Six problems related to instrument panel have been reported for the 2008 Toyota Prius. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that while driving at 25 mph, the contact noticed that the instrument cluster panel failed to display reading levels. The vehicle was taken to three independent mechanics. The mechanics were unable to duplicate the failure. The failure recurred on numerous occasions. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 85,000.
The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Prius. The contact sated that while driving less than 10 mph on a wet road surface, the brakes failed to respond when engaged and went straight to the floor. In addition, the brake pedal became stuck to the floorboard when depressed. The contact was able to coast to the shoulder where the brake pedal was released. The vehicle resumed normally and was later taken to the dealer, who advised that the battery failed and caused the brake actuator to fail. The dealer replaced the battery. The failure and current mileage was 61,000. Updated 02/11/2014 the consumer stated there was no resistance and the pedal did not get stuck, but it had no effect in stopping the vehicle. After several seconds, the consumer coasted to the shoulder at which time, the brakes started to work. Also, the battery was replaced. A month after the incident, the instrument cluster failed again, with no warning lights and it had to be replaced.
For several weeks, I've been having intermittent lowering of dashboard lights, or complete lack of them. On this car, that means I suddenly will have no speedometer, no gas gauge, which can be very dangerous (particularly the speedometer!). When I brought it to my mechanic, I was told that this was a common problem, but that Toyota had not issued a recall for the part which requires the replacement of the entire instrument panel. There are no issues with the actual bulbs; it's a computer issue, from what I'm told. This is not an age issue of the car; this is a serious safety malfunction!.
The instrument panel on a 2008 Prius decides not work at varied times. It is a sporadic problem which occurs then goes away. You could be driving down the highway at night then you see that you have no display telling you: 1) how fast you are going, 2) how much gas do you have, or 3) distance traveled. It's too difficult to troubleshoot because the problem would goes away.
The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Prius. While driving 10 mph, the front driver's side tire went flat. The contact replaced the tire with a spare. The vehicle then began experiencing numerous failures. The instrument panel gauges illuminated and the odometer began to fail. The dealer stated that it would take a few days to diagnose the cause of the failure. Days later, the mechanic explained that there was an issue with the computer system not recognizing the oversized tires. The mechanic placed the regular size tire back on the vehicle, which corrected the issue. The contact is concerned that the spare tire could cause dangerous driving conditions if it ever needed to be used again. The current and failure mileages were 14,500. Updated 11/14/08. Updated 11/18/08.
Summary: Prius low fuel warning light/buzzer came on, and only 5 miles later car ran out of gas, in a bad place at night on highway. The manual states that when low light comes on you have three gallons or less. With the Prius, even treating this conservatively as only 1 1/2 gallons, that should still be over 60 miles. I had driven the vehicle between 30 and 50 miles with low light on multiple times previously. This usually works occasionally fails fuel warning is clearly dangerous. And from internet researching, it is clearly a widespread problem, and Toyota not only is completely ignoring it, they denied to me having received any complaints on this (there are previous complaints on this even right on this NHTSA website). Driving from colorado to kansas city on I-70, a little after passing the sign that said "topeka 27 miles", just after 10 at night, the low fuel light illuminated and warning sounded. We planned to stop at the next fuel stop, which we expected to be within 20 miles at the most. About 5 miles after the light illuminated, the car suddenly lost power, the gas engine clearly had quit, the red triangle warning illuminated, along with another warning. After the initial scare, I pulled the vehicle over, slowly, under battery power, not knowing what had happened. In the manual we found that the second warning indicated "hybrid system malfunction", and not to attempt to drive the vehicle. Some 10-15 minutes later, as we were trying to get emergency help, that warning disappeared, and a new message came up, "add fuel". Eventually we borrowed gas from a family that stopped to help us in this rural area, and got help from a highway patrolman. Toyota checked vehicle, denies problems, denies receiving complaints, refuses to send warnings to Prius owners. Nhtsa, this is a safety issue, like your recall 00v384. 6/19/08 add * the consumer believed that the low fuel warning light was defective.