For several years our toyota prius has exhibited the following issue: intermittently, and without warning, when you start the car the dashboard does not light. As a consequent, you cannot not see the speed you're driving at, the fuel level of the car, any warnings such as check engine, low tire pressure etc, and you're not able to use a number of other important features such as cruise control. In addition, you are not able to turn off the car when you reach your destination. Because you cannot turn off the car, you cannot lock it. Undisclosed to customers, there has been for several years an extended warranty being offered by toyota, to the dealerships, to fix this problem (warranty policy bulletin, pol 12-05). This information is provided only to dealerships. As I customer, I never received information about this extended warranty. I only found out about it via other customers. Our local toyota dealership (toyota of olympia) has refused to apply the extended warranty and fix the problem. We contacted the dealership several years ago about the issue, which they have a record of. Toyota customer service also refuses to help us get this issue fixed and apply the extended warranty. The case number with customer service is 1812072507. Both toyota and the dealership state that the customer most replicate this intermittent issue to a dealership mechanic before either entity will authorize fixing the issue. Several weeks or months may go by before the issue appears and it appears only for an unpredictable duration before "going away", so this is an impossible burden of proof for the customer -- the customer has to take the car to a dealership at the moment the intermittent issue occurs, and must arrive at the dealership and get the mechanic to immediately drop their other work in order to hopefully witness the issue before it "goes away".
2008 Toyota Prius acceleration complaints
Page 2 of 6: complaints 11 to 40 of 156, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Toyota has acknowledge an issue with its combination meter in the 2004-2009 toyota prius but has not recalled the issue and instead wants payment to fix the problem. Toyota has documented this under the toyota service bulletin t-sb-0172-09: "some 2004-2009 model year prius vehicles may experience an intermittent condition where the combination meter display will not illuminate in cold weather conditions. An updated combination meter ecu is now available to correct this condition" toyota offered a 3 year warrenty window for this but being outside this they want almost $1000 to fix this. This issue stops the speedometer for illuminating which creates a safety hazard when gauging the correct speed for the road and conditions.
Running on a city street at 20 miles, gas pedal would not work, could not decrease or increase mileage. Brake pedal worked but went all the way down and finally stopped with a jerk. A constant noise and and has a toyota confirmed brake acctuator problem that toyota refuses to help since extra warrant expired in 12/2017
The vehicle combination meter sporadically will not turn on which prevents the display of the speed of the car. During this condition, the fuel economy will not display, the car may not be powered off by normal procedure, and the fuel gauge, drive train mode indicator, and odometer are not visible. This has occurred for the past 2 years, primarily during cold weather, but also during warm weather, and I have a video recording of this problem while operating this specific vehicle dated february 20 2017. Toyota will not honor their own warranty extension described in their document pol12-05, related to tsb t-sb-0172-09, stating that the dealer must be able to reproduce the issue in order to cover the replacement. Toyota's document pol12-05 specifically states "this condition is primarily found in cold weather climate conditions. When the vehicle is brought to your dealership it may no longer be in a climate which allows duplication of the condition. If this occurs, please verify with the customer that the experienced condition is in accordance with this warranty extension and proceed with replacement of the combination meter." on 5/12/2017, andrea n. (would not provide last name) with toyota customer experience center, assigned me toyota case # 1705121649 and stated that "the dealer must reproduce the issue in order to cover replacement under warranty" despite the toyota letter explicitly allowing for warranty replacement when the condition cannot be reproduced by the dealer.
I was in an automobile accident where I rear ended vehicle in front of me. I tried to stop but the vehicle would not stop or even make an attempt to slow down. My ankle suffered a severe twist from trying to apply brakes. There was plenty of room to stop but the brakes would not react to slow down vehicle. There was a car coming in the oncoming lane so I could not go around vehicle in front of me. My vehicle was in motion in the city and I was going straight. The pavement was a little rough and my ABS light was going off and all I could do was hit vehicle in front of me due to brakes failing and not slowing me down.
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. While driving 20 MPH and depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle failed to increase in speed. All the warning indicators illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where the cause of the failure could not be determined. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 81,500.
