general problems of the 2006 Toyota Prius

Discovered through failures repeated to dealers that certain items (brakes, dashboard, et. Al. ) were recalled by toyote. Never received recall notices. Contacted Toyota who demanded the vehicle be taken to dealer and now refuses to do anything. Have complete documentation to attach to this communication. Essentially: dashboard failed, brakes failed when auto in operation. Likely there are unknown additional recalls, etc. Of which we were not noticed.

Headlights malfunctioning. Red triangle light has been present since the week after purchase. 2006 Prius was inspected by Toyota and a private technician. Headlights and 2 relay fuses have been replaced and is still malfunctioning. This is a safety risk having headlights not working properly can cause accidents on dark roads at night. This should not be at owners expense when it is clearly a manufacturing issue. This causes owners to be ticketed as it is deemed to be a road hazard and it can not pass inspection due to faulty headlights.

Abs actuator fail. Brake system doesn't work properly and will endanger my and family safety. The car fail to stop. Abs and vsc lights are on. Toyota issued this problem before with the break actuator warranty extension gz1 but wasn't a official recall.

Engine noise is excessive in last few months. Took to dealer who stated no diagnostic concerns found. Check engine light on dash will not go off, and since vehicle will not pass state mandated inspection with indicator light illuminated the car is considered a safety violation by the state and not safe to drive. Please help me correct this issue.

I had this car for 4 year and it had been more in the shop getting fix and on the road, repairs are very expensive but one wants to take care of the environment that I could say almost got me kill I was driving in the freeway at 60 when the car with no warning stop, that was really scary, I got it fix I would say a month after the samething happen but thank god this time I was in a freeway. Although my 3 kids were with me and got really scare.

I have two cars Toyota Prius. The first year of 2006. The second car of 2010. The second complaint is no. But with the first car Toyota Prius 2006. Many claims. In the first control. When turning the car at speed. The car is set aside. I remind the rest of the cars that I driving the car. Such cases were not observed. They are perfectly controlled in the corners of the road. Secondly, in cold weather in autumn or winter. Car windows are very foggy. From 30 minutes to an hour. While the car is warm and the interior too. Unable to enter the car, can not see anything.

Almost overnight my Prius dashboard has developed oily patches. If you touch it your finger sticks, if you wipe it the cloth sticks. The dash cannot be cleaned. I worry about the off-gassing and any other health threat from the dash material decomposing, including decomposition inside the ac and heating vents. I worry about the decomposing dash affecting other elements of the car's dash, lighting, computer electrical, and other systems. The only known cure is to replace the dashboard which is an unexpected and unwelcome financial burden.

I used a uhual tow dolly to move my car about 30 miles. When I turned on the car to remove it from the dolly the vsc, brake & abs lights were on. I confirmed that my abs do not currently work.

The temperature was in the 50s here in FL. My Prius was parked in the garage overnight. The car started but the dash was black. The only indicator on the dash was for "airbags". I backed out and drove with extreme trepidation and caution to my child¿s school. Cruise control did not work. Only turn signals/flashers worked. The center computer screen was dim, brightness control did not affect that or the black dash. I drove with no indication of my speed, fuel amount, mileage, or systems failures/warnings! I called my independent mechanic. He said I was the 4th person to call him today with this same problem: combination meter failure! he said a cold spell triggers the failure. Then I was not able to shut the car off. He talked me through a way to shut the car off. When I returned to the car my fob would not open the door locks. I had to use the metal key from the fob to unlock the driver's door. I put the fob back together and started the car. The dash was working again, but very dim and hard to see. My mechanic advised me that I could try to reset the 12 volt battery to reset the failed meter, but that in trying to reset the battery, I would not be able to get into the hatch during a meter failure. He said the combination meter will continue to fail until it is repaired. He advised me that Toyota covered this repair for 9 years, but I am in the year 10 and not covered. This is not a simple warranty issue. This is a safety issue. The car is not safe to drive with no indication of my speed, fuel amount, mileage, or systems failures/warnings and without an ability to shut the car off! this is a known, predictable failure that Toyota acknowledged with an extension of the original warranty. The problem doesn't go away after 9 years. Combination meter failure renders a car unsafe and undriveable. Toyota needs to repair combination meters whenever they fail.

