Engine Problems of Toyota Prius

I travel quite a bit these days and on my way home from coachella music festival, my brakes gave out. I mean to say, pushing the pedal all the way down, no resistance, no slowing, a completely limp pedal. . . . Until I repeatedly stomped on it and the car locked and skidded to a stop, feet away from the car in front of me. The brakes returned intermittently, so I took the right hand lane at 40mph and tested the brakes regularly until I got to my dealership. Scariest thing ive ever experienced. Ive had the car since August 09' and currently have 43k miles on it. I know thats a lot, and its unfortunately outside of my warranty now, but I wanted to log it here, as soon as I could. It started one day before the freeway incident, whenever I would depress the pedal, a loud high pitched squeak would come out. I didnt think much of it outside of "better get that looked at" but didnt notice any brake failure. The next morning, I turned on the car and every dashboard light came on and a fast consistant beeping went on for about 5 minutes, during which time the brake pedal had zero resistance. I sat there with a serious wtf look on my face, when out of nowhere, the dash lights went away, as did the beeping, and the car drove as normal with full regular brake pressure (besides the squeak). I received a call back from the dealership. They say it's going to be $3k for a master cylinder replacement and that Toyota corporate wouldn't aid in the cost, despite my hybrid warranty still covering the hybrid ecu (the master cylinder unit includes the ecu). Margaret (my dealership service manager) said herself that it was not my fault and that the part is not repairable, "it either works, or it does not. It must be replaced". This could have been catastrophic, had I been any closer to the car in front of me. The failure of one part (which failed through no fault of the customer) rendering the brakes nearly useless is too scary not to report here. Thank you david del fonzo.

See all problems of the 2010 Toyota Prius 🔎.

Loss of braking effectiveness. Happens when going over bumps while applying the brakes. You don't lose braking power completely, but it would be like you had lifted your foot off the brakes partially. It has happened about a dozen times since I have owned the vehicle (a little over a year). I am unable to determine what factors make it happen. I don't know if it is speed, severity of the bumps, or braking pressure, or combination. I know that temperature makes no difference, as it has happened in winter and summer. The last incident happened when a bicyclist moved in front of my car to avoid bumps. I applied the brakes (it was not severe), and as I went over the bumps, I lost braking power. My speed was approximately 15 mph. Toyota has done a recall on the brakes, but I continue to have the problem. I have talked to other owners, and they are having the same problem, even after the recall. The consumer stated when he drove over a bump in the road, the braking decreased significantly for approximately 3 seconds. He also stated the engine raced briefly, but the vehicle was not in gear at the time. Updated ivoq 03/01/11.

2010 Toyota Prius. The consumer stated he experienced two safety issues; loss of brake effectiveness and engine race when the consumer applied the brakes when going over bumps/rough roads, or in marginal conditions due to snow/ice when approaching a stop sign, he would lose braking effectiveness. The consumer took the vehicle to the dealer for a recall repair on March 24, 2010. However, he continued to experience loss of brake effectiveness. The consumer pulled into a neighbor's driveway after driving less than one mile from his home. After pushing the park button, but before pushing the power button, the engine began to race. It was not at an extreme high rpm and it was not for an extended period time, but it did last for several seconds. After the vehicle went down to normal rpm, after a s second or two, it began all over again. The consumer stated it was not a surge as the vehicle was not in gear at the time.

I was driving on the freeway with my cruise control on. It was set to 56 mph. All of a sudden, the vehicle started lurching. It was like it was trying to accelerate then slow down, then accelerate, then slow down. I immediately shut off the cruise control. It has also happened again today when I tried to use the cruise control.

2010 Prius ii - when in park, or just slightly on the brakes and the engine switches from electronic to gas motor, the car rocks forward 1-3 inches. Very terrifying, but according to kendall Toyota of eugene, oregon, this is "normal". I don' t know of any world in which a car moving on its own while in park is normal.

