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Feds Investigate Hot-Selling Toyota Hybrid

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by Areometer, Jun 1, 2005.

  1. Areometer

    Areometer Silver Business Sponsor

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    WASHINGTON (AP) - The government has opened an investigation of the hot-selling hybrid Toyota Prius amid reports of the engine stalling without warning, officials said Wednesday.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the preliminary investigation will involve about 75,000 cars of the 2004-2005 model years.

    Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. said in a statement that it was "an early stage inquiry to determine if further analysis is warranted, not a recall."

    The company said it was cooperating with NHTSA and would provide the agency with the complete results of its internal investigation.

    The Prius has been a hugely popular model in the United States, leading to waiting lists. Automotive experts have said it is the first economy car with a higher resale value.

    Hybrid vehicles deliver better mileage by switching between a gasoline engine and an electric motor. Toyota Motor Corp. leads in hybrid sales, with cumulative global sales of 381,500.

    The agency said it has received 33 complaints of alleged engine stalling. The majority of the complaints involved reports of the engine stalling at speeds of 35 miles per hour and 65 mph.

    Some of the complaints indicated that the vehicle was operated in electric mode for some period after the gas engine stalled, NHTSA said.

    All of the complaints reported that the engine shut down without warning and about half of the complaints said that when the engine shut off, the vehicle would not restart and required the vehicle to be towed.

    Toyota executives noted there has been no reported cases of deaths or injuries from the engine problems.

    NHTSA investigations sometimes lead to vehicle recalls.

    Toyota officials said last month they were investigating complaints about the Prius stalling. More than 88,000 2004 and 2005 Prius cars have been sold in the United States.

    >> Original Link @ MSN Money
     
  2. prius04

    prius04 New Member

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    This started with 13, now it's up to 33. That's out of 88,000. (Cumulative total over 300,000)

    I'm really curious about this as to what really happened. It also sounds like one of those things that is completely curable with a simple retrofit.

    Unlike exploding gas tanks.

    (One of the posts I read in Priuschat suggested that the retrofit has already occurred for most people.)


    Also, I see the entire MSN article was copy and pasted here into Priuschat. This is generally frowned on. Proper decorum is to post a teaser in a forum and direct others to go to the parent site. Thus, the author of the parent site still gets the eyeballs looking at their ads.

    And this decorum doesn't even get into the copyright issues.
     
  3. brandon

    brandon Member

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    hmmm... Ya know, conventional combustion engines stall out on the roadway all the time and don't get the attention the Prius gets. Double-standard, anyone?
     
  4. priusham

    priusham New Member

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    My brother just forwarded the article to me a few minutes ago. What's the math there? 3 hundredths of one percent? Less than one out of every 2,000 cars?

    Any guesses that it's operator error, such as running out of gas or inadvertently moving the shift joystick to neutral?

    Reminds me of all the hysteria involving Audis that seemed to spontaneously shift themselves into Drive. How about Fords that no matter how hard you pressed on the brake (or what you thought was the brake) the damn car just kept accelerating!

    There could be some real problem, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. YAWN...
     
  5. Jonnycat26

    Jonnycat26 New Member

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    I assure you that in my care it wasn't operartor error. And I also will assure you that zipping down route 1 and having your gas engine die is not a fun experience.

    I have a feeling that if the govt starts probing, the number will probably jump into the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who had this problem. And it's about time Toyota copped up to some of the problems that they weren't admitting to before, yet fixing anyway (improperly sealed connectors anyone)...
     
  6. brandon

    brandon Member

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    Jonny,

    Did your issue have anything to do with the TSB issued over a year ago?
     
  7. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    this subject has been kicked around here a few times already. and yes, i think that the only reason why the Prius is getting so much press for something that is not very common is because of the ignorance level of the general populace over the new technology the Prius brings to the industry.

    cars dying on the freeways have been going on for years. i had a co-worker whose brand new Dodge Caravan died on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge TWICE in 1997
     
  8. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Definately this is not an operator error problem. And yes, it's already being addressed by Toyota. So I have no idea what 'investigating' will do other than spend unnecessary tax money.

    But hey, it's going to get lots of press b/c it's new and different = scary/bad!!! "Boo!"

    Yes there will be hundreds of reports...Mine, if documented by my service dept., will be one of them. It wasn't a big deal when it happened to me, it isn't a big deal now, it won't be a big deal tomorrow. But that won't stop the press from trying to turn it into a big deal.
     
