Dt: how long and at what speed was the consumer driving before the vehicle lost power? He was driving for about 25 minutes and 35 MPH and the warning lights illuminated. B. Consumer's vehicle lost power?/decelerated and was going to make a left turn off a highway again the lights signaled warning ,but car was still running. Called toyota to see what to do about this because there was no answer as to what those signals were. Toyota told to continue driving and vehicle lost power. After driving the vehicle? If so, how long and at what speed? Was unable to continue driving, had to be towed. Called toyota about the lights not appearing. Was told by toyota to continue driving, and vehicle lost power.
2004 Toyota Prius electrical complaints
Page 6 of 7: complaints 131 to 160 of 177, newest first, as owners wrote them.
2004 prius had warning lights come on and stalled in april 2005. Software upgrade was performed by dealer. Warning lights have come on again yesterday, june 12
2004 toyota prius sedan. Stalls out while driving about 35 miles hour and the electric recharable battery drains. This has happened two times to me and I have taken it back to toyota deal for this. The 1st approximately jan -feb time frame. Dealer could find nothing wrong. 2nd time approximately early april. Dealer said had trouble code in computer and have corrected problem but let them know if happens again or any other problem. Engine load, automatic gear shifts hard and car rolls slightly when put into park.
Dt: contact has a 2004 toyota prius, and while driving the vehicle it has failed on two separate occasions. A. How long and at what speed was the consumer driving before the vehicle lost power? Approximately 15 -20 minutes, going about 45 MPH. B. Was the consumer accelerating, decelerating, or driving at a steady- state when the vehicle lost power? Driving at a steady rate. C. After the vehicle lost power, was the driver able to continue driving the vehicle? If so, how long and at what speed? The vehicle was stopped and pulled off the road. D. Did any warning lights appear before and/or after the incident occurred? Yes , if so, describe the lights that were lit. Check engine light. E. Did the vehicle eventually stall and come to a stop? How long did this occur after the warning lights were lit? One part of the vehicle was operating but the driver could not accelerate. F. Was the driver able to restart the vehicle right after it stalled? If so, how long did it take (# of attempts and/ or time ? Ex: 3-4 times or 2-3 minutes)? Yes, the engine light kept coming back on. 1 time, right after the vehicle stalled.
Prius stalled while driving, all lights came on dealer restarted computer I have read about many people with this complaint
Dt: while driving about 40 MPH suddenly car died. No power whatsoever. Had to be towed to dealership. Was told computer needed updating. This was performed on the vehicle. Did call toyota, and confirmed that the repair had been done. No problems since computer was updated.
My 2004 prius lost power when I was traveling at about 65-70 miles per hour on 2/21/05. I had electric power for a few minutes so that I could pull off at an exit. All the warning/caution lights came on. The kern toyota dealership in winchester va had my car towed in. They kept the car overnight. They said that they reprogrammed my computer and the car was fine. They offered no other explanation or possible future concerns. I reported this to toyota management this morning and have a confirmation # if needed. I just saw the articles where they noted 33 other incidents like mine.
I own a 2004 prius. While driving approx. 60 MPH on hwy 110 in los angeles, the warning light came on. Less than 5 seconds later, the car lost all power. It even ceased to coast despite the fact that I was on a significant down hill grade. In an attempt to exit the freeway, I navigated the vehicle to the right, where it stalled completely in the right lane, blocking moving traffic. The california highway patrol (chp) quickly came (they were in the area and arrived without being called) and pushed the vehicle off the freeway. After waiting about 20 minutes, the car restarted and I drove for about 10 miles on surface streets. The next morning, I was able to drive one mile to the dealer. The service department of toyota of hollywood, where I purchased the vehicle, said it was due to a "software glitch" and that it needed to be "reprogrammed." they completed this work in less than 24 hours. They also replaced the bumper which had been damaged by chp in the process of pushing the vehicle off the freeway. Their service was excellent and I have not had subsequent failures. Nevertheless, it was a serious malfunction and should be thoroughly investigated.
