13 shutdown cases reported for Toyota Prius

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bookrats\";p=\"89935)</div>

Jeff didn't Evan get hit with this very early in 2004?

 

Slashdot is running this story.

There are some pretty funny and insightful posts.

My favs so far:

"1.2 million people a year die on the world's roads [globalroadsafety.org]. Yet whenever a one-off incident (even a non-fatal / non injury one) grabs the headlines because there was something unusual about it, people start to panic."

"Guess what folks; you are expected to be capable of coping with vehicle problems while traveling at the phenomenal rate of "highway speed". Tires blow, people **** up, things fly off randomly; deal with it."

link>>> /. <<<link

 

Most of them from this board were TSB EG047-04

 

Let's get real.

It's 13 out of over 88,000 cars.

That's 1.5%

Anyone know what the percentage was of the Fords or GMs that were recalled for safety issues much more serious than the ICE shutting off and having to coast to the side of the road and drive using the electric motor? I don't believe any of the 13 suffered fatalities.

I can't help thinking this is like finding dirt on a successful political candidate. The Prius has been so good it's a threat to the Big 3. What better way to try to steer people away from that dangerous car than to hype this. If they start looking through their archives to repost stuff like emergency workers afraid of being electrocuted...well, then you'll know.

Yahoo news

 

13 out of 88,000 is actually 0.015%. If we use John's count of 11 unique vehicles, it's 0.0125% (assuming the 88,000 is correct).

 

I did contact my dealer's service department - who ran my VIN number and said I wasn't due for any updates (I bought in 08/04). He also clarified that it's the manufacturer who sends notices by mail to owners on recall items. He also told me that during regular maintenance checks, the mechanic is supposed to plug in the VIN to check for updates. Can't hurt to double check

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lcdJunky\";p=\"89970)</div>

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ryogajyc\";p=\"90180)</div>

11 or 13 out of whatever arend BAD odds... ans long it isn't mine that is 12 or14... :lol:

Bob Andersen

 

Re: Let's get real.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva\";p=\"90129)</div>

Look up 2000 GMC Sierra, that's what I got rid of to get my Prius. Airbag recalibrations, ABS work, problems with throttle body, reflash to fix lopey idle, AutoTrak transfer case problems, etc etc. Not all of them safety related, but most a giant PITA.

Especially humorous was the "piston slap" that GM refused to accept blame for. "Carbon deposits" they said, ha. What next, "the dog ate my homework?"

And how about the 4 wheel disk brakes that were so anemic and so troubleprone that GM went back to rear drum brakes on their 2005 LD trucks?

Yeah, my Prius conked on me last Nov due to the glitch. The reflash cured it, and at least I haven't suffered the lower fuel economy everybody else reports. Compared to my 2000 GMC Sierra, I think I'll keep "putting up" with my Prius.

 

First a little backround, the shut down problem happened to me over the Mothers' day weekend 600 miles from home.
Here's my take on the experience.
It's more a Corporate law problem than a Software problem.
Only one ICE nostart event set a critical error code and triggered the Red Triangle of Death on the dash, which in turn triggered the aboslute panic mode in the wetware behind the wheel. The owners manual (heavily influenced by lawyers again) said to get to a safe place off the road and call toyota for service at once. Hard to do on a Sunday night and by monday morning the ICE had cooled and the ECU had reset (no more RToD).
Being the conservative body that corporate law is they don't want any critical error ignored yet the car was fully functional immediatley after the event including ICE start and Battery Charging!
Perhaps Toyota should reset the level of critical errors to include multiple sequential no starts or X number of no starts over a given time frame. The fix does cause the ICE to run more often and for longer periods and will affect mileage.

 

I called Toyota and was referred to
1-800-331-4331 X3

I talked to Rebecca.

She said the sudden shutdown while driving down the highway is apparently a rare situation and at this time Toyota is looking into it.

She has no further information, but indicated that when Toyota finishes its investigation, further details will be forthcoming.

 

Hey wait! Come to think of it, I too have had the engine shut down on me while at highway speed. And the electric motor wasn’t providing any propulsion either!!

