Table 1 shows one common unknown or other related problems of the 2008 Toyota Prius.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Unknown Or Other problems |
While parked at the local post office the vehicle suddenly started to roll back. It rolled approximately 4-5 CA lengths. The vehicle drug me but came to a stop. The vehicle had to be "engaged" into drive in order to move the car. Not sure if this is an electrical problem or not but obviously the parking did not stay engaged.
I had been driving the car for less than 10 minutes when the "red triangle" red problem light came on the screen. I immediately looked for a safe place to pull over when the car made a series of short dinging sounds and the car was automatically put in neutral and the brake engaged--in the middle of a busy intersection! I was forced to flee the vehicle as there were oncoming cars that didn't look like they were going to stop. When the signal changed, I went back to the car and put on the emergency flashers. Then I tried to put the car back in drive and it would not budge from neutral. I then switched the car off and back on and was able to drive it out of the intersection safely. If this had occurred even 5 minutes later, my 9-year-old daughter would have been in the vehicle with me and we would not have been able to react as quickly as I did. The car has been towed to my personal mechanic by aaa for diagnosis, but at this time it does not appear that this was an error, but a design flaw that put my safety in critical danger.
Passenger headlight suddenly went out. Will come back on momentarily if you turn lights off and back on.
Vehicle insturment cluster failure. Vehicle will not power down.
I normally get about 450 miles out of one 11. 9 gallon tank. Recently, I discovered my fuel gage light going off at 300 miles. When I filled up my tank it only took 7 gallons, leaving 5 gallons that should have been in the tank. After filling it up, fuel gage light went off just below 300 miles. When I took my vehicle in for an oil change I asked about it thinking there was something wrong with my fuel sensor. I was advised by the clerk that it was the bladder, and to just keep it full-that¿s all. He gave other advise like make sure the tire pressure on my tires were good (they were rotated and checked a week prior to this), and to check my air filter. Now I am confused, and do not know how much fuel is actually in my tank. I have had my vehicle for 3 1/2 years and never had a problem till now.
Rear hatchback locking/unlocking button gummy and inability to unlock truck manually and electrically. Unable to access trunk where emergency/safety equipment located.
My 2008 Toyota Prius will not stay in d when shifting or r it pops back into n it does it on hot days. Need to replace the gear shift lever assembly. When its hot outside it binds up and goes back into n while shifting or driving. Has happened 2 so far in the last week. In order to drive the vehicle you have to hold the lever in r or d to go anywheres.
I was driving about 60 mph on the interstate when the accelorator stopped working. The power slowly drained out of the car and I barely made it off the highway. This has never happened before. The car was towed to a mechanic's shop where after much investigation they found that a leaf had gotten past the air filtration system and was blocking the intake sensor system. When one sensor is blocked the whole car shuts down! this was scary and dangerous. I know it is unlikely to happen again.
My 2008 Prius has been accelerating forward after I go over amy bumps in the road. It has almost caused several accidents. I asked my sealskin about it and they said my Prius was operating normally. My husband says this is incorrect and it has happened to him too. I drive in heavy traffic and I am scared this will end in am accident or someone getting hurt.
After a vague sense that both head lamps were sometimes going dark, I noticed that the passenger side was "out" and had it replaced at a cost of $245 for parts and labor. Now the other bulb is going dark on and off. If dark, it can be made to illuminate by turning lights off and back on. Bulb most often goes dark at speed.
Problem: rear right wheel stud broken. I removed right side front and rear wheel lug nuts to rotate tires using the Toyota supplied lug wrench. Switched the tires and reinstalled the lug nuts. However one lug nut on the right rear wheel would not tighten. After a couple turns I decided to remove the other lug nuts on the right rear wheel to see what was wrong. One of the lug nuts fell off when I attempted to remove it. Inspection revealed that the wheel stud had broken off about 1/2 inch from the wheel flange. I pressed the broken stud from the wheel flange and installed a new stud purchased from the local Toyota dealer. This kind of failure, if it were to happen during vehicle movement, could result in a catastrophic accident. I have the broken stud and lug nut in my possession. Looks like a cyclic fatigue, something that should never occur in this application.
Headlight goes on, then goes off. Won't stay on. I was informed the other one could go out at any time, so I should replace both, at great expense. I was told by Toyota that the hid headlights were covered under the regular warranty, but not the extended warranty. Bulbs (especailly those costing $300) should not burn out or randomly flicker on a two year old vehicle. To prevent future/additional problems, I had to replace both headlights, including the one that was working. This is a definitlely safety issue. . . I check bulbs regularly, and all are working when I turn the car on. Obviously, I can't check while I'm in motion - which is when they flash off - and was fortunate that both bulbs didn't burn out at the same time, which could have resulted in a crash, injury or accident (or worse) that I would have been liable for.
After only about 3 years use, the rubber cover on the hatch release handle (the exterior handle of the rear hatch) of our 2008 Toyota Prius, melted into a sticky tarry black rubbery gooey mess. I can best describe it as being a viscous black glob like roofing tar. To open the hatch, you have to touch this black goo each time, which makes it difficult to operate the hatch release. We believe this melting process started at about the 2 yr. Mark. I thought that this might be a singular issue, but have found that this has happened to several car owners, particularly in louisiana. We also live in louisiana. Toyota knows about this, and is selling the entire wiring harness for $96 plus repair costs, and has done nothing about recalling this. From a safety perspective, this means you can experience extreme difficulty opening the rear hatch (a life safety access point), and will get sticky black tar on you from the melted down rubber cover of the exterior hatch release handle. To me, this is both a serious life safety issue and a serious quality defect that Toyota is opting to ignore and only fixing on vehicles with extended warranties, since the failure appears to occur at around the 3 year mark (ie after 3 years of exposure to the bright sun). I am aware of the outstanding work done by NHTSA on other safety issues and I find this problem to be similar in nature, so I am asking for your agency to take a look at these instances and also to inquire from Toyota why they are not recalling these handles that are melting in the sun!!! it's outrageous. I think a door handle or hatch handle should be made to last more than 3 years. . Read more...
