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.
Purchased new a 2010 Toyota Prius third generation level 4 in July of 2009. Hybrid battery pack failed just after 150,000 warranty lapsed at 155,000 miles. January 2023 floods in Merced, CA damaged one of blocks in Hybrid battery pack driving through waters at 191000 miles on odometer. This threw DTC POA 080 'Check Hybrid System' message. The following month February 2023 at 191500 miles I notice loud cooling fan for hybrid battery operating for the first time ever! Fan is located in rear seat behind front passenger. Air vent is clearly visible. I believe defective fan led to overheating of hybrid battery premature failure at 155,000 miles.
Traveling at freeway speed just after midnight, the "check engine" light came on. Less than one minute later, the "check hybrid system" alert came on, with an exclamation mark inside of a yellow triangle symbol displayed. The vehicle instantly had no power when the accelerator was depressed. The vehicle coasted to a stop and would not shift into drive. The vehicle was towed to our home. Upon delivering the vehicle to our home, the tow driver used an emergency battery jump start device and the vehicle was able to shift into drive and be driven into the garage. The 12 volt battery was replaced the next day and the vehicle no longer exhibited any disfunction. This was an unexpected event with no warning that the 12 volt battery was in need of replacement. It could have resulted in a serious collision, if the freeway had been more congested, as the vehicle had been immediately driven 2 lanes over to the nearest exit, and came to a stop just after exiting, safely at the side of the road. This is a very dangerous safety condition that should have had some type of alert that the simple 12 volt battery system was in danger of failing, causing a catastrophic failure of the engine and power train. Or, the car should simply not be able to drive, if the 12 volt battery is that low, to ensure passenger and community safety. Prime example: Toyota Prius has a warning alert that the key fob battery is low. The warning gives you a couple of weeks to replace the battery, and repeatedly displays the warning whenever you power up the vehicle.
The contact owns a 2010 Toyota Prius. The contact stated while the vehicle was parked in her driveway, the vehicle independently rolled backwards out of the driveway. As a result, the rear end of the vehicle ran into a tree. The air bags failed to deploy. A police report was not filed.there were no injuries sustained. The vehicle was able to drive and was taken to a collision center. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired as of yet. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer had not been informed of failure. The failure mileage was 173,991. The VIN was not available.
The contact owns a 2010 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that while driving at unknown speeds, the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle was turned off and restarted occasionally. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 18V684000 (hybrid propulsion system). The dealer was not called. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 120,000.
- Cincinnati, OH, USA
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While the car is in motion it stalls in the road/highway and does not accelerate. When taken to the dealership, they diagnose error P08A0 error code: Replace hybrid battery pack.
It has been over 2 months and no remedy (software update) has been released for nhsta recall # 18V684 (hybrid system may shutdown and cause stall J0V). I am moving and need this issue fixed before I go overseas.
I have been experiencing the safety risks outlined in the following manufacturer recall number: J1V NHTSA recall number: 18V684 I have been dealing with this issue for the past 2 - 3 years and unknowingly may have been spending hundreds of dollars on repairs that may not have needed to be replaced. Currently, my car is not running as I experienced a stall (11/09/2018) while exiting the freeway at a high speed with the screen reading "check hybrid system" and the dash lit up with the yellow triangle and exclamation point. I am not able to accelerate during the stall, brakes are working. This has happened to me countless times, almost always on the freeway or exiting and while traveling at a high speed. Sometimes the vehicle would start back up after a few minutes of being turned off. This particular time (11/09/2018), I coasted the vehicle to a safe spot and the vehicle engine never turned on again. I towed the vehicle to my residence and then to my mechanic. I am only able to put the vehicle in neutral. The motor will not come on at all and the screen reads "check hybrid system". the car had over 1/4 tank of gas at the time. I currently use my vehicle for my livelihood doing independent delivery services such as instacart, doordash, postmates etc. Since there is yet to be a remedy for this situation I want to know what my options are to get back the money I've spent or compensation for this vehicle since it is not usable and unable to be fixed by the manufacturer in a timely manner. I can provide documentation in regards to repairs made as well as visits to Toyota in which they were unaware of the issue.
The vehicle was in a parking lot. Upon starting the car, the dash displayed "check hybrid system" and the vehicle could not accelerate above 25 miles per hour.
I had been driving the car and had experienced the loss of power described in recent articles as being an inverter problem (that was the subject of a software update by Toyota that may not have fixed the issue). After experiencing this issue several times, my autobody shop recommended replacing the throttle body as the diagnostic codes were not 100% clear what the problem was. I have replaced the throttle body and not had the issue since, but I thought I would report this just in case this is related to the inverter issue. The issue I had was exactly as described -- driving the car, then suddenly losing power and practically unable to move the vehicle (I was able to drive it maybe 3 mph with no power steering, barely got out of an intersection in front of oncoming traffic one time it happened). This happened at various times, always while moving, both on the highway and on city streets, straight/turning. The only time it didn't seem to happen was when stationary. This is the article I read that compelled me to contact nthsa: Https://www.cbsnews.com/news/California-dealership-refuses-to-sell-certain-Toyota-Prius-models-over-safety-issues/
Had recently purchased this vehicle used.. vehicle suddenly was powerless in the middle of the highway. Struggled to coast to side of the road. Barely being rear ended by traffic approaching from behind. Over heated inverter replaced at no charge by Toyota dealership. Then dealership tried to tell me the car needed $5200 in additional work. I am in disbelieve I was able to purchase a car with out this work being done to it.
