Battery problems of the 2004 Toyota Prius

. 10/09/2012 I went to start my 2004 Prius I hit the power button and the dashboard lights had not work. You did not know the status of the car. Actuated the power switch and the brake peddle numerous times to no avail. I tried to select the gear and the car would move. But dash board display did not light. The lights and turn signals work fine. I drove 15 miles home with on display. I selected the park button and the car parked I went to turn off the power button and the car would not turn off the was in the battery mode. I tried to shut it off by disconnecting the 12 volt battery to no avail. I found a fuse that if I pulled it out the car would shut off. I tried the power numerous times and the car turn on and with the dashboard display working. On the morning of 10/10/2012 I tried go to work and when the power and the brake are pushed the dash board lights would not light. The car would move if selected to drive now the engine was running because the car was cold. I placed the car in park and selected the power button to off now the engine will shut off. Again I tried the power and the brake numerous times to no avail. I tried the fuse trick again it worked the engine stopped. Replaced the fuse and tried the power button it work and the dash display were lighted with numerous lights because I shut the down in unapproved mode. Turned the power switch on & off. Numerous times all light were normal except the check engine was on I drove to the Toyota dealer. I was told that is a normal issue the dashboard displays go bad. I understand the dashboard display can go bad. My issue is the safety problem that when the display fails the power button does not shut car off in the battery mode or the engine mode. That¿s a big issue .

2004 Toyota Prius. Consumer states unintended acceleration 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.

The multifunctional display (mfd) failed following dealer replacement of the 12v battery. The dealer is now recommended $5,000 replacement of the mfd. Mfd failure in the Prius seems to be an increasing event based on on-line chatter on blogs. This appears to be a basic design flaw in the Prius mfd system that causes loss of communication between the radio and climate control systems. It also causes the display to be totally ineffective for display of key hybrid engine performance.

Multi function display (mfd) failure in 2004 Prius. This failure it intermittent and causes the radio to turn off, prevents the use of climate/radio controls located in/on the mfd unit, prevents one from knowing whether the battery is charging. The steering wheel controls seem to work for the climate control (though one cannot see the temperature setting) but the audio system is useless without the mfd unit working properly. This is a $3000 (not including labor) repair . . . And that is for a used refurbished part! totally unacceptable if you ask me. Because this is a known problem impacting thousands of Prius owners, Toyota should be forced to replace these defective units with new units at no cost to the owner.

I own a 2004 Toyota Prius. Just last week the touch screen that controls the heating / air conditioning, the radio, the current mpg information and condition of the ni-metal hydride battery and the gas engine interconnections, began to fail. Sometimes it works for a while, then it stops for some time then it might or might start working again before I get where I am going. It is extremely intermittent in its correct operation. I have read on the internet that many other 2004 and early 2005 Prius owners have encountered this problem, but that Toyota is refusing to issue a recall. The new part is very expensive (~$4,000). Refurbished parts are not readily available for the Prius, I suppose because it is a relative new model to Toyota. I wanted to report this to you, in the hopes that you might have some way of letting Toyotal know that one more owner is having this problem. I did not know if you can force a manufacturer to issue a recall when a certain number of owners complain, or if this is only the case where safety is involved. Regards, dale w. Howard.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Prius. While driving between 40-45 mph the gasoline motor would fail, and then cause the vehicle to stall without warning. The vehicle was taken to the dealer twice. The battery was replaced first, and then the fuel system was flushed. The second repair corrected the problem, but the problem of the vehicle locking in park was not addressed. The current mileage was 32,100. The failure mileage was 31,999. Updated 01/12/10 all of the alarm lights on the dashboard had illuminated when accelerating. When the consumer stopped the vehicle and switched to park, he was unable to shift the vehicle into neutral. After about 15 minutes, the consumer was able to shift to neutral. The instrumental panel did not display a clear explanation that the internal combustion engine was not starting and that the vehicle was running on the battery only. Updated 01/15/10.

Touch screen on 2004 Toyota Prius is defective and fails to work which leaves me with no heat at times and inability to see if my battery is operating properly, this is an ongoing Toyota problem with complaints all over the web by Prius owners.

