Recall?

SSC 40A
2004 MODEL YEAR PRIUS HYBRID VEHICLE
ELECTRONIC CONTROL UNIT REPROGRAMMING
SPECIAL SERVICE CAMPAIGN

Dear Prius Customer:

Thank you very much for your patronage of Toyota. We are dedicated to providing vehicles of outstanding quality and value.
As part of our continuing efforts to provide superior customer satisfaction, Toyota is announcing a Special Service Campaign
Program, which includes your Prius vehicle.

What is the potential problem?

On certain 2004 Model Year Toyota Prius vehicles, if the vehicle’s Hybrid Vehicle Electronic Control Unit detects a system
fault, the master warning light and/or the hybrid system warning light may illuminate, depending upon the error identified.
If this should occur, the vehicle will enter a “fail–safe†mode. Due to a programming error, if the vehicle is restarted in the
“fail–safe†mode, a secondary condition may occur where the vehicle transmission may not operate smoothly.

What is included in this Special Service Campaign?

Before you are inconvenienced by this condition, Toyota would like to reprogram the HV ECU in your vehicle. Any Toyota
dealer will conduct this service at NO COST to you.
How do you take advantage of this Service Campaign?
Please contact your authorized Toyota dealer to make an appointment to reprogram the HV ECU as soon as possible.
The labor time necessary to reprogram the HV ECU is approximately one hour. However, depending upon the dealer’s
work schedule, it may be necessary to make your vehicle available for a longer period of time. The Toyota dealer will
make every effort to assure your utmost convenience during this service.
Please present this notice to the Toyota Dealer when you bring the vehicle in for your service appointment.
If you no longer own the vehicle, please indicate so on the enclosed postage paid form, providing us with the name and
address of the new owner.

What if you have other questions?

Please contact any Toyota dealer or call the Toyota Customer Assistance Center at 1–800–331–4331.
We have sent this notice in the interest of your continued satisfaction with our products, and we sincerely regret any inconvenience
this condition may have caused you.

Thank you for driving the Toyota Prius.

Sincerely,

TOYOTA MOTOR SALES, U.S.A., INC.

 

I called Toyota Customer Care (800) 331 4331 and verified that my 9090 is one affected by the service campaign..

 

Mine's recalled too--7009. No biggie, just a little reprogramage...

 

That's the last 4. The range of involved numbers is relatively small. Everyone has 400XXXXX and it's preceeded by 20U or 22U something.

We're just pointing out the number we have within the range so other's can see what numbers were actually affected.

 

There's a thread that Evan started here:

http://www.priuschat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=499

 

Re: Upcoming Service

If you scroll down the Main Forum page a bit you'll see this thread:

http://www.priuschat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=499

with my experience.

Here's what you might consider doing, find out if they've done the service for anyone else yet and, if not, whether they've updated the software yet. And, you'll see Rick's post that they didn't even have the necessary cable yet at his dealership.

Other than that I've heard that the service can be done in as little as 45 minutes, though my experience was quite a bit longer. My NAV was reset to defaults, but several saved POIs were kept in the system. My mechanic apparently unhooked my 12V battery so my auto-window, reverse beep, radio presets, etc. had to be reset. My door lock selection (all doors unlock when one is unlocked) wasn't lost. If they don't unhook your 12V you should be fine, and I don't think it's supposed to be necessary in most cases.

The paperwork says to expect the service to take 1.5 hours, don't schedule anything critical based on that time though.

 

Got the official letter in the mail today. Also included a postcard with a label. I wonder if they attach that to the ECU or to the car somewhere?

 

Someone else set me straight on this too, so I looked it up and they were right. A RECALL specifically pertains to public safety issues, not less serious non-safetly issues.