2007 Prius with 490,000+ miles. The Prius will not shutdown after driving. When first started, the dash lights will not light up, none of the electronics work when this occurs. The car will drive as usual, but the odometer and trip odometer does not count up, meaning there is actually more miles on the car than what the odometer reads. The back up camera does not work. Headlights, turn signals, hazards, radio, and auxiliary (chargers for phones) works as usual. I have recently replaced the 12 volt battery and it still does this. The original 12 volt battery lasted almost ten years. The hybrid battery is the original. The worst thing that has happened to the Prius prior to changing the 12 volt battery was we had to replace a cracked windshield. Has anyone else seen anything like the aforementioned problem? The first time this occurred, it was around the 425,000 miles. The second occurrence about at around 480,000. Replaced the 12 volt battery at 485,000 and we have had three occurrence since replacement, all in one weekend.
Yes, the symptoms you describe are common with the failure of the Combination Meter (CM). If you are handy and can remove the CM, you can send it to Matt @Texas Hybrid Batteries who can repair it for a fee. You could "Start a Conversation" with Matt to discuss options. If you search on Combination Meter you can find more info.
Combination Meter, I will check it out. I did hold the power button down and the engine would shut down but the center display screen would still be on and in a few minutes the engine would start up again. Had another occurrence this morning. It is getting pretty annoying. Drove it around and finally was able to shut it down. Coming home, the car started like it is supposed to with the dash fully illuminated.
Checked out the Combination Meter failure symptoms. Yep, that appears to be my problem. Looks simple enough to replace. Thank you for your help. Found some additional info to shut down the Prius when this occurs. After holding down the power button for three seconds and the engine shutting down, then push the power button twice (quickly) and the Prius is off.
This happened to me before at 225,000 miles. I disconnected the 12V battery while the car wouldn't turn off. The car turned off. When I plugged it back in, everything worked well. It's probably not good for the car, but it worked for me and it was late at night, so oh well...
The combo meter has been removed and has been sent to a refurbishment facility. Removal did not take too long, just under an hour. The frequency of the dark instrument display was too frequent to ignore. I will update when I receive the refurbished combo meter and install it. Mileage is around 502,800 miles (hit 500K on July 3rd). Thanks again for everyone's help.