Car Will Not Start problems of the 2008 Toyota Prius

Driving on sb hwy 35 at 74mph, master warning light came on and vehicle shut down, no electrical or engine control. Pulled safely to shoulder of road. Car would not restart. Got out of car, locked car, unlocked car (Toyota technician instructions), then car restarted. Got car off the road, contacted state farm for tow to autonation Toyota south austin. Toyota technician removed a third party telematic device (in-drive) from obd port. Vehicle diagnostic scan showed two communication errors u0100 and u0111. Third party telematic device was not reinstalled. Vehicle was test driven, held overnight, test driven again and the errors or shutdown did not repeat. Toyota service manager said they have seen third party devices connected to odb port cause errors and have to be removed or replaced. We have three hybrid vehicles in our household each with a third party telematic device from in-drive. All three have been removed and returned to in-drive with supplied packaging and return instructions.

Was driving to nova scotia 10/18/13. Stopped for coffee after 2 hrs of driving. Car would not restart. Returning to maine10/20/2013 was passing a tractor trailer truck with another trailer truck passing behind me as well. No check engine light had come on at any time during the trip. Suddenly,all the warning lights on the dashboard lit up and the car stopped working while driving at 75 mph. Tried not to slow too quickly with truck bearing down behind me ,but could not accelerate either. Car had popped into neutral . Got off on left of two lane highway . Car was dead. Would not start. Had towed to Toyota dealer in amherst. Diagnostics found no cause. Had to drive 4 hours back home next day not knowing if it would happen again. Took car to Toyota dealer 45 miles from my home in us. The following week . No cause found. Happened again shortly after on main street, blocking traffic . Towed to local mechanic. Was there one week. Unable to diagnose. Towed 45 miles to Toyota again. There another week. I was told it was a problem with fuse box assembly. Shortly after, the master warning light came on, as well as a warning symbol on the touch screen meaning 'malfunction in hybrid system. ' towed again to Toyota dealer. Front battery replaced. Noted today that Prius recall on '09-'14 models for exact same thing that happened to my '08 model. Total cost $600. 00 plus $270. 00 towing and $120. 00 for hotel .

The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to start unless a particular warning light was cleared by disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. The contact was unsure of what light illuminated. In addition, the vehicle stalled when speeds exceeded 50 mph. The contact also stated that the failure may be due to the engine plug-in battery add-on kit that he personally installed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the contact was informed that there was a low battery indicator problem that caused the failure. The technician informed the contact that once the add-on was removed, the failure ceased. The failure mileage was 60,000 and the current mileage was 70,000. Updated 02/12/lj the consumer stated his complaint was against the makers and distributors of the phev conversion kit, he had installed in his vehicle. The battery kit was used to provide additional electrical battery power to the built in battery of the hybrid. The consumer stated occasionally, the phev kit would cause the engine to shut down while driving on the highway at speeds of 45 -65 mph. When the incident occurred, there was a warning beep and the general warning triangle would appear on the dashboard. Once it happened, the consumer was unable to re-start the vehicle, until the general warning triangle was cleared. He had to clear it, by disconnecting the 12 volt battery for a minute and the re-connecting the 12 volt battery. The consumer stated after the engine shut down for a third time, he removed the phev battery kit. Updated 02/13/13.