I saw some lights get bigger on that little TV thingy. It lasted about five to ten minutes per episode . . . then the gas engine miraculously started on its own . . . but I sensed a pattern . . . the engine would turn on to go uphill and off going downhill. :lol:

 

Just FYI: about 2 months ago I had the "sudden shutdown while driving down the highway" on my 2004 Prius, purchased in August 2004. Prior to this, when I took it in for service, I was never informed that it needed the TSB update. For anyone who is unsure, you may want to ask your service rep to check for this update the next time you take your Prius in for service.

 

My Toyota service manager just called to tell me that two important service updates (SSC-40A&D) were installed on my Prius last year.

The actual problem was strange and subtle:

For some unrelated reason the engine wouldn’t start (i.e. no gas), but the appropriate warning lights DO NOT come on.

With the warning lights not on, the driver just drives away normally, not realizing that he is on electric power only.

After a few miles without the gasoline engine to recharge the battery, the car just runs out of juice and stops.

The warning light fixes were to prevent the car from being driven when the computer knew the gasoline engine wouldn’t start.

You normally don’t hear the engine start and it generally doesn’t come on until you’re under way.

A very subtle problem that makes for a good news story for GM and Ford.

Toyota really should have followed up with those 13 (or more) owners that did not bring their cars in for the software upgrade. The text of the notices kind of implied that the possible warning light failure was not a potentially serious problem.

Toyota has all the necessary information in their service computers and does not charge customers for SSC upgrades.

A big black eye for hybrids/Toyota and really easily avoidable.

 

Since no one seemed to answer this from my earlier post, I'm asking again, hoping someone knows the answer...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ryogajyc\";p=\"90043)</div>

 

You really need SSC-40D which came out later last year. SSC-40A fixed part of the problem but had other bugs that were corrected in SSC-40D.

I would think that all 2005's came in updated. The 2004's were being done at the dock when the cars were unloaded at the distributors. (Mine came from Gulf States Toyota in Houston) and had not been updated by them. My local dealer did it for me along with fixing a few other minor problems. All has been well since last fall althought they did do an update to the NAV system which fixed some navigation errors but changed some features that I had gotten used to. You just have to have them all done.

 

Thanks, Steve.

I think other people also posted an answer, but in my ignorance (I did not know that TSB EG047-04 = SSC-40D) I did not recognize the answer. From the TSB, all 2004 Prius need this update and 2005 Prius with VINs prior to the ones listed below need them as well.

Plant 1
JTDKB2#U#50133248
JTDKB2#U#53013255
Plant 2
JTDKB2#U#57003414

Time to call my Toyota service department. I didn't see any stickers indicating Authorized Modifications under my hood last night, so I guess I'm have the old programming.

 

Re: 13 shutdown cases reported for Toyota Prius +1

I posted "Gas Gage Area 51" last Feb. The following is a copy. Could this be another "shutdown case"?

Had trouble with the Prius about 60 miles north of Las Vegas, on 95. We just had passed the only gas station in miles (and in NV I mean miles), the station had a sign pointing to area 51 and suddenly the car stops running. The engine acts like its out of gas but I had two squares lit up on the indicator. I did a quick u-turn and attempted to use the battery to get back to the gas station which was about 2 miles away, mostly down hill. After some coaxing, just made it; the Prius battery was almost gone. Filled up with 10.2 gals. and then couldn't get the car started. Well I kept turning the power on and off and finally all came back to normal. We made the rest of the trip ok.
Now the gas gage is really not working, Next day after filling up we drove 380 miles before the gas gage came off full. Now after hitting a speed bump, the gage jumped down to 3 squares on. I took the car into to Toyota. Last word from Toyota is they can't find anything wrong. I did just get the gas gage and fuel tank upgrade about a month ago.

 

I had my car go into all alert mode earlier this year while on the 110 going at freeway speeds.

My software was up to date.

I just took it in for its 10K last week and my software is still up to date.

I'm a little unclear about whether there is a fix for this problem or not.

 

8) TSB link

http://www.alldata.com/tsb/Toyota/index-post.html

Ben