Engine Stall problems of the 2004 Toyota Prius

My Toyota Prius 2004 VIN jt0kb20u340052337 engine suddenly stalled on the freeway. I still can't restart the engine. As of 10/17/05 dealer still can't find the reason.

I was driving on the highway at between 40-55 when the engine stalled. I tried to restart it, but it would not start. The car had to be towed. There is a one-week wait on its repair. This happened approx. 240 miles from home. This is the second time this has happened. Prius 2004.

Per consumer call with c. Rose (odi) on 9/29/05 July 2004: she was backing out of driveway and went from reverse to drive without stepping on brake and started to pull forward and the vehicle stalled/ cut off. Could restart all times. July 6, 2004: stopped at a stop light and started to accelerate to about 10-20 mph for about 1 minute when the vehicle went into neutral; gas engine stalled, but she had electric power, but said neutral; thinks stepped on brake and pushed power (starter) button 1-2 times and was able to continue driving the vehicle at full speed. July 13, 2005: happened 2 times - driving on a crowded city street at a max of 30 mph when she noticed that the vehicle would not respond to her stepping on accelerator (panel showed neutral); able to drive vehicle no more than 5-10 mph. Pulled over immediately less than 1/2 mile. Turned it off and was able to restart right away. Drove for another minute and then the same thing happened again so she pulled over, turn off the vehicle, and restarted it right away. Did not have any additional problems that day. July 23, 2005: on the freeway going to have the vehicle looked at by dealer. She was accelerating from 45 to 65 mph, when the vehicle lost power. Vehicle continued to decrease speed. She immediately pulled over to the side of the road (believes it got down to no more than 20 mph). She stepped on brake and restarted. Not sure if the vehicle fully cut off. Brought to the dealer and they could not duplicate what happened or figure out what was wrong. Dealer called Toyota to see if this happened before and they said it did not. Dealer did not do any work on it. August 21, 2005: backing out of driveway going from reverse to drive without engaging brake, vehicle stalled/ cut off.

Toyota Prius gas engine stalled after Toyota service patch was downloaded to correct problem. Bought car March 1, 2004. Car stalled may 13 and June 1- see report filed under may 13 date. July 31, 2004 Toyota downloaded patch to fix the problem and we thought it was fine. Car was ok for almost a year. Then, just 2 weeks ago on June 2, 2005 I was driving on the highway (luckily in a lot of slow traffic so only going about 40 mph) and the gas engine died again so the car dropped to 20mph on the electric engine. All warning lights came on again. This time I stopped and restarted the car and the engine (gas and electric) came back on. This is what the dealer had said that the other customers having the problem had found- if you stop and turn it back on after a stall everything works. So since my kids were not in the car I did this and drove it to a parking lot. The warning lights were still on and now I am really scared to drive the car. In all three situations I feel like I was just lucky that I was not going faster and especially inthe second case that the driver behind me was aware enough to avoid my suddenly powerless car. I thought it was important to report this because we thought Toyota's software download put in in July 2004 worked to fix this problem but it clearly is still happening. I will not drive the car now with my children in it and am considering getting rid of it. If it were any other car it would be gone by now, but we are big believers in the hybrid technology and really waited to report this to give Toyota a chance to fix it. I think this is happening a lot more than is being reported because a lot of the customers feel as we do that we do not want to report anything bad about the hybrid. However, this is too scary now and needs to be addressed. With a third baby on the way we were signed up for the hybrid highlander but unfortunately will wait until we know this problem is solved.

Toyota Prius owned by our agency has had the engine stall problem 3 separate times.

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.

2004 Toyota Prius engine stalled while driving. ** answer required*** the consumer requested reimbursement for the towing expense.

Toyota Prius gas engine stalled 3 times, twice while driving on highway and on ramp. 1) may 13 2004 stalled in busy intersection going about 40 mph, electrical engine still worked, so speed dropped to 20 mph, and consumer stopped on the side. All warning lights were on. Vehicle was towed to Toyota, and they said nothing was wrong except dirty gas. They reset warning lights, and told it was safe. 2) June 1, 2004, while merging onto a highway going up the ramp at about 50 mph car jerked and slowed to about 25 mph without warning. Car behind m had to go onto shoulder to avoid rear ending consumer's vehicle. All warning lights were on again . When checking engine display only electrical power was working again. Gas engine had stalled, causing the immediate decrease in speed, without brake lights so car behind didn't know what was happening. Towed to Toyota. They said nothing was wrong again except dirty gas. Consumer changed gas stations and used their recommended ones since the last incident. Consumer refused to take the car back . Had two toddlers who were in the car at the time of the incidents. GMC dealer sent a patch which wa ssuppose to fix the problem, but patch did,t work. Problem recurred.