Gen2 Instrument Cluster "secret warranty" (Consumer Reports)

If you tell the dealer it went dark, they will check if your car had a prior replacement, if not they will replace it no charge. Mine went dark several times, and because of prior postings on this issue, I went to dealer and had them check their records. Of course it had not been replaced so it was done under the warranty. My 2007 recently turned 219k miles.

 

They replaced mine @230,000 miles. They didn't even ask for proof it was going blank (which I had) And now my odometer won't stop at 299,999! Yay

 

I had to have the cluster replaced at 85k. The dealer initially pushed back on the warranty coverage, but then agreed after several phone calls. Southeast Toyota did not stock the clusters and I had to wait 3 weeks for the cluster to be delivered.

 

Oh honey, that ain't nothing! I ordered mine on the 1st of june, They told me it would take 2 weeks to a month to get the cluster In, well July 15th I head down there to see why the crap it wasn't here yet. "Oh its still on it's way (the part was coming from Japan) we'll give you a call as soon as it gets here" well no call....
About 3 weeks ago, I go down there and dish some sass! It was actually pretty fun! Anyway 6 days later, they had it installed with a more recent odometer reading (only about 200 miles off)

 

Sounds like they forgot to order it at least the first time. It should take a couple weeks for the odom to get programmed (long line of clusters to do) but 8 weeks is FAR too long. I remember the fastest cluster order-arrival date was like order Monday before noon and it came UPS Friday afternoon. I would be pissed after a month as a tech, and I work at a Toyota dealership. I get paid to put on parts, not wait for them.

 

I almost have 290,000 miles on my 2005. It has had the instrument cluster prob for a year or so. What are my chances of getting it changed under warranty???

 

7-1.

 

I think I have had worse odds. I will try. LOL .
Thanks

 

If anybody is currently dealing with an instrument cluster (panel) problem on their toyota prius, here is my latest situation and hopefully somebody will benefit. My display would occasionally black out. It would happen every couple months. Recently it started blacking out every morning but would act normal when I turned on the car in the afternoon. This process was not only annoying but very unsafe. One afternoon after having a blackout in the morning, I turned the car on with the instrument panel working and it showed me with 4 bars of gas. When i moved on to the highway just a mile away, it showed me just a single blinking bar of gas with no opportunities to pump for miles. very stressful.

Driver beware lesson 1. After an instrument cluster failure, Wait a few minutes to let your gas reading catch up

So I have been looking for a solution to the instrument cluster for my 2007 prius. I read on priuschat that Toyota extended the warranty to 9 years. So I called Autonation, a Toyota dealer in Weston south florida. They told me that I had to pay them $142 to run a test to qualify for the warranty. When i drove it into the shop, the instrument panel was blacked out so I thought it would be an easy process. 2 hours later they came out to tell me that it qualified and would take up to 2 weeks to fix and Toyota warranty will pick it all up (except for my $142). Awesome. I love Toyota!

But then the bad news....
A week later, While the cluster was at Toyota, Toyota told Autonation of Weston that the prius was no longer eligible for the warranty. I do not know if the dealer lied to me originally and they never received confirmation from Toyota, or Toyota corporate lied to them and they thought they were doing the right thing. Regardless, I am the one who is lied to. It was an awesome thing they originally planned. But they really messed up by not following through with the warranty. It is very concerning to me that a company with current safety issues would allow this problem to fester.

Driver beware lesson 2. Toyota is allowed to go back on their word. Before you give up your prius for 2 weeks, know that it may not be covered. Calculate the hardship of being without a car for 2 weeks. Once you turn your car in, you are going ahead because you can't just take your car back while the panel is being looked at.

I am waiting for the car to be finished, I will send an update if any other surprises along the way.Right now I am just informing other Prius owners who may be experiencing this issue and what to be aware of. Stay tuned.

 

Hi Chris,

Sorry to hear of the way you have been treated. Something smells pretty bad here.

Please read the TSB which is attached to this thread:

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

Also download and print the attachment in this thread which details the extension of this problem to 9 years from the "in service" date (specifically "9 years with no mileage limitation from the date of first use or before September 30, 2013 whichever is longer"). It also says that the dealership is not required to be able to duplicate the problem and has to take the customer's word for it if they correctly describe the symptoms.

You will see (in Q6 How long will it take to repair -- 3 days BTW -- "Toyota will provide a rental while the vehicle is being repaired.") that the Toyota dealership should have provided you a rental car for the time they had yours, it sounds like they didn't.

You will also see that they have not done all they should have.

The only reason that I can see for you car not to be covered is if it is outside the VIN range.

If you cannot get satisfaction from the dealer, escalate it to Toyota corporate -- there are contact details at the end of the document. I see you have to deal with the Southern Toyota outfit, they have a bad reputation.

All the best, and let us know how it turns out.

 

I had mine done under the extended warrantee and am now at 285K miles. My understanding is that Toyota simply installs a previously repaired unit (bad solder joint is the cause of the problem, I understand) with no intrinsic improvement to the part. In other words, I fully expect to still peg out just prior to 300K miles (or KM, for that matter). Would love to be wrong on this.

 

i really hope it doesn't peg out, honestly i'd be pretty disappointed in Toyota. Like, okay the original parts were defective.. but please don't replace it with a defective one! please let us know what happens. I'm at 265,555 right now.

 

Hello. Has there been any update on success? I called Toyota Corporate and unfortunately they couldn't help me with my 2004 Prius; I don't qualify for the extended warranty. I'm wondering how the heck I'm going to resolve this. I've been driving with the instrument cluster dark for about a month now.

 

Hello, I have a 2008 prius with 171k miles on it. I was having this issue with my car and it happened to get significantly worse (pretty much the dash didn't work 95% of the time) after I put a new 12v battery in it. The dealership I was at for the battery specifically told me that there was no warranty for the cluster and that it would be upwards of a thousand dollars to fix. I happened to be at an autonation toyota a few weeks later with a friend and not with my car. I mentioned the problem I was having and the service guy took less than 5 minutes to pull up this warranty and made me an appointment for the next day to take my car in. I am now driving a rental covered by the warranty and am waiting for the cluster to come in. I called the first dealership which was also a toyota dealership and told them of the warranty and they basically called me a liar. Needless to say, autonation has won a customer. Glad to have found this chat as I will certainly print out the release from toyota and send it to the guy at the first dealership to prove I am not a liar.

 

I have a 2006 and the display is intermittently not working. Is the "secret warranty" still valid for my car?

 

There's a guy on eBay that repairs them for $120 XT1585 ? I'd be interested in knowing if dealers are honoring this warranty, as I read the TSB, there is a relatively low mileage AND age limitation.

XT1585 ?