Shut down while driving: 2012 Prius V Five

Yesterday, while driving at ~50km/h, my 2012 Prius V Five shut down. The dash went dark, no warning flashes or anything, but accessories continued to function. I could not accelerate, and coasted to the nearest commercial parking lot. The only light on the dash that has come on is the door ajar reminder.

I went through all the emergency start procedures in the manual, but could not get her started. The brake pedal felt normal as I brought her to a stop in the parking lot. I put in the parking brake to try the emergency start procedure in the manual, and began to push in the brake & power button for 15 seconds, the brake pedal pushed in abnormally easily. When the flatbed tow arrived, the front wheels needed to be wedged and the vehicle dragged onto the bed with the winch because the front wheels were locked.

Our 12v battery was tested when we did the ECU update (recall) in the spring, and it was "fine". We haven't had any instances that would have drained it since then. It was about 22 degrees C that day, the car interior was cool with the ac running for the 10 minutes we had been driving normally.

We bought our vehicle Toyota certified in spring of 2014, and paid for the extended manufacturer warranty.

The vehicle was towed to the nearest dealership, and sat there for the day while they tried to determine the issue, but no solution was found by end of day. Apparently they tried swapping out the power button, I assume they checked the obvious channels for a fix first. Concerning.

Anyone have a similar thing happen?

X-posted to Prius Gen III (3) forum

 

Toyota dealership called, they said it appears to be a short in "the ignition" which blew a fuse. They replaced the fuse and tested it, which blew the fuse again. They still haven't narrowed down the issue. More labour needs to be racked up to find the issue, their reason for calling. If it's a part covered under the extended warranty, then they'll cover just the part. No news on the cost of our rental car, apparently only covered if indeed a warranty repair, the downside of being a single car family.

They hinted at the auto start (installed by Toyota for orginal owner) perhaps causing the issue. They tried to accuse me of trying to jump the car when it was inspected after it was dropped off by the flatbed tow.

Unfortunately, the vehicle was brought to the worst dealer by reputation in my region because it was the closest to where it shut down.

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Thanks for all the input. The dealer has fixed the vehicle. The remote ignition that was installed by Toyota at time of purchase for the vehicles first owner had a wire that had rubbed down to the point where it was shorting and blowing the fuse. Apparently that fuse blowing will completely shut down the car when it blows.

The warranty for the starter has passed, so we're SOL. ~$500 + one day of rental car.



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I would sooner have cut it out, replaced the fuse, and gotten on with it. It's infuriating to see that it would have been installed incorrectly at the dealership, caused such a big issues, and now I'm out of pocket and that's the end of the story. I don't even get a new (or second) receiver!

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Unfortunately, not the same dealer. The service manager did say specifically that even if it were their work, it would be long out of warranty and wouldn't be covered by anything. Doesn't seem right, but where's the profit in doing right by you customers?

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