I was driving on highway 101 north in a stop-and-go traffic. I noticed that the battery level continued to drop and the gas engine failed to start to recharge the battery. I manage to slide out of the freeway and stopped on the shoulder. I could not shut off the car for about 2 minutes. I was able to restart the car after 5 minutes and the gas engine started. The display showed symbols of "check engine" and "hybrid system warning" and a text message - "problem!". I was able to drive to the destination via a local route.
2004 Toyota Prius engine complaints
Page 4 of 4: complaints 71 to 98 of 98, newest first, as owners wrote them.
I have a 2004 toyota prius (purchased dec. 2003). Approximately 10 march 2005 I was driving at city speeds (<40 MPH) when the gasoline engine shut down. I was able to proceed about a mile on the electric engine until the battery became drained. I called for a tow under warranty service. While waiting, I was able to restart the gasoline engine after about an hour, but had the car towed into the dealership for investigation of the failure and repair. After a couple of days of investigation, they claimed that they could find no problem and toyota had not issued any service bulletins dealing with such a problem. As recently as last week, when I had the car serviced, the dealership said that they were unaware of any similar reports and toyota had not issued any service bulletins. I gave them a copy of an article from a recent wall street journal details reports of these problems around the country. I have no further problems of a similar nature, but I am somewhat apprehensive of recurrence. Otherwise the car is wonderful. I get ~50mpg in the summer and it handles well.
My 2004 prius' combustion engine shut down on the freeway in sep'04. The car switched to battery mode only and rolled on until the battery was completely drained and then completely stalled. I got stuck in lanes, created a rush-hour traffic jam, and had to be pushed to a shoulder by a police car. The car was towed to a dealer who said it was a software glitch which they proceeded to fix and the car has been working well since then.
I was driving my 2004 toyota prius at approximately 35 MPH when it suddenly stalled and the electric engine power dropped to zero. I could not get the vehicle to move and needed to have it towed to the dealer for service.
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.
While driving at 25mph, 4 trouble lights lit up on dashboard. After 1-2 more miles, the engine lost all power, despite the gas engine still running. The electric system showed no battery power. Restarting the engine didn't help, and the car had to be towed.
Our 2004 prius stalled repeatedly on a drive from holland, mich., to st. Louis, mo, on dec. 26/27, 2004. The first time it happened, it was after about an hour of highway driving, when all the dashboard lights went on and the engine died. We were able to coast off the highway. After about 30 minutes on the side of the road (it was he day after christmas and a sunday, so help was not readily available), we were able to restart the engine and return to holland. The next day, we took it to the dealer, who could not find anything wrong. We resumed driving and after about an hour, the same thing happened. We pulled to the side of the road, waited a bit, and restarted the engine. We repeated this several times, drive, stall, restart, drive, until we got to a dealer in chicago, who declared that our transmission was shot but we might as well drive back to st. Louis since it would take them a week to get a new one anyway. So we drove, stalled, restarted, again and again until we got just south of springfield, ill., where the car stalled for good. After an uncomfortable hour spent on the side of interstate 55 waiting for a tow truck on a freezing cold night, we finally were taken back to st. Louis, where the dealer put in a new transmission.
While driving at 30 - 35 MPH, the engine of my 2004 toyota prius cut off without warning. The "warning lamp" turned on at the time the engine quit, not before. I coasted to a stop in a nearby parking lot. When I could not restart the car, I called aaa for towing. After waiting 30 minutes, I tried to start the engine again, and it started with no problem. No warning lights were on, and I had no further problem. I had a second incident identical to the first, except this tmie I tried to restart the motor after waiting only 4 -5 minutes.
2004 prius, gas engine stalled while excellerating to merge onto freeway during rush hour, was forced to exit on electric engine in heavy traffic driving at 30mph. After exiting freeway and turning car off it would not restart. Vehicle finally restarted and I was able to drive with master check engine light on. Dealer said the car needed to have software reset, but never gave explaination of what caused original problem. I am guessing at the incident date it was month or so back.
In june 2004, the 2004 toyata prius we had purchased in mid-may malfunctioned as I was accelerating onto a freeway on-ramp in daly city, california. A loud beep sounded, and all the dashboard lights lit up at once, including the exclamation point. The gas engine did not engage as it usually did at higher speeds, leading to a rapid depletion of the battery, which forced me to pull over to the side of the freeway. I turned off the car, waited 5 minutes, and then pressed the power button. The lights on the dash lit up again but the car did not start. I called for a tow, which took about 70 minutes. In the meantime, I tried the power button at 15 minute intervals. At 45 minutes, the car started normally. However, by then the towing company was on its way and the car was towed to the service center of the city toyota dealership in daly city, which happened to be where we purchased the car. The car was left for a few days. When I retrieved it, they were unable to explain why the problem occurred. We have been driving the car since without incident.