(transmission problem) in a hot summer day where temperature was above 98 degrees, while in drive, the gear will not stay in drive and switched to neutral. It happened while I was going thru an intersection, it could have caused an accident due to this unexpected change from drive to neutral even though I had my foot on the accelerator. Since that first incident, it happened infrequently, but several times during the last two years and only during the hot summer months. When it does happen, it would not stay in drive, reverse or go into park, it just default to neutral. The only way to keep it running is by manually holding the gear handle to drive or reverse. This can be a dangerous condition if it happens in the middle of an intersection without understanding how to keep it in drive manually. I have mentioned this to Toyota dealer and their answer was that they have no other complaints. I think an investigation should be initiated on this defect to avoid potential loss of life. . Read more...
We own a 2008 Prius. The transportation secretary (and the latest incident in calif. ) leads us to believe it is unsafe. All we can get from Toyota and its dealer is wait until you get a letter. When is the government going to force them to do something?.
Pursuant to the 2010 Toyota Prius recall, it must be noted that we have 3 Toyota Priuses in my family -- mine is a 2008 Prius, my mother has a 2008 Prius, and my significant other has a 2007 Prius -- and all of them have the same braking issue that I keep reading about in the news. Everytime a bump, pothole, railroad tracks, or any other road anomoly is driven over, the brakes disengage. Since we live in mn, there are a lot of potholes, so the brake disengagement issue happens daily. This issue has been mentioned to our local Toyota dealership. We were told that the issue is normal operation of an antilock breaking system. . . . That seems doubtful in light of the 2010 Prius recall. Please make sure that other Prius model years are considered for government investigation. I think you will find that most Prius owners are aware of and have thought about this break disengagement issue. Regards, josh rogers 612. 310. 8218 cell joshrogers1@msn. Com email.
My wife kathy and I own a 2009 Prius. We have experienced a problem that is persistent but the dealer cannot replicate the problem on the last several visits for routine service. They checked bulletins etc. But claim no problem exists. The problem: "lunging of the vehicle and noise with shaking of the car. " my wife drives the vehicle most of the time and experiences the problem often. I experienced the problem mainly in a parked situation standing next to the car talking to friends. In quiet mode, something like a compressor kicks in or engine starts, car literally lunged forward and rocked back and the clanging noise sounded as if the motor mounts were not doing their job. I explained the symptom to the dealer and they said there is not a compressor? I realize compressors are old school but that's the best correlation I can come up with. Another issue: after starting the car, moves from park to neutral but will not go into reverse or drive. This is an occasional issue. Please help! response: thank you for contacting Toyota motor sales, u. S. A. , inc. We appreciate your consideration and hope to have your email addressed as quickly as possible. Our current office hours are Monday through Friday from 5 am to 6 pm and Saturday 7 am to 4 pm pacific time. If you need immediate assistance, we recommend you contact the customer relations manager at your local Toyota dealership. ----- dealership said they cannot find anything! ------ my wife and I are realtors and we've had clients that don't want to ride with us in a Prius because of the recent news. I just want to know if my vehicle is safe?.
On 3 separate days, 2 during the summer of 2009 and 1 during the summer of 2010, our Prius transmission has automatically and repeatedly shifted from d (drive) to n (neutral) without warning while the car was moving. All incidents happened on extremely hot days (temperatures near 100) in the afternoon after the car had been parked out in the sun and without us having made any accidental contact with the shifter / drive selector while driving. This created dangerous situations several times as the car erratically slowed as we entered intersections or pulled out onto busy streets. Our initial response was to depress the accelerator, but when this had no effect, we discovered the transmission light had moved from d to n. It was especially dangerous when making left hand turns on busy streets with oncoming traffic. We discovered that we could keep the car moving by constantly holding the shifter / drive selector lever in the d position. Turning off the air conditioner did not help the problem. After the first time this happened, we took the car to the dealership to investigate the problem, but the service technicians there were unable to reproduce it. This glitch remains a concern to us because the loss of power and acceleration is unpredictable and therefore dangerous, but at least we know we can keep the car moving by holding the shifter in the d position. Because the car is so computerized, I suspect an electronic component of the drive system may malfunction at high temperatures. The mileage number I gave is an approximation since I didn't record the actual mileage when this first happened, but the dealer who serviced the car shortly thereafter should have that information.
I am writing about a caution statement on page 48 of the Toyota Prius 2008 owner's manual. The caution statement states "people with implanted pacemakers or cardiac defibrillators should keep away from the Smart key system antennas. " people wanting to test drive or purchase the Prius or any vehicle with a Smart key system should be asked prior to driving or purchasing the car if they have either of these devices. If so, the Smart key system should be deactivated. Also, Toyota should send a letter to all owners of vehicles with a Smart key system warning them to deactivate the Smart key system if either the driver or a passenger has a pacemaker or defibrillator. This caution information should not be located on page 48, but should be clearly posted on the vehicle and sticker.
2008 Toyota Prius. Consumer expresses discontent with recall issues the consumer stated he is afraid to drive the vehicle and no one has any suggestions.