I was traveling northbound on the saw mill river parkway. Exited on the northbound taconic state parkway ramp. After crossing the taconic state parkwat overpass. My 2008 toyota prius (without any input from my part) turned left and accelerated onto the grassy area. Even though made multiple attempts at correcting my direction by turning the car to the right and to stop the car, neither the steering inputs or engaging the brakes had any effect on the vehicle. After traveling almost the entire width of the grassy area, the car was caught by a branch on the ground, just before the driver side of the car would have slammed into a tree. I then proceeded to turn the car off. When I turn the car back on, everything was back to normal. There was no error message from the ecu during or after the incident.
While driving at night approx. 50 miles per hour prius lost power and appeared to be in neutral. Did not lose headlights. I pulled over and shut down and restarted without incident buy am fearful of it happening again in traffic.
2008 toyota prius. Consumer requesting all recalls associated with vehicle. *ta the consumer referenced recall # 09v388000. He also mentioned information regarding a steering defect.
We have two prius cars with same issue - when making a turn from a stop and trying to accelerate quickly the car jerks and hesitate as the anti slip system light flashes and engages. You cannot accelerate quickly into traffic from a dead stop making a turn as the car refuses, jerks and acts like it will stall. Pavement is dry and no gravel. Happens each and every time since I purchased the car. Easy to replicate. Come to a complete stop, then turn right while pressing the accelerator down quickly and the slip system kicks, car jerks, hesitates and then very slowly starts to eventually accelerate.
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 3 MPH, the vehicle accelerated independently and surged forward. As a result, the contact crashed into a rocked landscaping. A police report was filed and there were no injuries reported. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 80,000. Updated 8/31/2017
Driving 2008 toyota prius with 105k miles on the freeway. Suddenly, I saw the ABS,vcs and brake lights shows up on the dashboard along with a continuous screeching noise. I tried to apply the brakes but the car did not stop, I applied the brake even harder, still the car did not stop but continuous to move forward. It was traffic time on a monday morning, so I was going on 15mph. When I found that my brake did not respond, I immediately moved to the curb and called aaa. Dealer did check my vehicle and said there is break actuator issue and needs to be replace with a price tag of 3823 usd. Spoke to toyota customer service, and the associate told that this is a wear and tear issue. How come the brake actuator become faulty on a 6 year old car, which was advertised a safe car. Note: I had my 100k service done and I was told everything was normal.
As I was coming to a stop driving along a side street, I hit a slight bump in the road while braking. The brakes stopped working for about 1 and 1/2 seconds while the vsc light was flashing. Then the brakes started working again and I could stop the car. This has happened 3 additional times since then in different places driving around town, probably after hitting slight bumps or a few pieces of gravel. One of those happened as I was going to the toyota dealer to have it checked out. The toyota serviceman could not find any codes that indicated that there was a problem. "no verifiable malfunction occurred." yesterday, I talked to the toyota service manager again. He said that there was nothing he could do to fix the car.
Gear shifted into neutral without use of gear shift control. Happened several times and wasn't able to shift into reverse or drive. Kept going back to neutral. Park also wasn't working. Powered car off which did put in park. Restarted and drove home without issue. Tried to recreate at home and same problem occurred. Was able to manually hold gear shift in drive or reverse to move car into driveway. Have left car at toyota service center today for inspection. Did not occur when tech tried it day after incident at 7am. Initial incident occurred on hot afternoon at 5pm with 100 degree temperatures. Have read online of similar problems related to hot temp. Have had car for 5 years with no problems like this. Just crossed 50000 miles and am covered under warranty until oct. I hope it can be repaired. And hope it does not happen while I am driving at faster speeds. So far only happens when parked and recently started. Starter battery was replaced around 2 years ago.