I have a 2006 Prius. When going over bumps, I experience a total loss of power for 1 or three seconds -generally. A yellow light also comes on the dash board. It often happens daily. I have only had one or two experiences when the power didn't return so quickly and then I was afraid because I had no brakes and was just skidding. I believe that I have seen this problem discussed by other Prius owners of chat sites. It can occur at any mileage speed but I was only able to put a mileage number in the box can it be fixed?.

See all problems of the 2006 Toyota Prius 🔎.

I own a 2007 Prius with 35,000 miles on it. We have been a 2 Prius family for 6 years, so I am highly familiar with driving one. I have had three very frightening incidents happen in about the last 4 months in my car. Each has happened in exactly the same spot during a commute that I do several times a week. I have been exiting from a freeway, going 65 mph, down a gentle downslope. When I exit (continuing the downslope) the engine starts revving at a speed that I never have heard during any normal driving circumstance. This is while I am braking to stop at a light at the bottom of the exit. I have had a car next to me roll down the window and the driver ask if I needed help. Over the last 15 years I had done this exact exit thousands of times, in many different vehicles, and have never experienced anything remotely like this. Each of the three times I shifted the car into neutral, but the high rev continued. The only thing that stopped it was to pull over and to turn the car off and restart. I immediately checked the floor mat each time and it was mounted securely exactly in place hooked on the mounts. This has happened three times, completely randomly. I took the car in to be serviced at Toyota of berkeley on 2/2/10 and was told that until the car did this on a "frequent" basis that there was nothing that Toyota could do. He checked the log for warning lights and there were no entries (I checked the dash each time this has happened, and no lights warning lights were on. ).

See all problems of the 2007 Toyota Prius 🔎.

Warning light comes on and manual says do not operate vehicle, park immediately. This happened on my 2003 Toyota Prius in December. Fortunately the dealer was open and when reported said it was not a big deal, the care was drivable and should be brought in for service. In service found master warning light codes p0300, 301, 302, 303, 304, -3191, p33101, c1202 then noted "found warranty enhancement to clean throttle body (eg9016. 5 01. 99). Was never notified of this issue and was parked in dangerous location while attempting to ascertain what steps to take in light of the "do not operate vehicle" warning in the manual. Same situation arose in our 2002 Prius this date and awaiting results of dealer's analysis (although when the light went out they said we could just as easily cancel the service appointment). In both cases service departments seemed familiar with problem (and my service advisor referred to it as a "silent recall". ).

See all problems of the 2003 Toyota Prius 🔎.

Prius 2010 braking issue - problem has occurred at least 5 times; on rough surface, downhill surface or when wheels encounter a manhole or steel plate road cover. Problem is recurring. Car has 12,600 miles on it.

My daughter was driving the family car a 2005 Toyota Prius on a NJ county road on a low traffic Sunday morning in April 2009. The car unexpectedly surged causing her to loose control, hit a telephone pole and cause property and physical damage.

See all problems of the 2005 Toyota Prius 🔎.

Date: 02/09/2010 time: 10:01:20 creation date: 02/09/2010 creation time: 09:58:43 I would like to report a braking/traction control/loss of engine power safety problem with my 2007 Toyota Prius. The problem happens while driving on snow covered flat road surfaces (1 inch of snow), snow covered hilly roads (1 inch of snow), and bumpy road surfaces. When the traction control system (trac) engages on these road surfaces, I lose the ability to brake and also lose power to the engine simultaneously. I have had four (4) near-accidents due to this safety problem. 1. Snow covered (1 inch of snow) going downhill (slight hill)- lost brakes after trac traction control system engaged was unable to stop car - went through stop sign. Car went onto busy highway (50 mph zone) and would not stop. Luckily no cars were coming and I avoided a very serious accident. 2. Snow covered (1 inch of snow) going downhill - lost brakes after trac traction control system engaged and almost crashed into cars that were slowing down ahead of me. 3. Snow covered (1 inch of snow) going uphill - trac traction control system engaged and I lost all engine power as I was turning left up a steep hill. I almost crashed into large rocks at the roadside. I was able to avoid a crash. 4. Snow covered (1 inch of snow) driving on flat road surface. I turned off of snow covered road into a parking lot area. Trac traction control system engaged and I lost the ability to brake. My car went at least 15 feet in the parking lot area before stopping. Luckily there were no parked cars there and I did not have an accident. A recurring problem with trac and loss of engine power also occurs on the hilly road leading up to my house. When the road is snow covered (1 inch of snow) or icy the trac traction control system engages and I lose all power to the engine. It makes it nearly impossible to get my car up the hill due to the loss of power when trac engages!.

