Help me!

I had trouble with my new Prius. I had it one night and the engine lights came on. I ended up getting a different car after the dealership took a week trying to fix it. Check your lemon laws for your state and it doesn't hurt to ask for a different new car. I did and I got one.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(alexisgeorgia @ Oct 1 2007, 07:00 PM) [snapback]520039[/snapback]</div>

 

I haven't had that problem myself, but I did have some wacky stuff happen in my old 2004 Prius with a bad MFD. Every time I changed the radio station the AC would come on and changing the AC temperature would turn the radio off and such.

Took it to the dealership and they swapped out the part and I never had a problem again.

Moral of the story:

The down side to the Prius is it is full of a lot of computers and technical do-dads and, just like in building a computer, you find the bad parts go bad within the first few days and even if the rate at which parts fail is very rare, when it's the part on YOUR car it really sucks.

The up side is that Toyota has a good track record of taking care of problems and their standard approach seems to not be to fix a broken piece but to just pull the whole thing out and give you a new part. This means that after an initial finding of the quirks you shouldn't have any problems as the many long-term Prius drivers on here can attest.



Of course, if you keep running into these problems you might want to check out the lemon laws as occasionally any car manufacturer will have a bad one slip through production and quality control. If that's the case make sure to get a completely new one or your money back.

 

Hi Alexisgeorgia,

The Prius does not really have gears to shift. The dash gives an indication of the operating mode of the drive train. The only mechanical action taken is for the parking pawl to be withdrawn, to allow the car to roll. The rest is done by by varying the electrical programing into the controlling electronics switches that hooked to the motor (in the inverter).

I guess what they mean by rolling code, is that the imobilizer computer is changing its programed security code in a pattern that does not match your key fob. If it happens again I would avoid using the SKS system and insert the fob in the slot in the dash. There is a switch to disable the SKS on the lower dash. Is your purse, or bag where you keep the key made of a metalized, or metal decorated fabric? It might be shielding the key fob. A strong transmitter (like a paging transmitter, or wireless telephone system with too much power on an in-building radiating cable in a parking garage, TV or Radio Broadcast) might intefere with the proper operation of the SKS too. Either by presenting a pattern that is confused to be the key fob, or by causing the receiver to become partially deaf, to the point where it no longer hears the key fob signal. Putting the fob in the slot, results in a much stronger signal for the car's computer to decode. Turning off the SKS system will turn off the SKS reciever, which will now no longer be suceptable to strong nearby transmitters.

The computer key works something like this. Your key does not simply broadcast its code. Anybody with a sofmore electrical engineering level would be able to receive that code, and resend it with the proper equipment, gaining access to a locked vehicle. So, the computer and the fob have an encrypted transmission between them, that can be decoded into the the key code. If the key code matches, the car works. There are many many possible transmission patterns, but due to the length of the tranmission, very many other possibilities. Some systems expect a different key code each time the car is started - a rolling code, besides. If the fob and the computer get out of sync, there is a problem. An interfering transmitter might be taken as an entry attempt, and put the two out of sync.

Another problem that causes the car to not switch into ready is a door that is not closed all the way. The rear hatch is a bit tight when new, and one really needs to slam it down hard to get it to close. The new air cylinder and stiff rubber seals when the car is new results in this happening. It can be down, but not latched all way and appear OK, but its not. Also, double check all the other doors. I was showing my car to another guy when it was a few days old. He was in the passenger seat. He had is leg out the door, and the door open, and the seat belt off. When I went to start the car, it would not switch into ready. And some other stuff happened that I do not remember. I was a little confused and concerned at that time. If that is it - its a feature, not a bug. As nobody wants to drive away with a passenger's door open.

Manufacturing problems like broken door jam switches, or wires from these switches would present the same symptoms. But, the loose hatch seems the most probable to me right now.

And, Of course, you are remembering to push down hard on the brake pedal when you push the power button, right ? This is another common newbie mistake. Not applying brake pressure when pushing the power button tells the car to go into two different accessory modes depending on the number of power button presses. Neither of these modes allows one to switch the car to ready. Even though the MFD and dashboard controls come on. The third power button press without pushing on the brake turns the car off. If you forget to push down on the brake, the first time you push the power button, you need to cycle through the second accessory mode, then hit the button a third time to turn the car off. Only then will placing you foot on the brake and attempting to start the car for driving work. This seems tedious, but its really quick when you get used to it.

 

10-to-1 it's the brake pedal: either you're not pushing it hard enough while shifting, or the brake pedal position switch is bad. That "rolling code" story is bulldada intended to make a customer go away.