My car completely shut down in traffic, engine, steering, transmission all quit and I was almost in a horrific accident as I could not control the car or get out of anyone's way. The check hybrid warning light was also on. It was towed and the garage said it was a software update that I was not made aware of that caused complete failure.
Our Prius has been losing power. It has 68K miles and we are the original owners. Driving at hwy speeds we noticed we have to push hard down on the gas just to get the car to maintain highway speeds. Hills are even worse. We are also still waiting on the parts to fix our headlights. Over the years I have changed the low beam bulbs at least 6 times! when are the parts coming?
Car in two accidents over two years body was not properly welded back to the frame! brakes were not properly realigned neither was the steering column transmission bands were not operating and would not shift and numerous other parts for leakage from brake lines to transmission lines all lines were broken and so are the seals on them!
When I am coming to a stop (braking normally) and hit a bump, the car surges slightly and the brakes become less responsive. It feels like I'm fighting the engine as it accelerates and I'm trying to brake against it. Releasing the brake and attempting again seems to be a solution, but I often don't have time before reaching the intersection I'm approaching. This consistently happens in two places in my daily commute with a slight buckle in the road approaching an intersection on city streets and county roads.
I've had two Toyota Prius in my lifetime, a 2005 and a 2010 Toyota Prius, both have had the same issue where the engine would eat up all of my oil, I would have an oil change done and less than 2 weeks later I would have to check the oil gauge rod and find that the oil levels were below the bottom line, almost empty! the engine would be burning oil at such an alarming rate that I would repeatedly bring the vehicle to Toyota for oil changes. I'm very unsatisfied with my Toyota priuses. My car is currently at 166,384 miles and the engine cylinder has now given way and also the hybrid battery. I've gone only to Toyota dealerships to have pristine consecutive service and no third party repair facilities have provided service. I am located in souther California in san diego. I have spoken to many other Toyota Prius owners and if you do a google search online as of (04/10/17) "Toyota Prius engine oil consumption" you'll find many forums with "excessive consumption" from many other users. Once you reach past the 140,000 mile mark, your car is pretty much done. Consider buying a new one. Toyota priuses and their engineers have to come up with a way to satisfy current and future Prius owners as many of us will find that there will be many problems and issues down the road.
2010 Toyota Prius. Consumer writes in regards to dealership unable to duplicate unintended acceleration issues. Consumer sent additional information. The consumer stated the unintended acceleration only occurred when braking while encountering a bump such as a chuckhole or, speed bump. The failure was intermittent. Updated 03/23/2017 updated 06/15/2017 updated 09/11/2017 updated 10/23/2017
My 2010 Toyota Prius iv has 98,731 miles on it. The engine and power train malfunctioned during a cold start so I had to take it into the Toyota dealer. It had to be towed to the dealership on a flat-bed tow truck because the car transaxle/transmission was locked in the drive position, would not go into neutral, and the car engine would not start rev above an idle. When I attempted to start it the engine acted like it was misfiring very badly and rattled very badly. It sounded like the engine was not getting any oil circulation so I didn't attempt any more cold starts. I could not get the engine into neutral or any other gear so I had it towed to the dealership. When the car was at the dealership I went through my records and found a letter titled 'warranty enhancement program notification - ZF3' that I had received several years previous. The document extended my primary coverage until 31 March 2017 due to a potential faulty exhaust gas recirculation (egr) valve. 'a faulty egr valve would cause the engine to rough idle/rattle from the transaxle at a cold start due to a sticking egr valve. If this occurs, the vehicle may illuminate the check engine light and set diagnostic trouble code dtc P0401. If the condition is verified the vehicle will be repaired in accordance with the applicable technical service bulletin under the terms of this warranty enhancement program.' The symptoms my car experience during cold starts begin around 92,000 miles but no 'check engine light' or 'diagnostic trouble code' ever illuminated on the instrument panel. After 92,000 miles it only happened occasionally, and always during cold starts. Normally after a few seconds of idling the rattling would go away and the engine and drivetrain would perform as it should. I took my car in for a service and told the dealership what was happening, but they could not diagnose any problem.
Vehicle lost power, stalled while driving at highway speed; "check hybrid system" displayed on dash; required replacement of inverter and intelligent power module
Car would not drive, or reverse it shifts to neutral since first week I bought the car in Aug 2010. I bought a Toyota Prius III 2010 (from the dealership Toyota of kearney mesa in san diego) in 2010. The car from the beginning would shift back to neutral when I set it to drive or reverse. I bought the car and am the only owner). After I encounter this, within the week I took it to the dealership where I bought it (san diego kearny mesa) and they told me that it was not a problem. Yes, it was a problem and they refused to fix it. This has happen to my car from week 1. now 5 years later, today, the car would not engage in "D" or reverse. I tried at least for 10 minutes. I called a dealership now in seattle (since I take my car here for service) and I was told that they never heard about it. I searched online and I found that this problem/bug does happen. Today I could not set my car to drive or reverse for about 10-15 minutes. It's a safety issue. My steps: 1. depress power button (to turn on) 1.1. wait about 5-10 seconds 2. depress the break + engage in D (drive) or (R) reverse. 3. the car goes to "N" neutral and cannot be put in gear drive or reverse. 4. turn car off. Go back to step 1 until your car engages.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Merced, CA, USA