The contact owns a 2007 Toyota Prius. When switching from cruise control to applying the brakes and back to cruise control, the engine revved for no apparent reason. The failure usually occurred when the contact applied the brakes rapidly and transitioned back to the cruise control while driving 25 mph. The VIN, engine size, number of cylinders, and powertrain were unknown. The current mileage was 7,500 and failure mileage was 6,500.

2003 Toyota Prius -- in cold weather the cars computer does not act properly and will shut down the engine.

2005 Toyota Prius: in slippery conditions, when a front wheel slips, both wheels stop rotating and then the wheel that did not slip is given power. This takes about 1 second. During that time the motor has shut down, losing substantial forward momentum. If the second wheel slips,the process is repeated giving the original wheel power. The 1 second time interval occurs again and more forward momentum is lost. On a slippery hill, this basically stops the forward motion of the auto very quickly. If both wheels continue to slip,the auto just sits there , with the electric motor starting and stopping as the power is switched between front wheels. If there are cars behind yours, then backing up is impossible. If the wife and kids are in a bad neighbor hood and this happens,that could mean real trouble. The condition is totally unacceptable. All the Prius' should be recalled and the traction control reprogrammed to allow reduced power to the slipping wheel, not zero power. This will tend to maintain forward momentum and keep the motor from shutting down. I spoke to the original dealer and they claimed no knowledge of the design flaw.

I took my Prius in for recall, noted in pe05029, on or about December 9, 2005. I had no problems with the Prius before the recall but did the recall because of the problems others were having. I had 25,000 miles with no problems before I took the car to Toyota to do the recall. Since then on two occasions, on or about January 14, 2006 and on or about January 16, 2006, I have had the engine start to rev up while at a stop light with my foot on the brake. I drive using only one foot so the gas pedal did not have anything. The engine seemed to rev to about 2000 rpms. This is an estimate on my own part from the sound and not a measurement. On the first occasion I turned off the climate control as I was proceeding to shut down the car and the engine returned to normal idle and then turned off as it normally would at a stop light. I left the climate control off and continued to drive when the light turned green and had no more problems that day. On the second occasion I eased up slightly on the brake pedal to see if the engine was actually propelling the car forward and the car moved forward but no stronger than it normally does with the electric motor. So, the engine although revving up seemed to be disconnected from the drive train. I believe I noticed on both occasions that the battery was fully charges with no white space at the top as usual. Probably because the engine runs more anyway since the recall as can be noted by the loss in fuel economy. I reported it to the dealers service representative that I took the car in for recall and was told that unless it was a repeatable problem they probably would not be able to find anything. I requested that he report it to Toyota anyway.

