2014 Toyota Prius: sudden loss of power

Filed May 28, 2026 · Brakes · CA

ABS, brake, and traction warning lights came on. Loss of power brakes/limited manual brake. Extended warranty/customer service outreach did not apply. Car is at 120,000 miles and almost 12 years.

Filed Mar 22, 2026 · Brakes · HI

Subject: Brake Booster/Pump Assembly Failure – Toyota Program ZJB / 23TE07 Description of Incident: I am reporting a failure of the brake booster and pump assembly on my 3rd Generation Prius (82,000 miles). While the vehicle is 11.3 years old, it is well under the 150,000-mile threshold of Toyota’s Customer Support Program ZJB. The brake pump began cycling every 13 seconds, indicating an internal pressure leak in the accumulator. This is a documented precursor to a total loss of power-assist braking. Despite the clear mechanical failure, no warning lamps or Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) were triggered, creating a safety hazard where the system could fail without prior electronic notification. Repair and Cost Details: Because the vehicle was 1.3 years past the arbitrary 10-year "Secondary Coverage" window, I was forced to pay $3,461.18 out-of-pocket for a known manufacturing defect. I would like to highlight a discrepancy in labor billing: while Toyota’s own technical bulletins (ZJB/23TE07) state the repair should take approximately 5.3 hours, the dealership charged 8.9 hours of labor for the same procedure. Safety Concern: By limiting coverage to 10 years, Toyota has left many low-mileage owners with a critical safety defect that degrades over time regardless of mileage. I request that the federal safety agency transition this from a "Customer Support Program" to a formal Safety Recall to ensure all affected vehicles are repaired and owners are reimbursed, regardless of the vehicle's age.

Filed May 2, 2023 · Brakes, Electrical · FL

Good Evening, I'm writing to request a callback in regards to my 2014 Toyota Prius which is subject to a recall. "The involved vehicles were designed to enter a failsafe driving mode in response to certain hybrid system faults. Toyota has found that in rare situations, the vehicle may not enter a failsafe driving mode as intended. If this occurs, the vehicle could lose power and stall. While power steering and braking would remain operational, a vehicle stall while driving at higher speeds could increase the risk of a crash." I recently just moved back to South Florida, I was living in NJ for a few years and had the Inverter malfunction earlier this February, 2023, forcing the car to enter the fail safe mode described giving me the warning to "Check Hybrid System, Stop the Vehicle in a Safe Place". The car was at Toyota Universe, Little Falls, NJ for about 45 days, since this was going to take the complete replacing of the inverter and an update of some sort of software. After receiving the car back around March 17th, I moved back to Florida about 2 weeks later. This evening around 5:30 returning from work, the car stalled again while I was driving surrounded by dense traffic, wouldn't accelerate with all lights flashing. Thankfully I was able to pull over slowly into a parking lot after which my steering wheel locked, and my car was no longer able to be put into Drive or Reverse. Car was only able to shift into Neutral and Park. This was the most terrifying experience of my life had something worse happen in the middle of traffic. I have dropped off my car to the dealership parking lot and will be checking it in first thing in the morning. I'd like to ascertain what I should expect from Toyota Manufacturing should this issue be unfixable? I am more than happy to let them attempt fixing it, but I also need to live a normal life and don't feel the need to be responsible for a manufacturing defect putting my life in jeopardy every time I go drive.