My 2006 Toyota Prius I just bought recently is having intermittent headlight problems were the headlights frequently turn off while driving at night. So far turning them off on and on again works, but it can be a safety hazard going down the highway. What can be done about this?.

Driving down the freeway, the shift lever jumped from drive to neutral at 65mph. Very dangerous.

The rubber cover to the external trunk latch on my 2006 Toyota Prius has melted and the switch to open the hatch does not function properly. I am unable to adequately open the trunk hatch to access the spare tire and emergency equipment. There is no safe alternative is to open the trunk in the event of an emergency.

Water pump was replaced in 2011 and again 2015. My car has 160,000 miles at this time in Nov 2015.

Dashboard is melting in the sun, it is sticky and shiny creating a very reflective surface that creates glare and my be releasing toxic fumes.

Toyota Prius recall on airbags exploding went to get replaced and tokota mall of GA had no replacements.

I begin to notice black marks on my fingers. It took me awhile to learn that the latch cover was disintegrating. I asked our local mechanic to look into getting it replaced. He reported back that he called two Toyota dealerships. One dealer wanted $500 for the defective part and another dealer said the part was being change to plastic because of this problem and wanted $230 for the part. Since this seems to be a defect in the material used, I believe Toyota should recall the car and pay for the replacement. Can you assist with my request? thank you, brenda featherstone.

2006 Prius multifunction display defects, manufactuer wants $8,000. 00 to repair. The mfd controls ac distribution. It affects my health. I have a skin condition, that requires cooling of my legs. The air will come on, but only from dash area, there is no other control method, because touch screen does not work. Also window defroster is inopperalble, from screen. There is a defroster button on steering wheel, it works only part of the time. I have had car into dealership 3 seprate times (at 2 different locations) they can not find the problem with steering wheel defrost buttom. I was told, there is no diagnostics for the electrical on this vehicle, the other dealership, just said " the tech found out defroster problem, is somewhere under here" as he reached under the dash area. The touch doesn't work at anytime, parked or going down the road. $8,000. 00 dollars for this repair is way out of my reach. From what I understand it is a widespread problem, or a bad design. The defrost comtrol on steering wheel will come on/off when I hit a bump in the road or a rough railroad crossing. Driving without proper defrosting is very dangerous.

Intermittently when the car is shifted into reverse it will start for a moment then go into neutral. When this occurs it will not allow you to put the car into park and only if the gear shift is held in reverse or constantly shifted into reverse will it allow you to do so. It will then only go into park when you turn off the car. I have researched this issue and found it occurring in many Priuses of varying years and also occurs shifting into drive, and can occur while the car is in motion at high speeds. I have found this technical service bulletin from Toyota that seems to be referring to this issue. However it is only covered by them if the car is under 3 years or 36k miles. The issue didn't even begin for me until the car was 7 years old. It should be a recall item. I am unable to attach the file so below is a link to the site that has the attachment. . Read more...

On occasion, when I step on the brake to stop my car (usually when driving under 30 mph), it feels as though the vehicle tries to accelerate. It seems as though the electronic portion of the vehicle is trying to engage and briefly accelerates when I am trying to stop the vehicle.

2006 Toyota Prius. Letter from re onstar fmv defect the consumer stated the system light fails to light, except when one is talking to the onstar advisor. Then it flashes green on and off as advertised. However, when the system is on and presumably ready for use, the green light is not illuminated. So far, the consumer has been able to connect to the onstar advisor when the light is off. The consumer received several answer as to why the system was not working as advertised. The consumer stated the unit is malfunctioning and may not work in an emergency situation. The consumer received a call from onstar stating the problem he was having, was due to improper installation, because of an internal battery that required a connection before use. The problem has since been resolved. Updated 10/19/11.

