2004 Toyota Prius: sudden unintended acceleration

Filed Feb 14, 2012 · Acceleration, Electrical · CA

2004 toyota prius. Consumer states unintended acceleration *tgw the consumer stated the sudden acceleration happened three times, over a six year span. He managed to put the vehicle in neutral, coast to the side of the road, and turned the vehicle off. Once the vehicle was restarted, all worked fine. The consumer stated a few weeks ago his vehicle was about to reach 300,000 miles, as he reached for his camera, he realized the odometer never went past 299,999 miles. However, within five miles, the vehicle suddenly lost power brakes, the air condition stopped working, the hybrid drive shut off and the fan for the hybrid battery came on, as well as yellow and red lights appeared on the dash. Also, two warning graphics appeared on the navigation screen, one indicating trouble. The consumer pulled over, and shut the engine off. He then restarted the vehicle and everything went back to normal. It appeared that by shutting off the engine and restarting it, caused the main computer reboot. The consumer stated it continued several more times, until he arrived home. The dealer informed the consumer the vehicle was a large computer, and when one component stops working, such as the odometer, other components cease too. The dealer explained an odometer limit was placed on the vehicle by the factory.

Filed Feb 18, 2011 · Acceleration, Brakes · 120,000 miles · WA · crash · 3 injuries

Tl*the contact owns a 2004 toyota prius. While driving approximately 55 MPH the vehicle accelerated on its own. The vehicle crashed into a concrete divider on the highway. The contact stated that the air bags did not deploy. The contact was able to drive the vehicle after the crash. The driver and the passengers sustained injuries to their back and neck and were under going therapy for their injuries. There was no police report filed. The contact stated that the crash caused damage to the front bumper and the front passenger side door which would not open. The manufacturer stated that an inspector would inspect the vehicle. The inspector stated that there was a problem with the ABS brakes. The contact received the report from the manufacturer and they did not indicate that there was a safety failure and were unable to provide further assistance. The body damage was repaired. The contact stated that she did not feel safe driving the vehicle after the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 120,000.

Filed Aug 10, 2010 · Acceleration · AZ

2004 toyota prius with unintended acceleration. *kb the consumer stated he experienced sudden acceleration after the recall was performed. The consumer also stated someone else drove her vehicle and he experienced sluggish acceleration of the vehicle. A message flashed quickly, but he was unable to read it.

Filed Jul 24, 2010 · Acceleration · 92,345 miles · AZ

1) events leading to failure: post-"90l campaign" recall maintenance performed on 2004 toyota prius, vehicle driving at ~15 MPH on a flat clear road. 2) the failure: unintended acceleration observed. Accelerated, without accelerator depressed, to ~27 MPH. Brakes successfully applied. Release of brake resumed unintended acceleration. "rode the brake to deliver vehicle to safe parking location. Consequence: unintended acceleration controllable by braking. 3) nothing has yet been done to correct failure. Vehicle has not been driven or moved since failure, since deemed unsafe to drive by owner pending any useful response to notification of this incident by toyota inc. (no useful response as of yet.) the dealer was unable to duplicate the consumers concern. Updated 08/30/10 update ivoq 09/01/10*jb

Filed May 28, 2010 · Acceleration · 102,595 miles · IL

Tl*the contact owns a 2004 toyota prius. While driving at approximately 55 MPH the contact depressed the accelerator pedal and the vehicle surged forward. The vehicle would not stop until repeated pressure was applied to the brakes. The contact called the manufacturer who stated that the issue was not a big deal. The failure and current mileages were 102,595.

Filed May 20, 2010 · Acceleration · 14,000 miles · NM

Within the first year of owning my 2004 prius I experienced unintended acceleration. In the old days (I'm 71) if you experienced unintended acceleration you would right off check your gas pedal and floor mats. That kind of problem wasn't all that uncommon when you owned old cars. If you didn't find a problem in the area of the gas pedal you would pull off the side of the road and usually find the throttle spring on the carburetor messed up in some way or something along those lines. Well, when it happened on my prius going about 40 MPH on a stretch of road not so far from my home I instinctively checked my floor mats and throttle shaft for interference or sticking. No problems found. I got the car stopped - don't remember how (with years of driving experience you instinctively try things until you find something that works). Anyhow, after that I went directly to mytoyota dealer where they checked it out but found nothing. The problem never occurred again. Now I see this claim that it's not an electronic problem on this drive-by-wire car. I don't believe it. If you think about it, if it happens just one time on my one prius in thousands of miles of driving, that makes an incident of this sort pretty rare, rare enough to where it's unlikely to occur under controlled tests (it would be infinitely easier to find the proverbial needle in a haystack). Virtually every microprocessor controlled product I've ever used has required a reset now and then. Usually there's no indication of why the product locked up (or whatever). If you use satellite tv, a dss modem, or own a pc I'm sure you've experienced it. Why it should be any different with car microprocessors is beyond me. The answer is for the government to require some kind of fail-safe apparatus on every drive-by-wire car in the future (I see toyota is already implementing this concept into their 2011 cars). Heck, my life or the life of my children or grandchildren might very well depend on it.