On this date while driving on the interstate 5 near los angeles my prius made a loud noise and started shutting down as I was driving on the far left lane. The car immediately slowed down and the vsc icon as well as the check engine light icon became visible, however the odometer was blank and I could not tell what speed I was traveling, the car was coming to a complete stop. Once I managed to get to the far right shoulder the car made a stop. I was almost rear ended by a big rig which had to swerve to the left side in order to avoid hitting my car. It wasn't until then that I noticed the red engine light icon displayed on the control panel not the odometer. I have never seen this warning light but after looking at the owner's manual it clearly stated that once this light appears you need to get the vehicle off the road as soon as possible or it will cause an accident. This was the first time I noticed this sign and it appeared after the fact. The car had no engine oil, which was ridiculous since I had not noticed any leaks and I take my car in every 2 months to the dealer for an oil change. The dealer had no explanation other than it did not have any leaks and they were not able to verify when the red engine oil came on. This happened on 5/30/14, my last visit to the dealer was on 4/12/14 and at the time they did not detect any problems with the oil leaking. This clearly makes no sense and they are refusing to take responsibility. Toyota owners should be very cautious as this should have never happened the sensor should have given me a warning prior to the car shutting down. This could have caused many fatalities being in a heavily populated highway.
On 09/01/10, we took our 2008 prius in because there were two times the car didn't stop when we used the brakes. I told the service manager, the car was accelerating on its own. It was scary and I feared an accident. After they worked on the car, I was told that it was the floor mats that interfered with the accelerator pedal. It didn't make sense to me because I had to put my foot under the pedal to raise it up since it was stuck. I was angry they completely ignored the fact the car was accelerating on its own and acted as though the problem was handled. On 03/31/12, w. Manchester/hindry, before 2:00 p.m., it had drizzled, I stopped at a light, drove ahead and at a fork in the road I tapped my brakes to slow down on a curve. Instead, the car kept accelerating. I stepped on the brakes but the car did not respond. The car kept gaining speed! I was at least 3 car lengths behind other car, plenty of time to stop but the car accelerated no matter how hard I stepped on the brakes. It was terrifying! I realized I was going to crash and there was nothing I could do to prevent it. I rear ended the mercedes, the airbags failed to deploy. I had 2 boxes of books in the trunk that hit the back of my seat and knocked down the rear seats from the impact. The car was towed. Damages: $5,988.79. Medical: $25,000. Next month, a cracked pump was discovered at firewall, due to the accident. The black box showed impact was at 35 MPH, (35-27) MPH, 0.02 sec. Injuries: concussion, whiplash, back spasms, double-crush injury, ptsd, depression, migraines. I couldn't drive or start physical therapy for 4 mos., until 07/27/12. My therapist worked alot to relax my muscles, I had traction, bought a traction device $400. And 6 mos. Of chiropractic for muscle spasms. 12/08/12, I had a nerve-test, it was abnormal for a double-crush injury. Prescribed xanax for ptsd, anxiety.
On 09/01/10, we took our 2008 prius in because there were two times the car didn't stop when we used the brakes. I told the service manager, the car was accelerating on its own. It was scary and I feared an accident. After they worked on the car, I was told that it was the floor mats that interfered with the accelerator pedal. It didn't make sense to me because I had to put my foot under the pedal to raise it up since it was stuck. I was angry they completely ignored the fact the car was accelerating on its own and acted as though the problem was handled. On 03/31/12, w. Manchester/hindry, before 2:00 p.m., it had drizzled, I stopped at a light, drove ahead and at a fork in the road I tapped my brakes to slow down on a curve. Instead, the car kept accelerating. I stepped on the brakes but the car did not respond. The car kept gaining speed! I was at least 3 car lengths behind other car, plenty of time to stop but the car accelerated no matter how hard I stepped on the brakes. It was terrifying! I realized I was going to crash and there was nothing I could do to prevent it. I rear ended the mercedes, the airbags failed to deploy. I had 2 boxes of books in the trunk that hit the back of my seat and knocked down the rear seats from the impact. The car was towed. Damages: $5,988.79. Medical: $25,000. Next month, a cracked pump was discovered at firewall, due to the accident. The black box showed impact was at 35 MPH, (35-27) MPH, 0.02 sec. Injuries: concussion, whiplash, back spasms, double-crush injury, ptsd, depression, migraines. I couldn't drive or start physical therapy for 4 mos., until 07/27/12. My therapist worked alot to relax my muscles, I had traction, bought a traction device $400. And 6 mos. Of chiropractic for muscle spasms. 12/08/12, I had a nerve-test, it was abnormal for a double-crush injury. Prescribed xanax for ptsd, anxiety.
