This is follow up on my previous post on unable to charge or move. There has been another gen 4 owner reporting the same incident. Total number of cars known to have this problem is now 4, which is too large to ignore in my opinion. One of the owners having this problem had first response from service center. The service center personnel responded (after consulting with headquarters in Japan) that this problem is related to software logic, not hardware faults and software update will fix it. On requesting any proof that software update will fix this problem (test report, simulation results, or any technical report explaining cause of this error and how update will fix this error) service center personnel replied that he cannot provide any. Thus, the owner declined their proposal and requested that the service center provide any means that prove the service center actually found cause and means to fix the error, not just his words. My observations are this: 1. I really doubt that either service engineer or headquarters in Japan actually looked at this problem in detail. I wrote in my previous post that the service engineers diagnostic system did not show any errors. So, either engineers in Japan looked at the car in question (which is still in service center in Korea) or were able to reproduce same problem with their test cars in Japan, How could they have analysed and found fix for the problem? I strongly suspect, the response from service center is just an opinion or speculations of engineers, not based on actual facts. 2. If it is indeed a software problem, then all gen 4 prius are prone to have the same problem. There has never been software update after the first release of gen 4. So, if this is indeed a software problem then my next move should be going to authorities demanding investigation for recall (Service center's formal response that there was error in the software logic that can make car stop in the middle of the road should be enough) 3. Even if this problem is fixed by software update, will there be any other problems with hybrid system, especially batteries? The batteries in the car experienced abnormal operating conditions and may have damaged which can lead to shortened life, or early failure in some of the cells.
So the owner you cited refused the fix that Toyota offered? And you feel 4 occurrences warrant a recall? Maybe somebody should get the firmware update and see if it works. You are making a lot of assumptions that are not, presently, verifiable.
4 units reported unofficially to have a problem? out of how many Units sold world wide? The way I see it (WAY from the outside) it is a combo of maybe hardware with Software and will be very hard to drill down to the correct solution. If suggested solution is refused I do not see liability on Toyota's part.. Apply and the issue not fixed.. then Toyota has skin in the game .. IMHO
I admit there are many assumptions in my original post. However, given that this problem is related major incident, i.e. car stopping in the middle of the road, and they had no idea why it happened at first, shouldn't service center provide some proof that they actually found cause of the problem and fix? At least a test drive with a service engineer with his equipment to show that the problem is happening again? And no, I don't claim for recall because 4 cars had this problem. I'm claiming recall based on the service center's admittance that this problem is caused by software error or bug, not hardware faults, and since all gen 4 models have the same software version, this problem can happen to all gen 4 models. (Specific conditions for this problem to happen are anybody's guess at the moment) Anyway, one of the owners had accepted their fix with guarantee that if such problem happen again, service center will replace the car itself. After the fix, the problem did not happen again, however, the car now show noticeably sluggish performance, with lower mpg and battery not being used as much as before (usually between 2~3 bars). Seems like their fix was just an temporary solution limiting battery usage. This is just a day's experience after fix, so if there are enough evidence for poor performance, I'll post again.
