Six problems related to engine failure have been reported for the 2004 Toyota Prius. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2004 Toyota Prius based on all problems reported for the 2004 Prius.
2004 Toyota Prius. Driving at 70 mph on I-57 north. While driving the gasoline engine stopped functioning, triggering several warning lights. I pulled the car off to the side of the highway and managed to exit the highway on battery power. There was a recall in 2005 for a similar condition. My Prius had the recall work performed in October 2005 for the software problem. The Toyota dealer is unable to find any reason for the problem and can not replicate the engine failure. As a result, they will not perform any further investigation or maintenance on the vehicle for this problem. I have a case pending with Toyota customer care, but do not expect any further assistance from them. I am also being charged labor for the dealer to inspect the vehicle. There was no fire or property damage, but if I had not been in the right hand lane, I very well could have been in a serious accident. Suddenly loosing power at highway speeds is unacceptable. If they are unable to remedy the situation, I will be returning the vehicle to them.
I own a 2004 Toyota Prius purchased on March 2nd 2004. Approximately 4 months after acquiring my vehicle I was merging onto the interstate when I experienced and ice engine failure. All the warning lights came on and I was able to pull to the shoulder of the road using the electric motor. Subsequently I rebooted the car and the engine turned over. The next day I took the Prius to a Toyota dealership. They had the car for six days and apparently performed diagnostics and performed a software fix. Recently, on September 8th 2005 I experienced a 2nd occurrence of the ice engine shutdown. This scenario occurred while pulling up to a red light. Again all the warning lights came on and the engine shut down. I rebooted the car and took it to the dealership for service. The Toyota dealership completed a TSB eg047-04 for recalibrating the engine ecu. Note, I did not receive any prior TSB's from Toyota regarding the engine problem.
Engine failure at approximately 55 mph. Had just come through a toll gate and merging intersection. While accelerating through about 55 mph the dashboard lights all lit up and the engine died. Travelled to a safe location via battery power and called dealer. Car has been towed to Toyota dealer in leesburg, but they can not work on the car until a battery charger is revieved from Toyota. They say there is only one in the 4 state region so it could be a week or so. No explaination by service department on what causes this problem.
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.
Master indicator light illuninated, internal combustion engine failed to restart.
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.