Filed Jun 27, 2022 · Electrical, Engine · TX

The air temperature was probably about 50 or 60 F. On a route I routinely drive , I accelerated up hill normally from 0mph to about 45 to 55 mph. I did not accelerate aggressively. Just after climbing the short hill, The engine suddenly loses all power. I had to pull over. I look under the engine to find five pieces of metal blown out of the bottom of the engine block above the oil pan and oil spilling out onto the ground. The car has about 98,000 miles on it and was maintenance regularly including on schedule oil changes, coolant change, state inspections. There were no check engine lights or electronic error codes to indicate anything was wrong with the vehicle which I would have been able to diagnose and possibly fix. The car had been maintenanced in August/September for winter by myself. On the last maintenance, oil was discovered inside the engine air manifold and throttle body that had to be cleaned out and (The EGR was also moderately carbon clogged). I'm very dissatisfied with how Toyota handled my case. They called twice to ask when I wanted to schedule my next service appointment when they had the car sitting on their parking lot for three months. I also wrote them a detailed email similar to this report asking how Toyota could help and that I could not afford to buy another car. The engine failed and it can be inspected upon request. The vehicle had complete loss of power. The vehicle was towed to the nearest dealer. I have seen videos on youtube.com that show other people replacing blown prius engines and head gaskets. You would see chunks of metal missing from the engine block. The vehicle was not inspected by the manufacturer police or insurance. I could have been hit by another car from behind especially if the hill were longer like on a mountain side or some other situation. Separate issue: Mice enter the two rear ventilation openings to nest in the car. Mice chewed on of the oxygen sensor wires to cause an electrical fault.

Filed Mar 13, 2021 · Fuel system · 105,000 miles · CA

Hybird system malfunction. Car lost power and stalled where we cannot shift. That happened after driving the car home and later tried to start it in our driveway.

Filed Dec 26, 2020 · 190,400 miles · CA

My 2014 prius had a loss of power and check engine light came on and msg check hybrid system appeared while started in the morning and drove out of my garage. That day I went to san francisco toyota and they did a diagnosis and told me that my hybrid system battery was bad and need replacement and quoted $3600. I asked that if they can do the recall because I was 90% sure that the problem was due to the recall, but they told me that they cant unless the error code clears out by replacing the hv battery. I drove my car back home and the next day I went to a hv battery specialist and found out that my hv battery is in good condition and doesnt need replacement. Now I am 100% certain that the problem is due to the recall but toyota is not fixing the issue they are saying its the hv battery which is not. The toyota of s.f not only diagnosed my car wrong they tried to rip me off by spending $3600 on a hv battery that doesnt need any replacement! On top of that they are refusing to do the recall.

Filed Feb 14, 2019 · Engine · 124,491 miles · CA

I was driving suddenly I started to lose power within few second the car stalled and got an hybrid error and the car went in safe mode the car doesn't go in d only n or p, also the dashboard lighting goes on and off and smoking so I towed the car to larry h miller toyota corona ca, the manage dustin said this is recall issue and we need to update the software two days later the service agent mrs lorena said we found coolant in the oil and our service tech thinks I have blown head gasket but talking with toyota manufacturer is covered and I can get rental car too but I need to authorise $2040 year down because toyota wants to know what cause the head gasket to failed but mrs lorena assured me 'I 100% covered and I will not have to pay' so I agreed two days later dustin the service manager called and said I need to come to dealer shop he wants to show me something so I had to call the base (air force) and get half day off when I got there my car was disassembled except I could see the pistons and the block toyota tech had rulers and fillers gage and showing me that my block is warped about 0.008 inch and I need a new engine around $11,000 or used about $8,200 or I can take my car as is without paying anything I told I cannot affords it so I towed the car home, prior to becoming an engineer I was machinest so I sent the head to machine shop for examination the cylinder head was flat and has no crack or sign of failure and made of aluminium if the block is warped the head should be warped too and the tech measurements was incorrect because after cleaning the block surface from gasket debris was flat too so I called the dealer about my finding I was told dustin is in vacation and coming back on 2/12/2019 today is 2/14/2019 and he is not returning my call I took the car running but doesn't go to drive for recall now I have disassembled car. This is 2nd time hybrid issues.

Filed Nov 14, 2018 · Engine · 66,000 miles · MI

I was going down the highway at about 70 MPH when all the sudden the prius lost power. The prius dropped down to about 55 MPH. After a short period of time the power picked up. I got off the highway and took the back roads. It was a very hot day.