Power Train Driveline Problems of Toyota Prius

Second occurrence of this problem in three weeks. Driving downhill on a residential street at 25 mph, slowing to a stop without applying the accelerator. Suddenly lost engine power. Applied accelerator, no response. Continued to lose speed as I rolled silently downhill toward the intersection. Applied brakes and stopped. Restarted the engine and it started up fine. The previous incident also occurred on a downhill grade, on an exit ramp from an parking garage. Fortunately both incidents happened at low speed and not in heavy traffic. I previously reported the first incident. Toyota dealer checked vehicle after each incident and could not replicate the incident or find a computer code that would explain it. Since this was the second occurrence and was familiar to me, and since I was not in traffic, I let it happen while observing my own actions, trying to check for driver error. My foot was not on the brake. The car was in drive. While the car was slowing, I tried pressing the accelerator deeply and then pumping the accelerator to see what would happen. . There was no response, and no sound. The same was true three weeks ago-no response to pushing the accelerator, even deeply, and no sound. Three weeks ago, the first time it happened, I also tried cycling through the "modes" (ev, Prius, eco, power) with no effect. Each time, I hit the power button to power off, and then I hit it again to restart. Powering off and then restarting, both times, seemed like "rebooting" a computer. Fortunately traffic conditions both times gave me ample time to reboot. Will this happen again?.

See all problems of the 2010 Toyota Prius 🔎.

While parked with the car turned on, the engine engages to run the a/c or heater and the car lurches forward. The display screen will sometimes display a warning that there is a problem with the park mechanism and that the car should be shut off and parked on a level surface with the parking brake engaged. My research has led to the park lock mechanism. Toyota says that the lurch is normal and due to wear on the park lock. The "fix" is to use the parking brake. What if you forget or aren't aware of this? what if the park lock fails and the brake isn't on? none of these is unreasonable to expect. The potential is for the car to move on its own, even with no one present in the car or in the driver's seat. This is an inherently unsafe design and should be pulled from the road.

See all problems of the 2007 Toyota Prius 🔎.

My 2010 Toyota Prius will sometimes jump forward or backwards when you put it in drive or reverse. This only happens for a split second. Concerns me if it is safe. It has done it 5 or 6 times.

Several near miss incidents due to no acceleration on slippery surfaces - wheels do not even spin to no traction is even possible. This is especially so when pulling into traffic on snowy days. Simply unable to get out of the way of oncoming traffic. Toyota dealer tells me "this is normal. " I am 63 and of all the vehicles I have owned, this Prius is the only one with this problem. I could be dead, or someone else could be dead.

While driving in a snowstorm in my 2005 Prius, I stopped at a red light on a busy street, the roads starting to become slippery with snow. As the light changed to green, I stepped on the gas, and the"slippery" light came on my dashboard. When this happens, the front wheels will not spin at all. I could not move the car at all, since the computer determined I was on a "slippery" spot. I saw cars and trucks barreling toward me in my rear view mirror, unable to move, and visibility greatly reduced, due to the falling snow. I put my blinkers on, and thankfully on coming traffic was able to avoid me. I was stuck at this intersection for four light changes, slightly panicked. I finally put the car into reverse, and got just enough movement out of the car to find a dry patch and get me moving again. When I reported this to both Toyota, and my local dealer, they told me this is a "safety" feature. It's a safety feature that will surely get someone killed. The front wheels simply will not spin in the least if the car determines it is slippery, which left me no where to go at that intersection. I later googled the problem, and found that this is a very common problem with Prius owners. A few people left the comment that snow tires are necessary to avoid this problem. Not knowing what else to do, I went out and bought 4 new snowtires. It did make a huge difference, but I'm afraid that for someone else, they may find out too late. This safety feature is an unacceptable death trap waiting to happen.

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2010 Prius accelerates while braking and surges in acceleration from a stop while accelerating slowly. Many but not all occasions were while going over bumps and/or wet road. This has happened several times since owning the car. Toyota cannot duplicate the problem in the testing and denies that it is real. It has been brought into Toyota for repairs but the problem persists. The car is now parked and we will not drive it as it is not safe. We filed a lemon law claim (CA) and Toyota has denied the claim with a form type letter.

I purchased a new 2009 Toyota Prius hybrid (gas/electric) on March 31, 2009. The car worked great, but with only 490 miles on the odometer, I did a routine shut down of the car on may 20, 2009 which turned out to be anything but routine. During this event, I shut the car off using the procedure taught to me by the dealership salesman, which was the same procedure outlined in the user manual. However, at this shut down, a very dramatic power surge went through the system, jolting the engines in their motor mounts (I heard an extremely loud squeal when the engines, both gas and electric, jolted to a stop, which I assume was the motor mounts taking the force of the power surge), and moving the car violently forward stopping with the transmission lock and brake which I had set). This was a very unpleasant and un-natural event. Following this event, the car did start and operate through its functions, but the driving characteristics changed dramatically. What had been a smooth operating synergy drive system was now slightly grabby both in acceleration and deceleration, and I experienced hard clunk shifts when driving. Approximately every 15th gas engine shut down, the gas engine would diesel and have a disturbing long cycling shut down vibrating and jolting the car in an alarming fashion which is not safe. On June 2, 2009, I brought the car into my Toyota dealer service department, was told the car "can't do that" and was told the computer showed nothing wrong. On July 8, 2009, I went to another Toyota dealer service department, they said the car was rough, and tried to re-seat the engines in the mounts, which temporarily corrected the problem until a major gas engine jolting shut down occurred again. I took it in again on 24 September, 2009, and asked to have the engine mounts replaced. They tried to reseat the engines again, with no success, and the random jolting gas shutdowns on the hybrid system continue, which are a safety hazard during operation.

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