Dt: while driving and without warning car stalled at 40 MPH and had to be towed. Caller could not turn power off from power switch. Only thing that was working was the panel lights. Dealer said it was a car computer problem. Manufacturer has not been contacted yet. Caller saw several articles that an investigation was on this car.
Since purchasing a 2004 prius in feb. 2004, it has stalled five times. Four were within a two week period in june 2004 and were related to a loose wire to the battery. One was in june 2005.
2004 prius driving at approximately 35-45 MPH when warning lights on dashboard went on. Car died within seconds in middle of busy street and would not restart, had to tow to dealer. Dealer claimed they did not know what the problem was but said "it will not happen again"
Car was driving normal at 45 MPH....engine quit. Would not restart. Car was towed to toyota dealer.
Dt: consumer states while going southbound, he accidentally bump the vehicle out of gear from drive to neutral at about 70 MPH. Afterwards consumer put vehicle back in drive. It seemed as though vehicle was dead. Consumer had to stop the vehicle then put back in drive and then merge back onto the highway.
Dt: engine shuts down and will not start, also battery dies. Check engine light comes on, and then the engine dies. Caller had to push car off the road. Dealer said they could not find anything wrong the first time, and the other times they replaced a floor harness that went to battery, an amplifier, the original battery. Caller read article on his vehicle about same problem. Manufacturer said the amplifier fixed the problem.
Dt: the warning lights came on consumer turned car around to take it to the dealer, and the car just shut off. Dealer did clear everything (the lights), and the car started back up.
Dt: the consumer owns a 2004 toyota prius. He says that he is having problems with the vehicle because it will shut off while in traffic. Also the park mechanism will disengaged and the lock button does not unlock the doors as specified in the owners manual. Also the start button does not consistently start the vehicle properly. *jb the vehicle experienced: inoperative brake light, the fuel door spring was replaced, dome light remained on, engine would disengage, lights would remain lit after the vehicle was started, vehicle would not move until the vehicle was shut off and restarted to get the brake light to go out, rattling as if it were going to stall, the alarm sounded on one occasion when the door was opened, fuel door spring malfunctioned and fuel door would not open. The technicians were unable to verify the door lock malfunction. The consumer would like the vehicle replaced with a 2005 model equipped as detailed on the original invoice including aftermarket items paid for.
My1994 toyota prius suddenly stalled as I was driving. I had to be towed to a dealership. I was told that there was a programming error in one of the computer chips.
Dt: all of the lights come on and the car stalls in mid-travel.
Dt: consumer states: when the vehicle was under 3000 miles all the warning lights came on, and while driving down the road the vehicle slowly lost power and was going about 25 MPH. After about 20 min vehicle started back, the dealer did diagnostic and reset the system.
Was driving my 3 month old '04 prius on a 2 lane hwy, late night, 50mph. Prius engines suddenly stopped and many warning lights came on. I pulled over, though there was no safe place to do so, set my flashers and began calling for help. Spent the next hour calling police and tow trucks, too busy in a dangerous place to troubleshoot. Did not feel safe in the car due to high speed traffic. Finally towed to dealership and car was admitted in the morning. Dealer kept for 5 days, asking me to take it home, nothing wrong. I insisted that I was not comfortable taking the car home until something was done to fix it. Called toyota USA hq and reported the problem. They worked with the dealer and eventually got my car back. 1 week later, same thing happened, daytime, with my family aboard. This time, was able to restart and drive to dealership. Reported incident to toyota USA hq. While car was in shop, toyota sent me a letter offering to buy the car back from me, due to my lack of confidence in the car. I regretfully accepted. I am very much enthsed by the prius potential, but these glitches are scary. Toyota buying the car back from me almost felt like a coverup attempt.
I was on the 101 freeway heading south when my 2004 toyota prius lost power, all warning lights came on; I coasted to the shoulder. It took several tries over a period of about 15 minutes to get the car shut off. I called toyota and they told me to bring it in if I could get it started, which I finally did.
