Anyone else with a history of a bad transmission?

I have found two others, besides myself, who have experienced catastrophic failure of their transaxle system in their 2001 Priuses: one at 1100 miles, and one at 67,000 miles.

I am seeking others. I realize there weren't many 2001 Priuses sold in this country at all, and far fewer still who have collected appreciable mileage. However, if you have had this problem, or know of someone who has, please have them PM me, or call me at 203-444-9060.

Thanks!
Kenworthey

 

I wish I could expand--at this point, I can't. All they will tell me is, "It's the 'transmission.'" They categorically refuse to tell me if it is the PSD, the MGs, the oil pumps for the MGs, the inverter, or what. Toyota Corporate is shockingly unconcerned. I am trying to make them concerned by giving them a sense of how important this failure is, and what percentave of Prius owners are likely to experience it. To do so, I am gathering data on other Prius owners who have had such catastrophic failures, data on how many 2001 Priuses were made and sold in the US, the mean and standard deviations for miles driven per year, so that I can compute how many 2001 Priuses have reached my (and the other guys) "vintage," etc.

I will certainly let this group know what I find out, and how Toyota handles this. (Badly, so far.) If you are interested in details, you can search the Care & Maintenance section, as there is a long thread on the subject. Or, you can check the Yahoo Prius user's group.

 

Thanks! Do let me know. I think it's unlikely that Erik, me, and the three over on the yahoo! prius groups are the only ones...

 

An update:

So far, Erik and I have documented six other 2001 Prius owners who have experienced this problem. Four (including us) have experienced it after 60,000 miles--the mileage past which Toyota refuses to cover it.

To put this in perspective, combining Toyota USA sales data on the 2001 Prius, with data from a NHTSA study showing the mean and standard deviation for annual mileage on a typical American car, there are only about 2560 2001-model-year Priuses with over 60,000 miles on the US roads today. We have found 4 post-60,000 miles catastrophic failures just in the last few days, through internet scoping. Presuming, conservatively, that this reflects a third of the true number of failures *so far* post warranty, then these cars are catastrophically failing at the rate of one in 213 post warranty. If it were a $100 dollar repair, that might be an acceptable failure rate. But with a repair that equals the value of the car, it's not.

Erik and I have fedexed letters appealing directly to the CEO, COO and CFO to please pay attention to this problem (and to us!) I hope Toyota lives up to its good reputation in response...

 

As far as I can tell, nothing at NHTSA. But I think this might be the edge of the sword. Our guess is this failure is most likely to occur after the car has been driven 60K or more miles (though we've also found four failures at younger than 60K miles).

IF it is a flaw with either the manufacture or design of the PSD or eCVT, we have faith that Toyota will make it good. Or at any rate, we hope so. We have had very bad luck at the local level so far, but we have just now fedexed our experience to higher level executives at Toyota, who we hope will take it more seriously than the lower-level customer service reps, whose m.o. seems to be "deny, deny, deny!"

 

Hi DanMan, and thanks for your post. Sorry for frustrating you! Believe me, I would love to get more details about my CVT. The dealership doesn't return my calls. Nor does customer care (I've been told now on four separate occasions that they would call me the next day, and this has never happened.) I've finally given up, and am fedexing a letter to corporate. I am reluctant to have my car towed away to another dealership yet, until I get the final word from Toyota, because I'm told--by people in these groups as well as Libertyville Toyota, the dealer to whom I'd like to tow it--that they look very unfavorably on that. But I will do that on May 6, which is the date by which I told Toyota Corporate I needed some answers.

Erik's car *has* been diagnosed more thoroughly than mine, and he has posted the parts that were listed in the yahoo! group.

In the meantime, I'm trying to gather data about the rate of failure of these cars. Besides mine and Eriks, we have learned of seven other catastrophic transmission failures in the 2001 Prius so far. In those cases where we have details, the stories sound the same: usually, a "whining" or "howling" noise for a few miles, then loss of power, as though it were running just on battery. Then the diagnosis of total transmission failure.

 

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/toyota...s/message/83914

 

Well, I appreciate your interest in the issue! But sadly, that's all the information I have. I'm still trying to get codes for my own car.

 

Again, thanks much for your interest in this--I'm certainly utterly unqualified to know what is going on. You might be interested in this thread from a year and a half ago... http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/toyota...s/message/66470

Seems consistent with what ohers have suggested: whatever is going wrong in there, risks damaging the inverter and ECU... another multi-thousand dollar part.

 

Don't know if you saw the post on the other board, but: this is what Grossinger's has finally told me (by the way, it is a 2001, not a 2003):

(all mistakes are sic):

"CUSTOMERS CAR WAS TOWED IN STATES SINCE SHE PICKED UP
VEHICLE CAR OVERHEATS
SCAN TRANSAXLE WITH SCAN TOOL ,NO ABNORMAL DATA OR TROUBLE
CODES ASSOCIATED WITH TRANS
ANALYSIS BLEED COOLING SYSTEM NO AIR POCKETS FOUND
TEST DROVE HEARD HOWLING NOISE AT HIGHER SPEEDS
AT THIS POINT CAR OVERHEATED & LOST POWER TRACE
PROBLEM TO INTERNAL HYBRID TRANSAXLE PROBLEM
CAR WAS LOOKED AT BY TOYOTA FIELD TECH MELVIN
HE CONFIRMED PROBLEM INTERNAL IN HYBRID TRANSAXLE
NEEDS HYBRID TRANSAXLE REPLACEMENT"

To add frosting on the cake, when I tried to have it towed to a different dealership, the towtruck refused to take it, because they said it looked like it went over a curb and has been damaged. So now I have to take a cab out to the dealership to see what the towing company is talking about. It looks like another thing I'll be fighting this dealership about... and another piece of misery to heap upon this entire experience.

 

Well, stay tuned. I've given Toyota Corporate until Friday to give me a reasonable answer re: my (and Erik's) Prius. For the record, besides the two of us, I've now got evidence of seven others who have also suffered catastrophic transmission failure in the 2001 Prius. For what it is worth, Toyota has fixed them, under warranty, in every case EXCEPT mine and Erik's--so far. Even one where it happened at 114,000 miles. But Toyota is being extremely obstreperous about our cases. Perhaps they realize this is going to be a very expensive problem, and they know that it is going to happen to a lot of cars. (And by the way, $6000 was just for the price of the part. I was quoted $8500 for same part. FOr Erik, final cost of fixing was quoted at $8000; for me, $9150.)

Or not. Maybe the shocking incompetence Toyota has shown at the local level has simply been obscured from the higher levels, who will be horrified to learn how we are being treated. I hope so. The package will arrive on three desks at Toyota USA headquartersnby 2:00 today. I promise to tell you what happens.