Prius C hybrid system failure

This only happen when the battery die, let the dealer look at it and keep us posted!

 

Did you run out of gas? I've read about this situation in two different scenarios... 1) ran out of gas, 2) 12v battery wasn't holding enough of a charge.

 

No, it's the little one under the seat.

 

This happened once on one of our Gen 2's, turned out to be the cooling pump for the inverter had failed. Without it the inverter would quickly overheat and damage itself, so the system has to shut down soon after. Not sure if the C has the same big red triangle light or not, but generally when you see a message like this you should pull over asap to protect the car and/or yourself. Its more like a red oil pressure or overheating light that means "pull over now" on a traditional vehicle, vs. a yellow check engine light that you can generally wait and get checked out at some point when its convenient. Glad you're ok, will be interesting to see what they say.

 

in to see the problem

 

<Popcorn>

 

I wouldn't panic. I assume you're well within your warranty and whatever it is will get taken care of by the dealer/toyota. There is no such thing as a part/vehicle with 0 failures, so even on a vehicle as reliable as Prius has proven to be these things will happen. Still sucks to be the one they happen to, I know Until they give you some reason to think that they aren't going to stand behind the car, I wouldn't think there is much to do at this point, except calling to make sure they are working on it

 

I'm interested to hear what the dealer finds too.

 

never.

 

excellent diagnosis!

 

Yes, though not in a Prius. 'My' first car (as opposed parents' cars driven for some years before that) ran out of fuel with the gauge still above E. Fortunately it was in a parking space, on a very slight incline, not moving.

As for sudden loss of power, I have also experienced that many times in past cars. Both that car, and the primary old car I drove before that, were prone to unexpected engine stalls, so I learned to handle complete loss of power steering assist and rapidly failing power brake assist. The next car suffered a broken timing belt, with instant total loss of power, in the middle of a busy interstate commute. My little sister also suffered timing belt failure in a similar car on the same highway some years earlier. I had to lend her my car so she could get to her new job, while I carpooled to mine until repair was done.

All of these sudden power losses, mine and my sister's, were handled safely. Maybe we just became conditioned to be ready for them.

How long had your fuel gauge been at 2 bars? My liftback (different than your 'c') normally runs very coarsely 50 miles per bar. But when it reaches 2 bars, it should have about 200 miles left. I'd really notice if the gauge got stuck and hadn't budged for over 100 miles.

 

Okay I guess one more reason for me to stop running my gauge into the lower ends, and refill at halfway point to be safe-er

 

Hopefully some more 'c' owners can chime in. I seem to remember reading multiple cases of 'c' owners reporting some sort of conflicting indication (DTE = 0 at 2 bars ???), so there may be some issue here.

 

No. If you have an equivalent body of NHTSA (File a Safety Complaint | Safercar.gov | NHTSA ) in Australia, I'd file a safety complaint with them.

 

It isn't a real safety issue as you still have the Hybrid drive system to get yourself off the road once your ICE dies from lack of gas. Well, I guess it could be if you are low on battery...