Dt: the contact owns a 2004 toyota prius. The vehicle is a hybrid. She states that while driving down the freeway at about 60 MPH vehicle stalled, making it difficult for her to brake or accelerate. The dealer told her that it was a software glitch, and they knew that they had other problems with this. Toyota stated that they contacted everyone. However they did not notify everyone because she was not notified. Also, they did not notify some of her friends, and they disregarded her telephone calls.
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.
I have a 2004 toyota prius. I have had it stall at low speed (approx 35mph) march 2004 I had it lose power at highway speed on nov 7, 2004.
On four separate occasions the prius has had a complete loss of power to the gasoline engine, all the warning indicator lights have been illuminated and the car was able to travel only on battery power for a very short distance before draining the battery. Twice this has occurred after stopping at a stop sign and attempting to proceed forward. Twice it has happened while driving on the highway at 60-70 MPH. When it occurred on the highway the car lost power except from the battery that allowed only 40-42 MPH maximum speed. Twice the car was towed to the dealer. The first time they performed a software update the second time they reset the computer. The last two times it has happened I have been able to stop the car, disconnect the 12 volt battery which has reset the system and the car performs as expected. This would appear to be software bug that requires further investigation by toyota. In any case, this type of occurrence causes an unsafe condition to occur.
On 4/7/05 I was traveling on the nj parkway and all of a sudden for no reason my 2004 prius engine stalled no gas to engine only electric power then the electric power slowly in about lest than 2 minutes went to zero and then I had to coast to a safe spot to pull over on the shoulder. Luckily I was already traveling in the slow right lane, although at 5 pm rush hour its still going 65+ MPH, I coasted down to 40 MPH until I finally came to a shoulder in the right lane. I checked for anything leaking nothing, and about 10 minutes later it started up. Now all warning lights went on the engine warning failure light which said to bring to dealer right away was on. I brought to dealer the next day a was still able to drive it. They eventually fixed the problem they said it was a computer software problem. They had it from 4/8 to 4/13. It was a very scary situation luckly I was not in the fast lane were I would have been stuck in the middle of fast driving traffic. I just wanted to submit this to put on record just incase there is a bigger problem with other vehicles. The car has run fine since and no problems so far. I read the story from verizon online.
1. I was driving around 30 to 40 MPH and the gas engine failed suddenly during the course of normal driving, leaving only the electrical engine running. At the same time the engine failed, many lights turned on on the dashboard. 2. I was on a canyon road in the los angeles mountains when it failed, which was a single lane road each way with nowhere to pull off. Luckily, I had just reached on of the crests in the canyon when the engine failed, so with the electrical engine I was able to coast to a side street. Once on the side street, the electrical engine died quickly, probably because of the steep slope upwards of the street. 3. I tried to turn off the car and it wouldn't turn off, so I popped the hood and got out to see if there was an obvious problem. Finding no problem I could see I went back inside the car and held down the power button until the vehicle turned off finally. When the vehicle turned back on, the engine sempt to work normally, and I immediately went to the nearest toyota dealer. They said they had heard of the problem once or twice before and it requires a software update to the car. I was weary of their proposed solution since it is such a dangerous problem, but that's all they said they could do, so I told them to go ahead.
Summary: internal combustion engine died while driving. Lots of indicator lights on dash, and message appeared on multifunction display. Was able to get to a safe location on battery-only power. Details: driving home from town (about 10 miles). Car was behaving normally, and had been driven approx 30 miles earlier today with no issues. Just before we got home, the following lights came on (I recorded them exactly): (1) red triangle (master warning light), (2) engine check (amber), (3) brake system warning (amber exclamation point in parentheses), (4) vsc, (5) hybrid system warning light (this was also indicated on the lcd screen). Lcd had a message on it which I did not record exactly (it was something generic like "there is a problem"). The info screen was indicating that we were running on battery only, and the car had very little "pickup", but we were on our home street, which is quite steep. The car has about 11000 miles, and did something similar when we first got it. After turning the car on and off a few times, the internal combustion engine seems to work again, and most of the indicators have now gone off. (amber "engine check" is still on). After all this happened, I got onto the internet to see if others had seen similar problems, and it looks like there may be a class problem (I note there have been a large number of these in the last few weeks - could it be temperature-related?) car was not out of gas (just refilled yesterday) - gas guage showing nearly full. Vehicle was purchased august 2004 (after the tsbs came out that implicated computer problems), so I'm suspecting this may be a different issue than was dealt with there. [xxx]. Will notify toyota tomorrow and request instructions as to how to proceed. *js information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6)
Driving my 04 prius at normal speed - all of a sudden lost all power. Made it to dealer few blocks away after sitting awhile. Dealer took 48 hours - said wrong program was in computer. Reprogramed.
