car at the time of the incidents. GMC dealer sent a patch which wa ssuppose to fix the problem, but patch did, T work. Problem recurred.
Vehicle's gas engine quit after leaving a store's parking lot. Warning lights indicated to take it to the nearest Toyota dealer immediately. Dealer indicated it was a software problem, and uploaded a fix. 2 hours of work time was lost.
1. I was driving on the long island expressway. Traffic became congested so the pace was stop and go. I started to accelerate (was going about ~35 mph) when my 2004 Prius lost power. I was able to pull over. All these lights came on indicating there was a problem. I was able to pull over and get off the road., I called the 800 no. For roadside assist. But the wait was over an hour. After ~20 minutes I started the car to try to boost the power the electric battery. I drove it in a parking lot and kept braking. The car seemed fine so I cancelled roadside assist. I then drove it another 250 miles home without a problem. After hearing the news I thought the problem I had was the same. I wasn't sure what further steps to take. I did have my Toyota dealer check it out but someone else dropped the car off for me so I'm not sure they totally understood the actual problem. They did a computer adjustment. No problems since this one and only incident.
I have a 2004 Toyota Prius (purchased Dec. 2003). Approximately 10 March 2005 I was driving at city speeds (<40 mph) when the gasoline engine shut down. I was able to proceed about a mile on the electric engine until the battery became drained. I called for a tow under warranty service. While waiting, I was able to restart the gasoline engine after about an hour, but had the car towed into the dealership for investigation of the failure and repair. After a couple of days of investigation, they claimed that they could find no problem and Toyota had not issued any service bulletins dealing with such a problem. As recently as last week, when I had the car serviced, the dealership said that they were unaware of any similar reports and Toyota had not issued any service bulletins. I gave them a copy of an article from a recent wall street journal details reports of these problems around the country. I have no further problems of a similar nature, but I am somewhat apprehensive of recurrence. Otherwise the car is wonderful. I get ~50mpg in the summer and it handles well.
In June 2004, the 2004 toyata Prius we had purchased in mid-may malfunctioned as I was accelerating onto a freeway on-ramp in daly city, California. A loud beep sounded, and all the dashboard lights lit up at once, including the exclamation point. The gas engine did not engage as it usually did at higher speeds, leading to a rapid depletion of the battery, which forced me to pull over to the side of the freeway. I turned off the car, waited 5 minutes, and then pressed the power button. The lights on the dash lit up again but the car did not start. I called for a tow, which took about 70 minutes. In the meantime, I tried the power button at 15 minute intervals. At 45 minutes, the car started normally. However, by then the towing company was on its way and the car was towed to the service center of the city Toyota dealership in daly city, which happened to be where we purchased the car. The car was left for a few days. When I retrieved it, they were unable to explain why the problem occurred. We have been driving the car since without incident.
1. I was driving around 30 to 40 mph and the gas engine failed suddenly during the course of normal driving, leaving only the electrical engine running. At the same time the engine failed, many lights turned on on the dashboard. 2. I was on a canyon road in the los angeles mountains when it failed, which was a single lane road each way with nowhere to pull off. Luckily, I had just reached on of the crests in the canyon when the engine failed, so with the electrical engine I was able to coast to a side street. Once on the side street, the electrical engine died quickly, probably because of the steep slope upwards of the street. 3. I tried to turn off the car and it wouldn't turn off, so I popped the hood and got out to see if there was an obvious problem. Finding no problem I could see I went back inside the car and held down the power button until the vehicle turned off finally. When the vehicle turned back on, the engine sempt to work normally, and I immediately went to the nearest Toyota dealer. They said they had heard of the problem once or twice before and it requires a software update to the car. I was weary of their proposed solution since it is such a dangerous problem, but that's all they said they could do, so I told them to go ahead.
Summary: Internal combustion engine died while driving. Lots of indicator lights on dash, and message appeared on multifunction display. Was able to get to a safe location on battery-only power. Details: Driving home from town (about 10 miles). Car was behaving normally, and had been driven approx 30 miles earlier today with no issues. Just before we got home, the following lights came on (I recorded them exactly): (1) red triangle (master warning light), (2) engine check (amber), (3) brake system warning (amber exclamation point in parentheses), (4) vsc, (5) hybrid system warning light (this was also indicated on the lcd screen). Lcd had a message on it which I did not record exactly (it was something generic like "there is a problem"). the info screen was indicating that we were running on battery only, and the car had very little "pickup", but we were on our home street, which is quite steep. The car has about 11000 miles, and did something similar when we first got it. After turning the car on and off a few times, the internal combustion engine seems to work again, and most of the indicators have now gone off. (amber "engine check" is still on). After all this happened, I got onto the internet to see if others had seen similar problems, and it looks like there may be a class problem (I note there have been a large number of these in the last few weeks - could it be temperature-related?) car was not out of gas (just refilled yesterday) - gas guage showing nearly full. Vehicle was purchased August 2004 (after the tsbs came out that implicated computer problems), so I'm suspecting this may be a different issue than was dealt with there. [xxx]. will notify Toyota tomorrow and request instructions as to how to proceed. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Without warning, the warning light and alarm come on. The gas engine dies and does not engage at all. The electric motor is the only thing that keeps the car mobile. Once the power is turned off then back on, both the gas and electric motors move the car as normal, but the warning persists. This has happened twice. I've been told that two different computer were the cause. The first incident happened at about 5,000 miles, and this latest happened just over 10,000.
5/6/05 my 2004 Prius with 20,400 miles without warning loss all power and shut down while driving hazard light came on warning to take to Toyota dealer. The vehicle would not start. The battery meter level was completely dead. The vehicle had to be towed to maita Toyota 2500 auburn blvd, sacramento, ca 95821, 916 481-5353 for repair. The work order stated the cause was the ECU which was reprogramed which cleared stored codes. Code pulled P3191. Is this a new finding in the Prius?
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Tukwila, WA, USA