Rubber cover to the rear hatch switch (handle) has deteriorated over time (car was 4 years old when this first became noticeable). It is now 8 years old with 81,000 miles and the deterioration is so drastic to the point where it is often difficult to open the rear hatch, or vice-versa sometimes the hatch will not latch close. Sticky gooey tar always gets on the fingers upon every attempt to open the hatch. Numerous other people have noted this problem. I have only hand-washed the car with plain water, and I live in a very mild climate (san diego). Obviously this is a defective batch of rubber used by Toyota. This presents a safety problem in that it could be impossible to access the spare tire and tools to change a flat tire in an emergency. There is an internal mechanical release switch, but this could be impossible to access if there are large items stored in the trunk.

Trunk latch rubber melts when the weather is hot. Happens repeatedly every summer, until the trunk latch is unusable. The trunk will not open.

While driving at night a headlight went out making it difficult to see. After restarting the car it came back on. This has happened several times. Once when a headlight was out the second headlight went out making it extremely unsafe and difficult to pull off the road safely, just missed another vehicle. Upon restarting one of the lights came back on. This is an extremely unsafe situation, it is life threatening. I has happened several times and continues to happen. I filed a complaint with Toyota and they said I had to come in when it was malfunctioning. They later said that it was out of warranty. They are well aware of the problem and how many lives have to be lost until they do something about it besides sweep it under the rug.

I was unable to open the rear hatch because the rubber/plastic covering had hardened to the point that I couldn't cause it to make contact and open. Since then, I have been unable to open the hatch when the weather is cold and have been able to open it when the weather is warm. A dealer in tennessee told me that it would cost $300 to replace the whole part. I believe that this is a safety hazard because it is impossible to access the spare tire, first aid kit, or to open the hatch in emergencies to allow passengers to escape if other doors are inoperable.

Received notice from manufacturer that I should remove the driver's side floormat from my car as it might cause the accelerator to stick. Said they would send more information later. I removed it promptly but am concerned about my safety because other Toyotas were advised of the same thing but their accelerators stuck anyway and it wasn't due to the floormat. Spoke with the dealership about this and was advised that my "06 was not being recalled. Since Toyota has lied and evaded issues repeatedly I do not feel safe in my car. I am a realtor and carry clients in my vehicle which creates additional liability for me. I would like to trade cars but the value of my car is less due to Toyota's problems.

Toyota Prius 2006. I pressed accelerator all the way down to accelerate and got stuck there. I was able to stop the car with the brake. It happens twice in July 2009. Once I stopped the car I checked if the floor mats have done so. The floor mats were not the cause. The accelerator was stuck all the way down even with the engine off. . . . And only after a minute or two of the car stopped and engine off did came the accelerator back. I brought the car to the dealers and they told me that it was the mat. I told them that was not the case. The dealer put some grease in the accelerator and did a few more things (cleaning around and the fuel injection I think). Since then I have avoided pressing the accelerator all the way down even when I need the power to accelerate at the entrance of highways and has not happened again. But there is definitely something wrong with either the mechanics of the accelerator or the electronics that somehow gets the accelerator stuck when you press all the way down. This should not happen and needs to be repaired.

The contact owns a 2006 Toyota Prius. While driving 60 mph, the vehicle began to accelerate on its owns and the speed increased to 90 mph. The contact depressed the brake pedal and the vehicle began to slow down, but failed to come to a complete stop. The contact was able to safely maneuver the vehicle to the shoulder and turned off the ignition. Upon exiting the vehicle, the contact noticed that the brakes where smoking. The vehicle was towed to the dealer and they determined that the floormat was pinned down to the accelerator pedal when he applied the brakes. The brakes were completely destroyed and the vehicle was repaired at the cost of $1,600. The contact is in the process of notifying the manufacturer. The failure mileage was 73,000 and current mileage was 76,000. Updated 04-14-09 updated 04/15/09.

The contact owns a 2006 Toyota Prius. While driving 30 mph, the all weather floormat disconnected from the hook, slid forward, and stuck to the accelerator pedal, causing the vehicle to accelerate. The contact became aware of NHTSA campaign id number 07e082000 (equipment). The manufacturer stated that the recall was addressed on an individual vehicle basis and did not have any further information concerning the Toyota Prius. The current mileage was 15,300 and failure mileage was 12,005. Updated 3/4/08 the consumer stated the mat had been re-attached to the floor hooks.