Car suddenly lost power when being driven 30 mph on city road. Computer said battery power lost; seems like gas engine was not recharging battery, but there was no warning until power loss. I was stuck in the middle of a city street with 2 small children, as the car would not make it to side of road. Another motorist helped push me to side of road and no one was hurt. The gas tank was full at the time of this incident. Although vehicle could not move, the dashboard and computer still had power; it would not allow me to shut it down, or remove the key fob. The car was towed to a dealership, and now must be towed to another dealiership that services this model. No repair has yet been attempted but I wanted to report incident because my internet research indicated you were investigating this model for a number of similar problems. The car was purchased in November 2003 and has 15,299 miles on it. I had one incident 12 months ago when I could not start the vehicle, but I was able to finally after 10 minutes or so. I have had no previous break downs however.

2004 Toyota Prius developed problems with stalling. ** answer required***. The first time the consumer experienced a problem with the vehicle, the dealer determined the battery was not holding a charge. The consumer experienced 2 other incidents with the vehicle.

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.

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.

Starting around may,2005, when vehicle was started with the battery indicator not quite at full capacity, lets say seven 'bars', just putting the car in reverse would begin the gradual decline of charge. If driving up a frwy ramp, the indicator would show the charge had dropped into the 'red' zone. At this time the engine would sound like the rpms were about 4,000, a real revving sound. Slowly ,with a steady level drive the battery would recharge and look as if it were normal. There was no stalling of engine but I rarely drive as slow as 65 mph! the whole process, happening at least once a day was very nerve wracking. . . Especially in the mohave desert with many 18-wheelers surrounding the car. The first time it happened I immediately called Toyota of temecula valley. I was told that this was not good and to bring the car in for diagnosis. When I brought it in, a 'technician' looked at the indicator and said it was ok and not worry about it. I had a difficult time believing that and made an appt. With Toyota of el cajon. When their technician used a diagnostic scantool he also said he could not find a problem. I did not believe him or the service $80/hr. Guy and said there was either something wrong with their diagnostic tools and/or something wrong with them to think I would go along with their story. I had no idea how right I was until I read about the defect investigation on your website. My Prius has not stalled (yet) but it has all the problems leading up to it. The dealership claims, on the work receipt they gave me, to have recalculated the hv ecu with the 40d code and the problem seems to be worse. I will have to go back again to the dealership and fight for my right to a speedy repair.

Toyota Prius, vehicle stalled at 35 mph warning light came on. Pulled over to side of road because caller was losing power from battery, and could not drive it. Car was towed to dealer, and they could not find anything wrong with it. Problem did not come up on car computer when diagnostic was done. Manufacturer has not been contacted yet. Caller read article in newspaper about Prius.

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.

Driving my 2004 Toyota Prius home from work, the car suddenly lost power a few miles from my home on a busy thoroughfare. I drifted to the side of the road. All warning lights on the dash were on. I turned off the car and restarted it. It went a few seconds before dying again. This continued several times until I made it home. The incident caused other cars to have to slow down, honk and move around me. I was very scared. It was late at night. I called my husband to come help me but he was not home. The next day the car started and I took it to the dealership. They could find nothing wrong, and said they "reset the engine/battery ratio" so the car would rely more on gas than electricity , and that I would experience a slight decrease in my engine efficiency. I later complained to the service manager, that my Prius has had numerous electrical problems since I purchased it in August of2005. Twice it would not start in the morning and I had to have it towed. He also told me that what the service person told me was incorrect, that there was no way they can "adjust" the engine/battery ratio. He gave no explanation for my problems and said "no one else" has had any problems with their cars. I want to return the car for a new one, but he says he feels "confident" Toyota will correct any problems I am having. I am afraid to drive the car in case this happens again. Toyota has done nothing since I have complained. I feel they owe me a new car while they figure this out.

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.

While driving at approximately 35 mph the vehicle completely shut down. The vehicle was hybrid. The owner had the vehicle towed to the dealer, and was informed that the battery was charged, and there was nothing wrong with the vehicle. There were a series of these events. The vehicle also stalled while in motion. The consumer was informed that the charging system was tested and nothing was wrong with the vehicle.

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.