I own a 2004 prius and also experienced a complete system shutdown while driving on the highway about 3 months ago. The entire gas engine shut down and all warning lights came on. The electric motor remained operational and allowed me to get off the road and into a parking lot safely. The dealer (cabe toyota - long beach, ca) gave me a brief and unsatisfactory explaination..brushing this off as a minor problem similar to a computer needing to be restarted. I assume they upgraded my system but still fear a recurrence in a less convenient location. Please let me know if you would like any additional information on this. Vehicle VIN = [xxx]
I had driven approximatley 20 miles to my hockey game and was driving at 40 MPH. An ! And check engine light came on and the car was then reduced to only running off of battery. I was able to pull off the road without danger and shut down the car and checked the oil and gas to verify that wasn't the cause of the issue. After approximately 3 minutes I started the car and the ! And check engine light remained on, but the gas engine was functioning correctly. I drove the remaining 3 miles to my destination and called toyota roadside assistance and arranged for a tow truck. After finishing up my hockey game ( 1 hour) I was able to start the car and there were not warning lights or issues. I canceled the tow truck and drove the car to the dealer. The next day the dealer updated the code in the car to us tsb eg047-04. I have been driving the car since they updated the code without issue.
Without warning, the warning light and alarm come on. The gas engine dies and does not engage at all. The electric motor is the only thing that keeps the car mobile. Once the power is turned off then back on, both the gas and electric motors move the car as normal, but the warning persists. This has happened twice. I've been told that two different computer were the cause. The first incident happened at about 5,000 miles, and this latest happened just over 10,000.
Master indicator light illuninated, internal combustion engine failed to restart.
5/6/05 my 2004 prius with 20,400 miles without warning loss all power and shut down while driving hazard light came on warning to take to toyota dealer. The vehicle would not start. The battery meter level was completely dead. The vehicle had to be towed to maita toyota 2500 auburn blvd, sacramento, ca 95821, 916 481-5353 for repair. The work order stated the cause was the ecu which was reprogramed which cleared stored codes. Code pulled p3191. Is this a new finding in the prius?
Dt: problem began 5/7/05. While driving, the vehicle suddenly stopped. The indicator said to contact dealership. The vehicle was towed to the dealership. The dealer reset the computer and the vehicle was repaired.
Our 2004 prius on four separate occasions had a complete engine shutdown with lots of indicator lights lit on the dashboard. This happened twice while we were traveling on interstate highways in traffic at highway speeds, once in a toyota dealership while the vehicle was being serviced, and once as we pulled into a toyoto dealership for service. We were not aware we could send a complaint to the federal safety agency until we say today's msnbc article. The first engine shutdown occurred in the hyannis toyota dealership in massachusetts. They took quite a while to fix the vehicle and made several phone calls to toyota engineers for help. They wrote on our receipt: "needs trans replacement for permanent repair." after we left massachusetts we drove across country toward our home in california. The other three engine shutdowns happened during this trip. We had to be towed (at toyota's expense) twice as a result of the interstate engine shutdowns and ended up at a toyota dealership in jackson, mississippi. We had to stay several days at our own expense while they repaired the vehicle, again consulting several times with toyota engineers during the repair. After we reached california we took the vehicle to south bay toyota and requested the "permanent" repair described on the hyannis toyota receipt. We were told they would do nothing because there was no indicator showing any problems at that time. We made several phone calls to toyota but were unable to get them to do anything further to our car.
2004 toyota prius died at 65 MPH on I-395 carpool lanes. Multiple warning lights flashed on. Was able to coast it over and restart for a mile or two when it completely died again. Was towed to springfield va toyota dealership were it was serviced. Error codes c2318 (low voltage error - power supply malfunction), battery code 8442 were reported. Also, check engine light on, found code p3791/engine won't start. Reprogrammed ecu dp0199. Cars shutting down in high speed traffic is a crash waiting to happen. We're not convinced that re-setting the engine code is enough to fix the problem. Has the original software problem been located and fixed? Dealership couldn't give us that answer.
While driving the vehicle at 60 MPH. The vehicle completely shut down. The consumer pressed on the accelerator pedal for speed, however the vehicle continued to lose power. The consumer had the vehicle towed. The vehicle is still at the dealership. *jb the problem was due to a computer glitch per tsb. The battery had gone dead.
While driving vehicle stalled. Consumer restarted the vehicle, and pulled over. Consumer noticed all warning light appeared on the dashboard and remained on. Consumer had the vehicle towed to the dealer for inspection, and mechanic could not duplicate the problem, but insisted that warning light should be turned off.
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 2004 Toyota Prius?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history