It actually happened two times within a month. In one case, I was turning left to take a ramp with a very low speed around 5 MPH. Even though some parts of the road was icy, but the car didn't slip. It was exactly a several sudden pushes, unintended acceleration, with my foot on the brake only. I was so scared because I couldn't control the car for few seconds, and I thought I totally lost the control of the car. I tried to steer the car safely and turn on my emergency light. Checked the brake again, it was working after that. The second time, happened to me when I was coming out of school parking and didn't have any speed at all. Again around 5 MPH. School is located in residential area. When you get out of the parking, you can only turn right, then there is an intersection with a stop sign almost 50 feet away. On the day of incident, I tried to stop behind the stop sign with no speed at all, but suddenly the car got the same continuous and sudden pushes. It was accelerated unintended. My foot was completely on the brake, but I lost the control again, and I was so lucky that day that there were no cars around the intersection, I tried to steer the car to the left, turned on my emergency light, and tried to push the brake again and again. After few seconds, I found it working. I called the toyota the same day, and they are in the process of scheduling me for inspection. Again, even though the surface was slick with ice, but I didn't have speed, and it didn't look like ABS is working. I exactly know how ABS works, specially when it is snowy or icy. This is very scary. Please investigate. Thanks.
I have a toyota prius and it is used as a taxi in san francisco. I had noticed a few times that the engine revs up while I was at stop and the battery was fully charged. It was like the engine pulse. Idle to high rev and idle again for a few times and that happened for about 2 weeks while on the road. The vehicle started to accelerate by itself at the first week of nov 2013 and happen again on highway 101 south in mill valley ca around 8 pm. I have called city toyota and explained about it but the service department just told me to get appointment to check it up. As I assume myself as well experienced driver with 25 years of driving multi type of vehicles, it is not driver error nor the pedal nor the floor mats. It is mechanical or electrical problem.
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. The contact stated that while driving approximately 20 MPH, the engine rpms increased excessively as the vehicle suddenly accelerated. In addition, the brakes failed to stop the vehicle and the contact crashed into a wall. A police report was filed. The contact was transported to the hospital as a precaution, but was not injured. The vehicle was destroyed and towed to a private mechanic but was not diagnosed to determine the cause of the failure. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure and current mileage was 54,000. Updated 11/14/13
While driving,no more gas power,warning lights on,vsc too.throttle response was not working,turned off the car for few minutes and restarted it,it worked for a short while and did it again... Toyota oakland said I needed to replace the engine throttle body.$1600!!! One month after the warranty wore off.
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. The contact stated that while driving 30 MPH, the vehicle accelerated without manual force. In addition, the brakes failed to stop the vehicle and the contact crashed into the rear bumper of another vehicle. The contact sustained a concussion, whip lash, and injuries to the neck and back. The driver of the second vehicle sustained whip lash. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to a body shop. The vehicle was not repaired and the manufacturer was not notified. The VIN was not available. The approximate failure mileage was 50,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle accelerated independently. The failure recurred numerous times. The contact had her husband drove the vehicle and the failure recurred causing them to crash into another vehicle. There were no injuries. The vehicle was towed and stored until it could be inspected. The vehicle was not taken to a mechanic. The manufacturer was notified but no assistance was given. The failure and current mileage was 70,000. Updated 3/22/13
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. The contact stated that while attempting to park the engine revved up. As a result, the vehicle jumped the curve and ran into some bushes. No injuries were reported. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The failure and current mileage was 87,102. ..updated 11/14/12 *bf updated 11/15/2012
On 8/29/12, I got into my 2008 prius in the parking lot of the easton, md giant food-store to return home. This lot is on a slope just above a parking lot for walmart, with a paved road between the 2 lots. The parking lots were very crowded. I needed to get to the road separating the 2 lots in order to go home. I had just started the prius and put it into drive when it started to roar loudly, jumped out fast, and accelerated rapidly, even though I brake multiple times. The brakes seemed to make it accelerate faster. I was not touching the gas pedal, only the brake, but the car was roaring and out of control. On the way out of the giant lot, the prius hit 3 cars. The noise was very loud, and the car was out of control. Pumping the brakes or holding them down did nothing to slow the car, and the noise was terrifying. The brakes did not work, and the prius continued to make a very loud roaring noise. The speed of the car made steering difficult, if not impossible, and there could have been injuries. The prius then left the giant parking lot, went down the mulched slope, crossed the street, bumped over the curb, and went up the walmart slope hitting a small tree. The car was probably going at least 40 MPH and came to a stop only after it plunged into an unoccupied black car parked in the walmart parking lot. It was severely damaged and towed away. No one knew who the owner was at the time the police ordered it towed away. An occupant would have been severely injured or killed.during the above, the prius continued to run and the airbag functioned, keeping me uninjured. The brakes and the accelerator failed totally. Four vehicles were damaged, one of which was totaled. But as far as I know, there were no injuries??for which I am grateful. This prius should not have been on the road despite having only 74,000 miles and its apparent good condition.
