This morning while driving to work, I smelled something electrical and thought it was the car beside me. I went to turn right and at that moment the car just went dead. I mean dead. No warning. I saw the caution red triangle and the abs alert and every other sign you don't want to see in front of me. I coasted and barely got off the road and into a shopping center. An hour and a half later, I was towed to the Toyota dealer. Went the whole day before I got a call from Jeff saying they are still talking to Toyota to try to figure out what went wrong. They ARE Toyota, so I'm guessing they are talking to the big guns. I'm so worried, I can't sleep. I love my car and all I can see is dollar signs and they aren't coming my way. Has anyone had a similar problem? Would love to hear from any of you. Thanks.
Yeah, sorry to hear about the power failure. Please let us know what they find. If possible, ask the mechanic what codes they pulled from the system diagnostics. Some of the people here can decipher them if the tech doesn't for you. Welcome to Priuschat. Hopefully it'll only get better from here.
I am somewhat confused, because I thought if the car went totally dead it wouldn't coast, it would go into Park. I know it is a real problem not being able to put the car in neutral when there isn't any power. Maybe because it was going faster than the threshold speed to engage Park, but then I thought at about 3 mph it would slam into Park and somewhat skid to a stop?
The big question is: Did you have adequate steering ability and braking ability? I know there are backup systems in place, but were they really adequate? Walt
Well I can't give you any advice about what the problem might be. If Toyota technicians that are physically looking at your vehicle don't know what it is yet, then anything and everything would be absolute pure speculation. The only clues you can offer are electrical smell followed by total failure. I'm a little unclear, you say you had no warning and it went dead...but you did see the warning symbols...so did the dash stay lit or did it go dead to? Anyway, my best advice is try not to worry at this point about cost, or what it might be...just let it unfold. Whatever it is, you'll have to deal with and IMO dealing with it step by step is the best way. Sooner or later they will figure out what happened, then you can deal with what it means, or costs. It's can be frightening or daunting whenever an automobile fails, but sometimes the problem that caused the failure can be relatively minor...so try not to worry and get some sleep. Sleep will help you deal better with any decisions you might have to make. Take care of yourself. Machines can be repaired.
Re: nightmare and a new question First, I hope our member with the nightmare comes out all right. Here's hoping it's the hybrid system still under warranty. But this brings up a question: if the traction battery goes missing, can/will the car still, under any circumstances, move under the power of the ICE alone? Clearly it wouldn't for the original poster, but it'd be good to know if there's any way to use the ICE-only capability.
Re: nightmare and a new question No, if MG1 has no power and spins freely, the the HSD cannot transmit power from the ICE to the wheels. Someone has posted a very nice simulation of how the HSD works...but of course, I don't have a link.
Re: nightmare and a new question Good question! If I had to guess I'd say no. Consider that if the smaller Motor/Generator has to be powered in order for the planetary gear set to couple any ICE torque to the wheels. If it's not under control of the inverter the MG will just spin. The question then is will the inverter control the MG with only the 12-volt battery in operation? I bet it won't.
Re: nightmare and a new question If the traction battery is dead, then it would not be able to power MG1. If MG1 can't spin, then it won't be able to start the gasoline engine. Suppose that the traction battery is close to dead, and has just enough capacity to spin MG1, and start the gasoline engine. In that case, you will find the gasoline engine will run whenever you depress the accelerator pedal, and the car will be very slow to accelerate from a standing start because MG2 won't be able to contribute much torque to the drivetrain. So you'll be able to move the car, but it won't be much fun to drive.
Please, let us know what happened at the dealer, the problems found and fixed. Feedback expands the knowledge base here
