This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The engine caught fire while sitting in my garage. I had driven it for a few hours doing deliveries for a store and parked it in my garage around 2:30pm. About 1.5 hours later, my wife was coming home and opened the garage door and saw smoke above the hood of my car and then a few seconds later it burst into flames. I believe that it was smouldering for a while and the gust of wind when the big garage door opened gave it the extra push to ignite. The car was bought used and had a front end accident prior to my purchasing it so the electrical system could have melted and started the fire but the inspector that Toyota sent did not give me any copy of his report. It is a 2012 model. I bought the car in 2014, and had it for about 5 years until this happened and completed burned up the car and all the contents of my garage. I had a T-Mobile Sync-up module in the OBD port and it recorded a drop in voltage from around 12 to 5 volts at the time of the fire which I believe was transferred to my phone when I was near it.
There has been a safety recall on my vehicle for the years 2004-2009 models of the Toyota Prius, but my model year is 2012 and I have the exact same issue. 1) My check engine light comes on and off and it appears to be the hybrid electric water pump issue related to the coolant. The cap pops off and spills out. 2) When the light comes on, I am assuming the car is starting to overheat and is putting myself and my 3 year old daughter at risk as this is the primary car we use to transport her. We have just stop taking her out at all due to this issue. When the car overheats, I pull over and it can be risky as sometimes, I am on the highway or local streets. I do not want this issue to cause problems for other other drivers as well while I am trying to pull over where ever I am. 3) The problem as I stated above has been acknowledge by you and Toyota but just for 2004-2009 models. 4) The problem has not been inspected by Toyota, the police, or third party. I have been the only person checking the car and I am using a diagnostic check engine light tool to read the code and looking under the hood to find the coolant pump leaking and popped out just as indicated in the recall for other models. 5) Yes, the check engine light and high temperature light goes on and off. The issue first appeared around November of 2020.
This vehicle has been burning oil for the past 10,000 miles. Vehicle has had all services and synthetic oil changes done from day 1 at the dealership. Oil changes every 5,000 miles since day 1. at 90,000 miles the car started burning oil excessively. Complaints and diagnostics were attempted at Toyota franchise dealerships but they failed to find the issue. Finally at 100,000 miles the engine failed due to head gasket failure. This vehicle is classified as a partial zero emission vehicle and it is registered in a state that follows California air resource board regulations and is being serviced in a state that follows as well. Under the pzev regulations, Toyota warranties emission related components for 15 years or 150,000 miles. Under Toyota warranty guide it states seals and gaskets are covered. The manual does not clarify any further leaving the coverage level vague and questionable. Upon trying to get Toyota to replace the engine, they gave us a week of no responses and finally declining the claim even when the manual states it should be covered. The oil burning issue with this motor is a big problem that Toyota has been trying to cover up. Toyota is quoting $13,000 for engine replacement. They have a service bulleting regarding the oil burning because it's a known issue, but they only honor claims under the 5 year 60,000 miles power train warranty.
When idling there is a loud rattle and multiple random misfires in the engine. Appears to be a head gasket leak problem from reading forums. I have been to multiple repair shops they cannot determine the problem.
2012 Toyota Prius II, dealer maintained, now needs new engine due to blown head gasket. Mileage 151000. The car has run perfectly until a recent engine light came on. When it was brought into the dealership, the diagnosis was misfiring of 2 cylinders and coolant leaking into cylinders 3 and 4. there was no previous engine problems. An official complaint was filed with Toyota customer service. They responded that there was no fault on their end and I should have the engine replaced at an authorized Toyota dealer. A search for this trouble resulted in several other complaints of the failure of head gaskets in this year and model Prius.
Head gasket 77,000 miles with the head gasket issue the car engine was shaking when it's warming up. The car log showed misfires in 1st and 4th cylinders.
Bought this car brand new in 2012 and have always performed maintenance on time. Between the last oil change and this oil change the Prius is burning oil and I am having to add at least two quarts of oil before it is back on the dipstick. I am noticing this is a problem with the 2010-2014 Prius and that Toyota has done nothing to solve it. I do not want to be on a long trip and burn through oil and lock my engine up causing harm to myself or others.
Soon after getting a recall software update for the hybrid system, the car displayed hybrid system check message and lost power. Car had to be towed. Created an extremely dangerous situation due to nature of problem while driving on the road and had to pull over right away.
The contact owns a 2012 Toyota Prius. While driving at unknown speeds, the vehicle stalled and all the indicators illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was towed to della Toyota (32 della dr, plattsburgh, NY 12901), but a diagnosis was not provided. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The VIN was not included in NHTSA campaign number: 18V684000 (hybrid propulsion system). The approximate failure mileage was 91,000.
I went to the charles maund Toyota dealer at austin, tx for a recall. NHTSA recall id 18V684. According to the official recall remedy from NHTSA, "if the vehicle has experienced an inverter failure with certain hybrid system faults related to this condition, the inverter assembly will be repaired or replaced free of charge." My car lost power on the highways several times recently. The error code is P0A08, which is related to inverter failure with certain hybrid system faults, so the inverter assembly should be repaired or replaced free of charge. But the dealer didn't want to replace or repair the inverter for my car. There is still a potential threat on my car to lose power on highways.
