So my car is only 4 months old. Never have I had ONE problem with it so far...until today. Something very weird happened! Maybe one of you can help me figure out what it was. I went to go pick up lunch, parked my car at a meter and came back 10 or so minutes later. I started my car like I always do and went to put the gear in drive. However it would not move to drive at all. It stayed in park. Then I noticed that the dashboard wasn't fully on. So I turned off the car and tried again. The start button wasn't green but an orange color and the dash wasn't turning on. Also I noticed my steering wheel was COMPLETELY locked. I could not move or turn it at all. I also saw the brake light on but the brake was not on. I let it sit for 2 minutes and tried again and everything worked fine. It freaked me out though! Ohhh also when I was trying to move it from P to R it moved to N and started rolling foward for a second. I was thinking maybe my key in my bag was being too covered up so the "keyless go" was only half working and the car got confused! I am just sooo scared now that something is wrong with my car. Why would the steering wheel be locked?!?! And I must mention that of course my foot was on the break when I pushed start. Any help pleaaaase!!!
I think you are in the ACC and Ig-On state. If you press power without stepping on the brake fully, you will be in ACC state. You press power one more time, you'll be in Ig-On state (orange light on power button). Press power again will shut off the car. So next time, just remember to press on the brake fully when you want to start.
I'll second that diagnosis. Did you notice if the display said you were in "Ready" mode when you tried to put it in gear?
I had pretty much the same thing happen a while back.It was as ScottY says above. In my case I was messing around with CDs and when I went to start, I did have my foot on the brake. It went thru the same sequence you described. Now I remember the foot and it hasn't happened since. Hopefully yours is the same thing.
Phew!!!! This doesn't seem too serious then. Maybe my foot wasn't pressing all the way down. Hopefully it won't happen again.
I've done the exact same thing. It wasn't in "Ready" state since I didn't depress the brake enough when I hit the Start button.
Not stepping on the brake hard enough will indeed confuse/lockup the system. It's documented in the User-Guide to remind people and hopefully prevent panic. From that experience, you now have a heightened awareness. That should do the trick.
Simple-- just remember to press the brake pedal, and it's no worries! Otherwise, both user and Prius get very, very confused--it's happened to me also!
And your brake light was on because it turns on ALL the dash signals on when you start the car (so you can tell if something's burned out) and they all go off after about 2 seconds.
yep was in ignition mode. maybe a change, but my Prius does not have a steering wheel lock on it in any mode.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Jun 6 2006, 01:43 AM) [snapback]266519[/snapback]</div> Without the electric assist on the steering, it may feel as if the wheel is locked. Tom
This happened to my wife the first time she took the Prius somewhere without me. She called me on her cellphone, all in a panic, because the car wouldn't go into drive. She had been sitting in the car, eating her lunch, and evidently hit the power button without putting her foot on the brake first, or quickly enough. I simply told her to power down, put her foot on the brake, and power up again. All was good this time! She actually had it happen to her again one time, but remembered what I told her before, and cycled through it again with no problems.