Total breakdown of wife's 2004 Prius on September 2 in fine weather one in san jose. The vehicle displayed sudden and significant loss of power while merging into the interstate. Loss of gas/engine power with failure of the internal combustion with engine to start, resulted in only electric motor propulsion and breakdown on the highway as the battery quickly went to single pink bar level within a 1/2 miles. Multiple mil lamps lit up and stayed on. Began to merge onto the highway from a stop speed of 30 or 40 mph and slowly accelerated into heavy traffic. She had to pull off to the (ugh) breakdown lane of the highway with all of its debris, etc. The dealer completed the repair, san jose invoice number tocs190787 dtd 9/2/05 applied eg047-04 on car. The dealer repairs seemed to have fixed the car. Contacted a Toyota Prius advisor with three concerns: if there was a service bulletin for this characteristic that would prevent the roadway failure then why was it not executed during prior services 3-9-05, 5-26-05 & 6-09-05 at this same dealer. What led one to believe that the car was not reliable after this repair. The consumer, an accomplished engineer, a knew about software bugs. A software bug did not impair operation until the right combination of environmental factors was reached. The consumer assumed that all Prius had this potential bug that contaminated the electronic control unit (ecu). Ecu.

See all problems of the 2004 Toyota Prius 🔎.

Consumer states while driving her vehicle lost power. The vehicle was pulled off the road, after the vehicle was shut off, and it started back. The service department states the computer did not register the event, so they could not find anything wrong. The local service department said this was the first complaint they had received.

While driving at 25mph, 4 trouble lights lit up on dashboard. After 1-2 more miles, the engine lost all power, despite the gas engine still running. The electric system showed no battery power. Restarting the engine didn't help, and the car had to be towed.

Problems began 5-10-05. Several warning lights appeared on dashboard. The vehicle experienced a loss of power. The electric motor and the battery were working correctly, however, the gas portion of the engine was not working. Dealer reported ecu was out of calibration, and was reprogrammed. Vehicle is now repaired. Driver visited a forum where she noticed there was a report in the wall street journal and she felt unsafe driving vehicle.

1) my wife was driving our 2004 Toyota Prius and the car had a warning light turn on on display, went to "limp" mode (slow) and suddenly stopped after 1/2 mile. 2) car could not be controlled, no power. 3) Toyota towed car to shop and replaced ecu controller in area of fuel tank, ecu relay and entire fuel tank assembly. Problem has not happened again.

Pe05029 2 times the car engine stopped for no reason at all. Dashboard lit up entirely. Both times the car restarted. Each time, fewer lights came on. Brought car in 2x- 1st time, did nothing. 2nd time, supposedly upgraded program. When 1st heard about your investigation, contacted Toyota to see if we were part of the 33-- we believe it is being under-reported. Contact name: diane romanchick and paul embree.

Problems started in November 2003. Had oil changed and an hour later all the warning lights came on in the vehicle. Immediately returned to the dealership where it took 2 weeks to replace the fuel pump (37,000 miles). Since then the car has been back to the dealership an additional 9 times to the current date (may 2005) for several different things. The computer has been replaced two times. The engine has been replaced. The injectors cleaned, then a few months later had to be completely replaced. The throttle body has been replaced. I have been driving the car when it would not acelerate and had to pull over in traffic. The first time the dealership said there were no warning lights when the car got to the dealership and they could not recreate the codes or situation so they could not do anything. The second time (April 2005) all four injectors were replaced as well as the mass air flow system. The car has been in the service department at our Toyota dealership for a total of 17 times since the car arrived at approximately 180 days!!! 10 of those 17 times has been because the warning lights have come on. Have entered into arbitration and we are awaiting an answer on the decision.

See all problems of the 2001 Toyota Prius 🔎.

While driving, the car lost power and would start up again, but would not stay running. Car was towed in and the dealer put a new engine ecu- (computer). This took a month, as the computer had to be made in japan. A year and a half later, the new computer has been replaced and the car continues to not start up. It has been in the shop four times this month, each time the car is returned to me and will not start the next day.

I purchased a 2002 Toyota Prius in April 2002 and within the first two months the vehicle stopped while on the freeway at 65+ mph and the gas engine would not work, I had to drive on the electrical motor. It was repaired at the Toyota dealer in carlsbad, CA. This is the same issue that was reported in the press today.

See all problems of the 2002 Toyota Prius 🔎.