  9. Jonnycat26

    Jonnycat26 New Member

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    No.. mine was an improperly sealed connector which allowed condensation to get inside and short the system out. They switched the seal they were using to a more robust type later in the 2004 production run, I was just unfortunate to get one with the lesser seal. And when my car died, it didn't come back at all. There was no way to restart the gas engine.

    Anyway, it's something (both my issue and the software bug) that Toyota needs to step up and admit they f'ed up. A letter informing people about the TSB isn't enough... it should be a recall.
     
  10. rubell

    rubell New Member

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    i am one of those who had the problem and didn't initially report it. i'm sure there will be many more like me as i just filled out the formal complaint form on the NHTSB site.

    it wasn't operator error either. the engine died somewhere between 30 and 40 MPH while in a canyon in L.A. definitely a pretty scary experience. i'm not saying i don't love my prius, but toyota needs to fix this and admit to their mistake. the dealer saying "hmm... do not know, but it works now right?" isn't really good enough.
     
  11. brandon

    brandon Member

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    Well, I do hope your complaint was not the following, as quoted from the NHTSA website:

    Now, don't get me wrong; I'm sure it was a traumatic time for this individual and they have a right to be upset, but bear in mind that this was the report they sent to the NHTSA and nothing more. All of that text does little to help NHTSA or Toyota fix the problem. So, as a message to all who post complaints to the NHTSA website, please - for the sake of our tax dollars and the administration's sanity - stick to the facts! If you don't, you're doing more harm than good!

    Also note that this individual complained after it was determined that they needed to apply the 2004 TSB. This is like dialing 911 to report a crime after it has already been published in the newspaper. The only legitimate complaint that could exist here would be if the manufacturer/dealer knowingly and willingly failed to notify the owner that the TSB needed to be applied to their vehicle.
     
  12. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Yeah mine conked on me last November.

    But go to NHTSA and do a search for "Ford stall" and then use different car makes, there are potentially thousands of stalling cases depending on the car make.

    I like Doc's comment: Scary/Bad .... BOO!
     
  13. mikepaul

    mikepaul Senior Member

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    Umm, I hate to ask dumb questions, but would most of these shutdowns relate to "ERROR CODE P3191" and whatever causes it, or is there a multi-cause shutdown problem being lumped into one issue?

    Never having experienced while-driving shutdowns, I'm hoping it's all based on some issue my car is not going to experience. I thought my VIN would get the engine seal replacement, but it turned out I didn't need it. It doesn't stall ever, so no ECU reprogramming to make the engine run more. All known recalls done, and I managed to get the gas filler and gauge replaced despite initial dealer resistance. So far, so good.

    Now I just hope nobody hits the darn thing when I'm not looking...
     
  14. Jonnycat26

    Jonnycat26 New Member

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    I haven't reported mine either... can you give me the link that you used to report yours?
     
  15. brandon

    brandon Member

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    I don't think that's a dumb question at all, and I doubt Toyota would, either. I'm not sure that anyone really knows the answer, though; at least not yet. At this point, I perceive they're still trying to gather good-quality information from the real-life problem reports. Seems to me like many of the reports aren't being backed up with documentation very well, and others still are going unreported. I'm no industry insider or anything, but that's the "vibe" I get from reading things different places.
     
  16. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    i think that anyone who has experienced this should have contacted Toyota immediately.

    how can we expect Toyota to address a problem they dont know about? how can they fix it if they have no data to look at?

    there is a cause and undeniable effect to this problem. the only way to solve something so fleeting is to analzye as much data as possible
     
  17. Areometer

    Areometer Silver Business Sponsor

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    From Bloomberg news:

    "...The NHTSA inquiry of the Prius complaints is a preliminary
    investigation. About 75 percent of those initial inquiries are
    closed without further action, and the rest are raised to an
    engineering analysis. Seven in 10 of the investigations that
    reach the second step result in a recall."
     
  18. nhalber

    nhalber Junior Member

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    I have 2005 Prius, purchased in early May. Has the software bug been fixed in my car? and should I check with the dealer?
     
  19. rubell

    rubell New Member

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    http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/complain/
     
  20. eak354

    eak354 Member

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    i'm curious as to how many of the 33 are legitimate "stalls" or "shutdowns" caused by ECU failure and not only caused by running out of gas. there have been comlaints where the car died mainly because the driver was pushing the tank to it's limit.