Engine warning light came on while driving approximately 55-60 MPH. Gas power quit and consumed all electric power and car stopped. Coasted to the side of the road. Could not get the car to go into any gear -- stuck in park. Had to have it towed to dealer.
Driving my 2004 prius about 25mph on my way home, all of a sudden warning lights on the dashboard lit up. The yellow brake system warning, the malfunction indicator, the master warning and the vsc warning lights were all on. The display had a message that indicated a hybrid system warning. The next day, upon stating the car, the brake system and the vsc warning lights had gone off. All other lights were still on. Did not drive the car until I could contact dealer (it was a holiday weekend). After contacting service dept, they said to drive it into the dealer. While driving, the battery level was in the "magenta" range , about three bars, much lower than normal. It rose to the normal range prior to arriving at the dealer. The repair order states "found ecu calibration off" and "reprogarm ecu to new calibrationid 34705100". The lights are now off and the car seems back to normal. The service person was unable to reassure me that this problem would not happen again, only that it was easily fixed and toyota would cover it. My car had already had the ecu reprogrammed in 08/04, as per recall 40d.
I have had 3 'stalls' of my 2004 prius which I drive 150 miles a day and it has 48k miles on it. All of the engine stalls have been at low speed (under 20 MPH) and have been preceeded by a red warning triangle light and the screen displaying something like 'critical problem'. On one incident I was in heavy traffic and managed to use the electric motor to get me to the side of the highway before the engine/motor stopped with no power. When I turned the power on/off several times the engine would start but there was no power. I did notice that on all three stalls my gas gauge was low (one or two bars) but I have run the car for thirty miles after the last bar started to flash so it's hard to tell if there is a connection. I did report this to the dealer but they had no information on it and the car reset each time after a period of time.
Sudden shutdown of 2004 prius. I was crusing at about 40 MPH when the engine unexpectedly shut down and all dashboard warning lights became illuminated. I was able to safely pull to the side of the road. After cycling power button, car started again, but "check engine" light was illuminated. Dealership found code p3191 in diagnostic system, but could not come up with an explanation. I am reporting this now because of recent publicity regarding similar prius incidents.
My 2004 toyota prius stalled when I was going approximately 40 MPH. I was able to coast to the shoulder, but then the car had to be towed to a dealership for a programming fix before I could drive it again.
While driving myh toyota prius has stalled for no reason 3 times. I've brought it in once after the 2nd time and they said that nothing was wrong.
Vehicle stalled twice without warning. Had to be towed to dealer.
I drove my toyota prius from florida to colorado. After about 2100 miles the car stalled. I was stuck on the highway for about 2 hours at a temperature of 15 degrees until I got towed to a toyota dealer. The dealer recharged the battery, which completely discharged while I sat in the stalled car with the heater on, and the problem was gone.
This is not the first time that I have had this problem, but I just learned this is the venue to state my complaints(I have another complaint on this board. I bought this car to save gas,money and the environment,but now this car is doing none of these for me in stop and go traffic. While I'm stuck in traffic in dc(i395n), the battery takes over. The problem is the gas doesn't kick in when the battery is low. I find the battery doesn't stay charged for over 28minutes while moving in traffic about 3 feet every 5 or 10 minutes. I have figured out in order to not get stalled (which has happened to me, 2 times already,besides today.) I have to hold the brake pedal down with one foot and rev the gas pedal with the right foot in order to charge the battery and not get slammed into from a vehicle behind me! My wife refuses to drive the car now for fear that she'll stall. I'm filling my tank more often now than when I first got this vehicle. Due to the reving of the vehicle which wastes my gas(sorta defeats the purpose of buying a hybrid for the most part!), also this can't be good for the environment either! Oh and lets not forget the safety factor. I have people yelling at me and saying they want to bust my a**! And even an elderly woman with handicap plates gave me the finger right after she almost slammed into my stalled car. I'm embarrassed and scared to drive over 65 because the way the car died on me 2 times before.
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