What's your experience been with unexpected shutdown?

No experience of the shutdown here. Over 41,000 trouble-free miles.

 

My 2004 with 7500 miles shut down at about 50mph, leaving me only with battery power and a bunch of scary lights.
I pulled into a mall, had lunch, and the car restarted fine with only the check engine light on. After a day this went off too.

 

My 2004 shut down today at a light. The ICE just suddenly stopped without warning and an error message was on the touch screen along with the check engine light and the triangle with the exclamation mark. After a couple of restarts only the check engine light remained and the car functioned fine otherwise. I bought my car back in Nov 2003 so this seems to be common to the early cars.

The dealer said it was a programming error problem and they just reflashed things. I'm just glad I wasn't away from a dealer out on a trip. If they know there are programming errors I say fix it before it breaks down. My car was just in for the 15,000 mile service last week and so I lost another half day of work over the check engine light, which could have been avoided by a quick flash back then.

 

the wife's 2k4 Prius bought in November of 2003 has not had any problems with unexpected shut downs. If the problem was really all that common Toyota would have just automatically done the flashes. But the truth is only a very small percentage of the cars have the problem, in the order of 1/3 of 1% of production. Just not enough justification for the inconvienence of flashing the entire fleet. If 10% have the problem code then it would be justafiable to recall and flash the fleet. But the truth is not enough to justify it. Sad but true.

 

I experienced the ICE problem last night on my '05 that I purchased in October of '04 (I have 6k miles on it). I was driving 30 mph w/ the AC on. I drove two blocks on battery, pulled over, powered down and up twice and the ICE kicked it. I made it to the dealer with no further problem (check engine and triangle lights remained on) and they applied the TSB.

My local dealer in the Minneapolis area said they have seen a fair number come in with the same symptoms, but none have had problems after applying the TSB.

Like a post above, I think Toyota should have at least sent a communication to those potentially impacted so they could make the decision themselves.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(weids\";p=\"108768)</div>

Please be advised, I talked with Toyota last week. Although I believe their statement may have been political in nature, I was advised that no TSB associated with the issue of stalling has been issued. :?

 

the other day i heard that Ford was being investigated for same issue. sudden loss of power and had 60 cases, 3 resulting in an accident losing control without power steering and brakes.

hmmm. seems to me the Prius doesnt have to worry about that even when it loses power... am i right?

 

One week after I bought my 2005 the news report came out regarding the "shutdowns". I called the dealer and they looked up my VIN and told me that my car had already had the latest upgrade.

At this point I have about 4000 miles on my car and have never had a problem.

 

That is interesting that Toyota doesn't officially link the TSB to the problem because the dealer clearly did. Maybe it is semantics or careful wording on Toyota's part or is it a somehow misguided dealer?

The technician told me the error code had to do with the engine not firing (I don't recall the technical jargon) and the TSB that he applied included the change to correct that problem. His knowledge of it gave me some comfort that the problem was fixed by the upgrade.

I guess the big question is: has anyone who had the TSB upgrade experienced the problem afterward?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(weids\";p=\"108804)</div>

I think you are right. I implied a political tone in what was said to me on the phone. In other words, I believe they prefer for the public record to not be ahead of the "investigation". I was also told that there was no manufacturing date after which the Prius was safe. I really think that is the "official" line right now.

 

~11,500 miles - no "shutdowns." Not sure all the TSBs have been done... I know the "Fuel Gauge Inaccuracy" has NOT been done but I'm reluctant to have my dealer disassemble so much for a "fix" that in many cases makes no substantial difference. Next Dealer contact I plan to have my Dealer check the VIN and confirm which have/have not been done. I bought my Prius "barely used" (4,000 miles).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Frank Hudon\";p=\"108461)</div>

With all the traceability that a company like Toyota has they have got to know which serial numbers are affected. Further they know that if there's a line of code that causes this serious an error to require the driver to immediately get to the dealer the least they can do is do a flash when you have your 15,000 mile service which I had just one week earlier. As it is I had to make up about a half day of work unplanned? Maybe they need to provide a USB connection so we can have patches downloaded like XP or win2000 if reboots don't reset an error.

 

It's up to the dealer, really. Some are proactive and some adhere to the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" philosophy.

The TSB lists the VIN range for vehicles that MAY BE affected. That doesn't mean all of them are.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee\";p=\"108942)</div>

So does the "may be affected" mean that all the VINS listed have the coding error but only some will have the exact conditions occur that will cause the error to become a check engine light warning?

Or does it mean that they don't know for sure when they fixed the line of code and which cars got the fix? If it's the latter I'd be surprised and if it's the former then Toyota is just playing the odds to save money at the expenese of some owners like me. All I'm saying is that they should have done the flash when I spent over $200. getting my 15K service.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Charles Suitt\";p=\"108886)</div>

Yeah I agree about the gas gage/filler tube fix. While it did make the gage more linear, I've only averaged 8.3 gallons per fill-up after the fix with no top offs and fill ups after about 20 miles of flashing last bar. And I had a very bad dash rattle that took several trips to the dealer to fix. And it's still not right. No much of a fix if you ask me.

 

the first part you mentioned is mostly correct, fredwb. all those VIN numbers on the TSB were programmed with the same software. the end of the range is the "production change VIN" where they started using a newer version of the software, as they continually update and improve their products. they know exactly where the change was made. the older version is apparently more vulnerable to a "glitch" caused by nothing in particular, it just happens. there's no particular "line of code" or "conditions that cause a CEL" it just freezes, the gas engine won't kick on, and when you restart it clears the freeze. to reflash the computer updates it with the newer version that doesn't have this flaw. but not all cars with this software will have the glitch like you did. which is why there hasn't been a recall. someone mentioned earlier what a tiny percentage of vehicles in this VIN range alone are affected.

some believe in preventive maintenance, like i see you do. i posted a while back about how my husband's coworker (a Prius Tech) does take the initiative and reflashes every eligible Prius he takes into his bay. and i got FLAMED by a lot of people saying they wouldn't want the flash done unless they had a stall first to justify it.

so really you can't make everyone happy. everyone's opinion is different on this issue.

i, like you, would prefer to have the flash done if it were applicable. but my VIN isn't in that range.

 

i think the reason they give a VIN range is because the numbers just dont justify enough data to pinpoint a real problem. soem high tech electronics simply dont perform as they should. with such a small data sample, they may not have determined what, if there is only one, single cause it is.

 

The real way to tell if you have the latest code or not is to check the calibration versions using the scanner. The newer the car, the later the calibration versions. Toyota seems to use the term Calibration for Firmware.
So if you just bought your car new, you have the latest firmware.
Some TSBs were for the engine ECU firmware, others, as well as the 40D, were for the HV ECU.
I don't remember if it was Kyle or Rick that has a Prius and does the updates proactively. One update caused a drop in MPG, the following one brought it back up some, but not as much as originally. That's possibly why Toyota is not doing the flash proactively, and why owners will complain if the flash is done without their consent. However, dealers could offer the update during a maintenance schedule, especially if they are doing one of those overpriced maintenance packages.
Since I know the potential problem, and know the temp workaround to get me back on the road, I will wait until the most reliable, most efficient code is determined, unless I actually do get an unexpected engine failure (as opposed to my expected engine failure last week due to running out of gas).

If you still don't have the gas guage fixed, then you are at least 2 firmware versions 'behind'.