2007 Prius won't turn off

I thought there was a recal or service bulletin on the instrument cluster where they would replace it for free. Have you tried to press and hold the power button to force shut down.

 

There is a "warranty enhancement" letter that had been sent out for dash light problems.

SCH-I605 ? 2

 

Yes there is a recall for this see below. Hold the start button in for three seconds will force a shut down all part of the MFD problem.

T-SB-0172-09 Combination Meter - Intermittent Display | PriusChat

 

Wooooaaaahhhh!!!! Slow down. Take a deep breath and imagine you're in KY (lol)...

It is not suprising that dealerships are scratching their heads. You have come to the right place. The first thing that you have to do is check the 12V battery. A low 12V battery will cause all kinds of weird stuff to happen (the dealers don't seem to know how to check them). Test the batt w/ a volt meter both off (12.4+V), IG ON (11.9+V) and when the car is in Ready (13.7+V). Getting stable, reliable AUX Power is critical and the first step.

I think you have two problems
1) 12V battery is weak
2) Combination meter fault

You have to solve #1 because dealers have proven inept to locate this problem in the past. Once you get past #1, print out the TSB pointed to by BritPrius (John who is very squared away and knowledgable) and present it to the dealer.

It sounds to me like your dealer has very limited experience with the Prius (which is not surprising because they break down so little). You might consider a different dealer but that's up to you.

My other advice is to be patient with the dealer and don't lose your temper. Be respectful and try to understand that they don't work on Prius much.

Good luck.

 

A little background on why the car will not shut down.

If you are driving along and accidentally touch the start/stop button without some form of safety interlock the car would shift into park and shut down.

This would either destroy the transmission or lock up the front wheels. To avoid this the systems that run the Prius check to see if the car is moving before allowing this to take place.

If the combination meter is not working the systems assume to be on the safe side not to do this even though the car is at a standstill, because it has no way of knowing that the car is stationary.

John (Britprius)

 

That's good info John. I never thought of that but that is most certainly the reason it will not shut down.

 

Bad Combination Meter. Free Fix from Toyota. Get a hold of the corporate office to verify the VIN. The car will have to go to the dealer. The dealer will pull the meter, and get a new one. It takes several days to get the new one. The dealer is also supposed to provide a free rental car.

The reason the back hatch won't open is because of the meter acting up. Another safeguard, hatch won't open if car is moving. Since the meter is acting up, the car assumes it is moving and won't open the hatch electronically.

There are several post's here on PC concerning the meter as well. It is a well known and documented problem that is apprearing on some of the older Prius especially during cold weather.

Refer to the attached pdf file for more information.

Ron

 

I can confirm this with a 2008 that is in the shop right now getting the combination meter replaced. Had to hold my ground a little, and luckily I printed out a copy of the pdf and brought it to the dealer. I basically had to read the letter aloud to my dealer service technician because he pretty quickly went into "well you know the service technician will have to replicate the problem here blah, blab, company line, blah...", the letter states otherwise. "If the customer
has experienced the condition it may not be possible for the dealer to duplicate the condition. If this
occurs please verify with the customer that the experienced condition is in accordance with this
Warranty Enhancement Program and proceed with replacement of the combination meter." I read this to him, he went and talked to his service manager and away we went. I have a rental car and they did the other two recall items and the combination meter. Word of warning the combination meter part is apparently back ordered a bit. I have had my car in the shop here in MN for about a week and a half waiting for the part. It is not expected to be in until middle of next week. It was supposed to be in this past Wednesday and that didn't happen.

 

I'm so glad I found this because this malfunction has occurred intermittently in my 2007 Prius.

I brought this car into the dealer 26 Oct 2012 after I went to a party & had to come home b/c my car would not shut off. Two days later, I went running early & the car wouldn't shut off when I returned home. After a shower, I drove it to the dealership where all were mystified and one mechanic was clearly intrigued. They noted the complaint, but, by the time all of the various diagnoses had been performed, the car, which had been running nonstop for >1 hour did shut off with the power button, so they could only see the nonfunctioning power button, unlit dashboard & the inability to open the trunk.

I printed the warranty enhancement & will call the dealership tomorrow. So glad it's not my metal fillings causing electrical malfunction.

 

What amazes me about your post is that Toyota sent out letter's to owner's in October 2012 letting them know about the enhancement program. Evidently, someone did not notify all of the Toyota reps in the field. You would think they would have thought about the problem with your car and said wait a minute, didn't we get a note from the Toyota recently about the combination meter's acting up and how the car would react.

Toyota builds a great car, but when it comes to service they still seem to lack in places.

Ron

 

Once again, Priuschat saves the day. This happened to me tonight. Started my Prius and the cluster on top of the dash did not light up. Felt like I was driving blind.

No speedometer, odometer, or gas gauge. I had to go about 40 miles to home and knew gas was low, so first went for gas. At the pump I pushed the power button several times and the vehicle would not turn off. Felt a little Twilight Zone'ish.

Filled with gas and drove home with no cluster on, but at home the power button turned the vehicle off. Pushed it again and vehicle came on and the cluster reappeared. Will take to dealer tomorrow with copy of the warranty enhancement info.

Thanks

 

Took in to Dealer today. Having copy of tsb and the sample letter that is included with it was very helpful. It took a few minutes for the service rep to digest, but he worked it out. He had not seen one of these before.

I have another vehicle so I did not take a rental, which Toyota would have paid for. He said it would be about 3 weeks for the part to come in.

There must be some serious problem that can occur for Toyota to be doing this as warranty work on a 2004 Prius put into service in October, 2003.

The vehicle has to stay at the Dealership once the part is ordered. The part has to be programmed with the vehicle mileage and then shipped to the dealer.

 

So, I dropped the car off Thursday midday for a projected three weeks. Got a phone call the next afternoon saying the part had arrived and the repair was complete. Pick it up anytime. I picked it up Saturday morning.

The new comdo meter is somehow slightly different than the old one. I think it may be that the numbers may are a bit larger and the daylight setting a bit brighter.

Whatever, Toyota treated me well on this go round. 290 k and still on the road.

 

I have the same problem, have tried all the shut down options listed below... and the dealer will not honor the recall notice on the dash... still searching for a solution as well.

Any advice on what to do when neither the dealer or the Toyota 1-800 number people won't honor the recall? I am having the same problems here, but they say the recall period expired (I brought my car to them in October after moving here to Colorado and having these problems all the time. Also, if they won't fix it, and I can't afford a couple grand, is there a manual way to shut the car off?

 

Unless someone can come up with a better suggestion, and holding the start button in for a few seconds does not work.
Disconnect the 12 volt battery then pull the high voltage safety link on the HV battery that should force shutdown.

John (Britprius)