Recall for Prius Plugin fuse :-)

Hello everyone, this is my first post. Please read this thread and link to other related threads if possible. I want all Toyota Prius owners to know this before and after getting the recall performed.

I have been reading this site for a while and want to contribute to this thread the best I can. Most topics get covered quite well so there isn't much a need to chime in but I feel this topic needs more attention.

Before the recall my car was doing a lot better than after the recall. *Disclaimer* I am not an engineer and some of the terms I may use may probably be substituted for more accurate wording.

I believe this fuse "fix" adds resistance to the electrical load so the the battery power is reduced to the hybrid drive. The car now has no mid range power and will utilize the gas engine more, thus increasing emissions and reduce overall mpg. If you now find yourself having more battery life left over on your daily commute it's because of this and your car actually using more engine and less battery to get you where you are going and this leaving you with more battery.

My average daily speed has been under 30mph for many months and on the way home am in HV battery zone for 2/3 of a 30 mile trip. The car could go up to 40mph in ECO mode and keep up with traffic. I would routinely get 70-90mpg over the 30 mile run through some of the heaviest traffic in the country. My engine now is constantly running to charge the battery when I'm out of EV charge and when I do have EV charge the car does not have the same performance as it did. It will even run the gas motor in EV mode without reason sometimes and also use EV power when not in EV mode while on the highway and going 65MPH, it did not do that before, I went on a 400 mile trip out of state and got there with 8 out of 10 EV miles remaining as most of the trip was using the gas engine.

The car now struggles to get 50 mpg on the same run and ECO mode is non usable unless you want to go 15mph and at a crawling rate of acceleration. Keep in mind, when the car is cold it seems "okay" to a point while it's in a warm up loop it may actually drive halfway decent, this could be because of emissions testing routine has been non modified. Think VW Diesel scandal. I don't trust Toyota anymore to do the right thing and neither should you.

How many of Prius PHEV owners had problems before the recall? This is a key question and I would like everyone to chime in on it.

My car was not experiencing issues before the "Fix" and I was forced to do it in order to re register the car.

Seems like Toyota conveniently made this "Fix" as sales on new PHEV's were dropping before the announcement of CA's new RED clean air tags.

I have more to add but want to know what you all think. No I'm not a troll or an attorney, just a Prius owner that knows the car can d better than what Toyota is forcing upon us. They know their "fix" will put most cars at the advertised MPG so they will claim that nothing is wrong. This is also hurting resale values. I think it's time for a class action.

 

@PHEV GURU, welcome.

Sorry about your bad experience. I had no problems before or after I had the recall done. The car behaved exactly the same and it's great.

If mine came back that screwed up, I'd be right back at the dealer demanding they fix it. Not a Toyota issue. It's a dealer issue.

 

been awhile since i read this thread. not sure how many people had complaints after the recall, maybe a few?
except the o/p, whose ev miles went up!

seems to me there were more complaints with the ipm recall on the regular prius.

 

poster #24 seemed concerned, but never returned.

poster #37 is extremely happy with increased ev miles.

#63 was unhappy, and also did not return.

 

that's it in this thread. the only people who felt they had a problem never returned.

 

To: PHEV GURU CONGRATULATIONS! I believe that when your car goes into a shop, any shop, the first thing anybody should do is to reboot it after the repair is complete. Offhand I would say this is never done even at Toyota Repair shops ! Shocking, yes. I have been preaching this line since 2005. Rebooting is basically resetting all or most of the computers in the system.
An example, when I picked up my car from the Toyota Auto Collision shop, they had run my EV miles down
from 18 to zero, how, so they could sit in the car and be cool, this also affected my 12V bat which was only
12.3 when I got home. So, I immediately rebooted and recharged and everything was back to normal after
a day or two. So suspect everybody and ask Service guy or repairman if they OWN a Prius. another hint, before you take it to the repair shop, try rebooting first. This is only for Do It Your Selfers !
If you are unfamiliar with picking up a wrench, then don’t. Much better to pay than to learn.
Not you Guru.

 

Is there any special process to a reboot?

 

Just remove the + or - from the 12 Battery. On my Prime I do the + , as it’s less complicated. Leave it disconnected for at least 30 seconds.

 

Thank you for all your replies. I have been in contact with Toyota and established a case, been waiting for a course of action that they will suggest to the stealership. I don’t want to shake the tree too much and have my vin red flagged. By the time I am ready to sell the car, it would have lost so much value the next buyer would still be in the green if they had to repair something.

What has me mostly upset is that Toyota and all the dealerships I talked to are on the defensive. I (the customer) have a suspected drivability problem, why don’t they have a means to address it without accusing their customers of things? You all should be asking that question now and going forward because Toyota’s recent track record has been bad of recent with disclosing problems.

I am not new to cars and have done many write ups on other traditional car forums and have owned and wrenched on all kinds of cars from small jobs to engine overhauls, swaps, etc. I could say I’m an experienced and well seasoned in troubleshooting.

I decided to dust off my OBDII scanner and linked it to Torque on Android with the Prius PID’s to see what the car is doing. One of the reasons I got this eco eggplant is so I would not have to break out my toolbox, guess that plan didn’t quite work out.

One of the things I do not like about this forum is the extreme amount of non useful posts that mention something like “why do you want to do that?” or “trade it in for a Volt”, blah blah, etc..

Prius Chat needs to have a section for hard core DIYers and experts that can chime in and answer Q’s with a reasonable response rather than some of the usual mockery I see here.

So who else had no issues with their car yet was forced take it in? Should have been on a case by case basis rather than a forced move.

 

I think this is fair criticism, especially the more and more people here migrate to other vehicles but stay because they know the community. Sad to say it may only get worse.

I took mine in to do this service about 6ish months ago. Has worked perfectly before and after. At about 130k miles.

 

Is "40" a typo? Mine was and still is perfectly capable of over 60 mph in EV mode whether it's in ECO, Normal, or Power mode. If that was not a typo, it would seem that there was already something wrong.

I hope you get some positive results.

I was unaware of anyone being forced to have the recall done. I know for a fact that no one ever contacted me from Toyota or any law enforcement agencies about my recall.

Have you made sure that you don't have a stuck brake caliper or something else unrelated to the battery that's hitting your performance and economy so badly?

 

how many miles on your car?

have you owned it since new?

are you tracking kwh charging capacity?

have you checked the 12v health?

 

for somewhat less kibitzing, try the 'knowledge base articles discussion' forum.

 

Just had my battery fuse recall today. Beforehand I had a discussion with the head honcho about using a memory saver, so he promised to investigate that. Today he said they had received a blow-by-blow description of the process to follow (multiple pages of simplified instructions for complete idiots) from Toyota Japan, there was no requirement or even concern about disconnecting the 12v battery, and they didn't. Got the car back with all data intact, as promised...

So I'm inclined to the view that it pays to be selective about who services your PiP.....

 

My data was intact as well. I wasn't smart enough to have a conversation with them first, but I did document everything before just in case I lost everything.

 

I lost everything when I had my recall performed last week unfortunately (about 90k miles with trips never reset). I brought it up ahead of time, but they didn't do it right anyways. I did take a picture beforehand, but it still sucks.

 

how is your case going with toyota?

 

Had my fuse done yesterday. All data lost, oh well not that big a deal. 2014 with 35K on it.

Now time to see how it performs after the change.

 

Hi,which fuse ?


Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I didn't detect any change in performance. But they didn't lose my data, either.

Per the title of the thread, it's the high voltage fuse for the 1st Gen Plug-in (PiP) traction battery.