Filed Apr 16, 2010 · Acceleration, Airbags · 74,000 miles · NH · crash · 1 injury

Tl*the contact owns a 2004 toyota prius. The contact was driving approximately 40 MPH when the vehicle suddenly accelerated and crashed into a vehicle as she attempted to slow down. The air bags did not deploy and the contact was injured. The vehicle was destroyed. The failure mileage was approximately 74,000.

Filed Apr 2, 2010 · Lights · 87,000 miles · CA

High intensity discharge (hid) headlights "wink" off & on randomly, which causes a serious safety/visibility problem in the dark. I understand you opened an investigation on this issue a while ago but then closed it without a finding of a safety defect. Please reopen it again. There is a continuously growing body of reports of this issue with the toyota prius. Go to www.priuschat.com and search for the hid headlight thread to see what I mean. Many owners have had to pay $500 to $1000 out of pocket to toyota dealers to fix this problem. In some cases, the problem has recurred a few months later. Please ask toyota to issue a safety recall of prius models affected by this issue. I hope you can get toyota to do this before someone dies because of this problem. Otherwise, you will have a situation similar to the "unintended acceleration" problem which has killed a number of people. Thanks for your help!

Filed Mar 26, 2010 · Acceleration, Electrical · PA

S10 appropriate handling re toyota vehicles recall, owner of a 2004 toyota prius experienced sudden unintended acceleration. *tgw the consumer stated as he was driving, he approached a slower moving vehicle, but when he attempted to apply the brake, the vehicle instead accelerated. As he hit the brake harder, the vehicle accelerated even more. The consumer had to avoid an accident by crossing over the double yellow line into oncoming traffic. The consumer managed to avoid an accident and quickly moved back over to the correct side of the road. The consumer stated the gas pedal was not stuck as toyota is claiming there is a quick fix and placing the blame on the accelerator pedal. Prior to the incident, the consumer stated as he was waiting in a line, with his foot firmly on the brake, the engine seemed to suddenly rev up and the vehicle lurched forward but did not move due to his foot being firmly on the brake. The consumer also stated on several occasions when he hit the brake the radio and air condition would come on. The dealer claimed there was nothing wrong and that the consumer must have hit the radio and climate control buttons on the steering wheel. The consumer believed that the braking system influences the electronics or computer and causes the acceleration of the vehicle.

Filed Mar 25, 2010 · Acceleration · NY

While driving to work this morning in rush hour traffic, my car suddenly accelerated as I was merging to my left. As I was merging I felt the car accelerate and the decrease in pressure against my foot as the pedal depressed on it's own. I was able to regain control of the car after forcefully stepping on the brakes twice, at which time the gas pedal came back up.

Filed Mar 22, 2010 · Acceleration · 42,154 miles · NJ

Tl*the contact owns a 2004 toyota prius. He experienced sudden acceleration twice on january 16, 2008 and march 6, 2008. While he was driving at approximately 30 MPH the vehicle suddenly accelerated up to 100 MPH. He continuously applied pressure to the brake pedal until he was able to bring the vehicle to a complete stop. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. The dealer stated that the vehicle accelerated, because the floor mat was trapped under the gas pedal. The dealer replaced and secured the floor mat. The manufacturer was contacted. The manufacturer stated there were no related recalls. He has not experienced the failure again. The failure mileage was 42,154 miles and the current mileage was 61,000.

Filed Mar 15, 2010 · Acceleration, Transmission · 37,294 miles · VA · 1 injury

I was entering a major highway from a parking lot when the engine suddenly accelerated at full speed. Visibility was good. There was a small pothole so I did touch the accelerator. Next I was in the middle of the highway & hit by a car going 65mph. I do not think I hit the accelerator rather than the brake although that was the only explanation at the time.