Can the transmission be damaged from towing?

How was the car parked? Would the car have been towed from the front or the rear?

If towed from the rear, with the drive wheels on the ground, that is bad, unless it was put on a dolly.

 

The user guide should have info on proper towing methods. Find the person who towed it and ask how it was towed.
Why was it towed in the first place?

 

Wow - that's another lesson I've learnt today - be careful where and when you park. There are tow-away zones in a city I visit where your car gets towed if it's still parked there in peak hour (say, after 4:00 pm). I seem to recall they just hook the car up and tow it on two wheels - though that might have changed now.

Agree the best way to find out is to check with the towing company or see if you can get a look at one of their tow trucks.

Best of luck with this.

 

Sorry to hear you were towed. Tow truck operators are mostly fly by night operations that don't take much care with the cars they tow. It is all about $ and they work as fast as they can.

Wondering, wouldn't the front wheels be locked in park? (There must be a parking pawl in the transaxle.) I am guessing they might drag it a short distance but then pretty much would have to pull it on the rear wheels.

I'd have the dealership evaluate and then ask the towing company to pay for any repairs or damage. Complain to the municipality too!

 

ILoveMyPriusTo is very right. If the car WERE to be towed from the rear, Park should have kept it from rolling well/at all. Any tow driver should have known that. To me it seems unlikely that a driver (fly-by-night or not) would have towed it 3KM from the rear in Park. That having been said, tow companies are liable for damaging your car (especially if you're not there to authorize them to do something like that). So you have recourse if the tow company DID damage it (through neglect or ignorance, or both). But the burden of proving their negligence lies with you. I think your best bet would be consulting the dealer to determine if they can find evidence of damage. It "could" be an unrelated problem (i.e. something just "happened to break" - it happens... rarely). But if the dealer characterizes the damage as having been caused by improper towing, tow companies generally carry insurance to protect them for such an instance, and should assume the damages, since they caused it.

Having said that, the remaining light that is on sounds like it might be related to an impact sensor. One thing I CAN say about tow truck drivers is that a lot of them (especially guys picking up tagged vehicles - i.e. not actually "helping someone") work pretty fast. The hydraulics on a tow truck lift arm can be quite powerful, and if the driver wasn't soft on the controls (a VERY likely scenario in this case, considering the circumstances), abrupt motion of the hydraulic arm while in contact with your car (good contact OR bad contact - have you looked under the car for any signs of impact by the tow arm?) could conceivably affect front or side impact sensors. The light might be legit and a sensor might need to be serviced (if possible...?) or replaced by the dealer to get the light to clear - and in which case the tow company would be responsible for making that repair necessary.

To me, unless this light magically clears itself at some time (which "might" be possible, but my gut says "No"), it sounds like a trip to get it serviced is in your cards regardless of WHY it's happening. If the car DOES think it experience an/another impact (because of some impact sensor malfunctioning further), do you want to be driving when the air-bag/bags deploy(s) and risk an accident (while also needing to get the air-bag(s) serviced, anyway)? I think priority one for you should be to determine that your car IS safe to drive... then you can determine whose fault it is once you get that assessment. It's just one of the problems when we drive a car that is essentially a giant computer.