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Rough idle at stoplight - dash says motor off

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by VicVinegar, Apr 8, 2014.

  1. VicVinegar

    VicVinegar Member

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2013
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    Location:
    Northern Virginia
    Vehicle:
    2013 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    Effing dealership wants to charge me $110 to look at it, even though the car is under warranty. Basically it is apparently my job to figure out if there is a problem for warranty repair. Is this normal? I just had my Subaru in and they checked out a noise I had no charge... because it was under warranty.
     
  2. kc410

    kc410 Active Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    2010 Prius IV
    Vehicle:
    2015 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    Until the Prius sets a hard trouble code, the service dept. has no idea what to repair.
    Even a "pending code" set in the ECU will not light up anything on the dash, not that a dealer would do much about a "pending code" anyway, except maybe reset it.

    I knew my battery was failing from monitoring it (using Torque) for a long time. I could tell something was failing from the way the Prius was acting, but it only started setting a hard trouble code at the very end of its life. I'm not saying your trouble is with the traction battery but until the service department gets to see a hard trouble code they (mostly) are lost.

    It might be worthwhile to pay the dealer the $110 just to try & document if there is a failure while it is still under warranty. A BT adapter ($20) & Torque Pro ($5) & you can look at lots of things yourself.
     
  3. VicVinegar

    VicVinegar Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Northern Virginia
    Vehicle:
    2013 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    I have an adapter and Torque. Came in handy with a Civic that was north of 200k. So I guess I'll work on my 1.5 year old, 35k mile car myself. I was just hoping they would have an angle to inspect based on the description of the problem. They are supposedly the experts on these things. I know the tech lines sometimes know of issues that aren't issued in TSBs.

    I just have a problem paying $110 so they can tell me there were no codes, which is what I feel the result would be. Or else I am gambling that they have a tech who really cares about getting to the bottom of things. Probably not.

    Pretty sure I am done with this service department though. The dealer I bought from and was using is pretty inconvenient for me, so I tried this one that is 5 minutes from me. After my 2.5 hour 30k service, I'm apparently looking at a 90 minute tire rotation for 35k. No shuttle on the weekend too, because that makes sense.
     
  4. kc410

    kc410 Active Member

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2013
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    Location:
    2010 Prius IV
    Vehicle:
    2015 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    If you can get the Prius to the other dealer they might have a better service department? Try to make an appointment? Call your salesman if necessary? Not all Dealers & Service Reps. are created equal. I know its a pita, but you are correct in wanting to find out what is gong on with _your_ Prius - & getting it checked out while still under warranty makes sense :) Good Luck
     
  5. VicVinegar

    VicVinegar Member

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2013
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    Location:
    Northern Virginia
    Vehicle:
    2013 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    Yeah I'll probably check with them and go back to them for service in general.