The contact owns a 2012 Toyota Prius. While driving at an unknown speed, the check engine indicator illuminated and the vehicle vibrated. The vehicle was taken to Toyota vallejo (201 auto mall pkwy, vallejo, ca 94591, (707) 552-4545) where it was diagnosed that the head gasket was blown out and the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 165,000.
Typically the key is left in the car in the garage. Tonight at 6 pm, at a garage temperature of 83 degrees F, the engine spontaneously started. No one was in the car and it had been garaged for about 3 hours. I just happened to be in the garage when the Prius started and was nothing short of flabbergasted.
My Prius is using 1 quart of oil per 900 miles, the Toyota dealership did a oil study and verified that indeed the car is using 1 quart per 900 miles, but will not do anything about it and stated my car is no longer under warranty and could be rebuilt for 9000 dollars-this is a commuter car only and has only been used for open road driving.
The contact owns a 2012 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that while driving at 65 mph, the vehicle stalled as the master warning light illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. The technician was unable to diagnose the failure and stated that the only code found was related to low fuel although the vehicle had a full tank of fuel. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and made the contact was made aware that the vehicle was not included in NHTSA campaign number: 14V053000 (electrical system, hybrid propulsion system). The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 37,795.
After Toyota power management software recall installed "power management upgrade" software in my car I immediately experienced serious problems with my ignition /start of hybrid/gasoline engine. After pressing ignition, I had to wait 15 to 20 minutes and press start button on/off repeatedly until the gasoline engine ignite but hybrid failed to start. It is not normal because a Prius hybrid engine starts first not the gasoline engine. Toyota has disabled some important functions in its power management recall software update that affects the hybrid engine performance and failure to start. I drive my Prius 3-4 times a month and I did not have any problem before the recall software upgrade because Prius owners manual clearly says that the battery with be disconnected by battery saving function when your car is parked for long time, several days, weeks. In fact, when your car is parked for just days, Toyota power management software (recall) is draining the car battery and reconfiguring the relays to power up the gasoline engine. Toyota owners manual clearly states that when you are parked, "power management software disconnects the auxiliary battery from the hybrid system." However, after the recall, not only auxiliary battery is not disconnected but there are lots of "activity" in hybrid engine that drains the batteries. I called the Toyota service and they now say you have to keep the car on a charger all the time when parked for several days. Of course, it is a huge safety problem to keep the car on a charger all the time when parked for days because the battery is housed in the cabin and the ventilation does not exist unless you park your car outdoors. At the same time Toyota recommends keeping the car on a charger, it also warns of explosion caused by charging the batteries in a garage.
Starting in spring 2013 and continuing during the rest of the spring, summer and early fall in the hottest months, after parking my Prius C outside, it always had issues starting, which continues to this day. I will put the key in the ignition, start the car, all the dash lights come on and the car will usually not allow me to put it into reverse or drive. I have to take the key out of the ignition and start it again at least twice before it starts normally as it does when the weather is cooler and/or when the car is parked in my garage. A couple of times, I managed to get the car to go into reverse, but it was almost impossible to steer as if the parking brake was on. Then the vehicle stopped, leaving me in the path of oncoming traffic. This has been happening since I bought the car and the dealership says they can't fix it unless they can recreate the problem. I have taken pictures and viseo, but that makes no difference to them. This is a dangerous problem and needs to be fixed. This is the second complaint I have filed re: This matter as my first does not seem to appear here.
Driving the interstate at 65 mph the engine stopped - with no warning of any kind, the air, dash lights, radio, etc all continued to work. We coasted to the side of the road & restarted the engine. We purchased new & had all the required maintenance done at the Toyota dealership. We learned of a recall on the news in February & took the car in for the repair. (a software problem related to the car engine stopping while driving) when we learned of the recall we remembered this had happened to us about a month earlier, again, on the interstate at 65 mph & thought it was just a fluke at the time. We were very upset when this latest incident happened after having the recall repair done on the car & having driven a few thousand miles between incidents. We drove the car directly to our dealer's service dept and reported these facts to the service manager. They immediately took it in and tried to detect any evidence of the incident. They told us that they also contacted Toyota corporate technical services for assistance. They were not able to find any evidence of the incident. As we are now afraid to drive the car, they gave us a car to drive until the problem could be resolved. We don't want to see this car sold to an unsuspecting driver. We feel this is a life threatening defect and Toyota should repurchase the car from us at a fair value so that we could replace it with another car. We contacted the Toyota customer experience center yesterday by phone and filed a formal complaint, they opened a file and gave us a case number. Today we were contacted by phone by a Toyota regional analyst and were told that since they cannot find any evidence of the incident by using their computer system we would need to file a lemon law complaint. We told him that we expect Toyota to resolve our issue - we should not have to prove the defect. Help.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Norridge, IL, USA