Around 4:30pm on saturday afternoon, we opened the car door to run some errands and were startled by a piercing noise. The dashboard was lighting up (ABS & vsc) and although the car started, the dashboard remained lit and the beeping continued. When driving the car to the dealership, the brakes did not brake fully. After a $58 diagnostic test, we were told that acc pressure sensor needed to be cleared and if we returned with the same problem, we may need to replace a "brake actuator part" (cost = $2,560). Before this incident, on saturday afternoon, we drove the car on the interstate for about 150 miles. For the last 15 minutes of our trip, we were driving through heavy rains on the interstate and on side roads. We did not experience any problems when driving the car in the rain, but are wondering whether or not the water affected the brakes.
While entering a highway onramp in my company's 2008 toyota prius, the car suddenly began accelerating out of control without application of the gas pedal. I had to press hard on the brake just to hold the car at 65 MPH. The car was surging and lunging forward, and I worried I wouldn't be able to find a place to pull over before losing control completely. For the next 5-10 minutes, as I approached traffic in front of me, the car continued to accelerate, even though I had my foot on the brake the entire time. At one point I noticed the car was reaching speeds in excess of 95 MPH. A loud rattling noise ensued and an electrical smell filled the car. Eventually, the brake completely failed to have any effect, and, barreling down the highway at 90 MPH, I put the car in neutral, but it continued to accelerate. At this point I had my right foot on the brake pedal and depressed the parking break all the way to the floor with my left foot, this slowed the car slightly, but not enough to regain control. Finally, I turned the car off completely, and with my hazard lights on, managed to pull the car away from traffic and off on the shoulder of the highway, where I coasted for a long distance, speeds decreasing gradually until eventually it stopped. Smoke and a burning electrical smell filled the car. I filed a police report with an officer who happened to also be on the shoulder, giving someone a speeding ticket. My company towed the car to a dealership, and an investigation is supposedly underway, though I'm not optimistic about any sort of resolution based on the testimonies I have read from others who have experienced the same thing. Luckily, in my case, this didn't result in an accident, and noone was killed.
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. While the contact was driving less than 20 MPH when he attempted to park the vehicle and it unexpectedly accelerated upon engaging the brake pedal. The vehicle failed to stop and crashed into a cement garage wall. There were no injuries. A police report was not filed. The frame and front end of the vehicle were severely damaged. The contact was able to drive the vehicle from the scene. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer for body damage and to be repaired. The cause of failure was not determined. There was a prior recall repair performed that was related to the defect under the federal safety agency campaign id number 09v388000 (vehicle speed control: accelerator pedal). The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 35,000. Updated 08/31/11*lj updated 2/9/12
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. The contact stated that while attempting to park, the vehicle suddenly accelerated. In addition, while shifting into reverse, the vehicle would not respond. The vehicle was then shifted into drive and the vehicle rapidly accelerated and crashed into a tree. There were no injuries and a police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where the contact was awaiting a diagnosis of the failure. The manufacturer was then contacted who referred him back to the dealer. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileage was 30,000. Updated 05/24/11*lj updated 05/25/11 updated 06/16/11
My 2008 prius has been accelerating forward after I go over amy bumps in the road. It has almost caused several accidents. I asked my sealskin about it and they said my prius was operating normally. My husband says this is incorrect and it has happened to him too. I drive in heavy traffic and I am scared this will end in am accident or someone getting hurt.
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