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.
Car worked flawlessly and we maintained it regularly. Took it in to address recall of jov update pwr mgmt ECU at dealer. Dealer completed recall work. 2 days later engine lite check hybrid system and the ! on and triangle on. The car continued run but now was studdering when was not before the recall work. Took it back to the dealer and he said we need a new hybrid battery. We believe the software update they did created a this issue. Dealer acting ignorant and saying it needs new battery because of number of miles on car. Asked for diagnostic print out from when they did recall work to they new diagnosis and they would not provide. We believe the recall update created a technical problem with our hybrid battery. We also believe that dealer not being honest regarding issues with this recall update and is using it as an opportunity to reduce liability for Toyota on failed recall work and to use it as an opportunity to bring in large ticket sales repair ie they quoted us a new hybrid battery for 5,500.
The contact owns a 2010 Toyota Prius. While driving 70 mph, the vehicle stalled and the "hyper" system failure warning indicator illuminated. The vehicle was towed to Toyota of seattle (1925 airport way S, seattle, wa 98134, (206) 382-4300) where it was diagnosed that the egr valve and intake manifold needed to be repaired. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred. The dealer stated that the fuel pump needed to be replaced. The fuel pump was repaired by an independent mechanic. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 180,000.
I purchased a 2010 Toyota Prius, within a month I had to replace the fuel pump sensor (after it went out on the highway and the car died while driving it). Then 6 weeks after purchase I was driving down the highway again and the hood ripped up completely shattering the windshield while driving. I later learned both safety's on the hood latch were broken and missing parts. It also has an oil leak that will cost me $2,200 to repair when I only paid $6,000 for the car on top of many other minor issues.
The contact owns a 2010 Toyota Prius. While driving at an unknown speed, the vehicle stalled and the check pcs and check hybrid system warning indicators illuminated. The vehicle was taken to ourisman Toyota chantilly (4135 auto park cir, chantilly, va 20151) where it was diagnosed that the battery needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was towed back to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the fuel pump needed to be repaired. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 127,735.
While driving on the highway, service engine light came on, and car began to lose speed -- only permitting travel at about 50 mph. Within a few minutes, the car shut off entirely. Fortunately, was able to get to side of road but this could have been extremely dangerous due to lack of warning, and fact that was driving on a highway where others are going 60-70mph or faster. The inverter overheated and needed to be replaced. This issue was part of a recall, but did not include my year/car. Extremely upsetting that Toyota does not recall it or at a minimum send a warning to owners to have this looked at. This can cause potentially fatal accidents, and Toyota seems to be aware of the issue.
- Bethlehem, PA, USA
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Recall notice eoe was performed on my 2010 Prius to correct an invertor problem. A software update was performed. According to my dealer at capistrano Toyota as well as other dealers this was just a bandaid and not a true fix. The owner of capistrano Toyota as well as other Toyota dealers have written to Toyota that the invertor needs to be replaced. The dealer H, S had many cars come back after the software fix and had to have the invertor changed. If the invertor fails while driving, the car can possibly just stop running or slow down to 15 miles. This will be very dangerous and possibly deadly.
Vehicle has lost power on the freeway multiple times forcing me to pull over. In one instance I was almost rear ended by a semi. The vehicle will show a temperature warning and will then shut down and read, "check hybrid system". the Toyota dealership claims it needs a new engine. This is a well known issue and will go in front of a judge in January. I have contacted Toyota about this and they tell me it is out of warranty and not eligible for the warranty enhancement. This should have been an unlimited mileage recall but Toyota refuses to do anything about it. This happened again this morning to my wife who was on a freeway where the speed limit is 70mph. This is an extremely dangerous error and I would hate to see someone die because their car stops on the freeway. This vehicle has also had severay P0401 codes, there is an warranty enhancement for this as well but limited to 150K miles. I was told by the Toyota dealership it was also a culprit for a blown head gasket.
Toyota inverter failure. My specific VIN wasn't included in the recall, but the ipm did fail, in the middle of the street, while driving, my car lost all power & went into limp home mode. Fortunately the street wasn't busy & I wasn't struck by another vehicle as I had my 6 week old newborn in the car with me. I had dutifully checked to see if my car was involved in the recall & it wasn't, even though it failed. They only fix it after it fails, which is outrageous. Someone is going to die when their Prius loses all power while driving at highway speeds.
Leaving a parking lot driving at under 20 mph, 'check hybrid system' flashed with engine icon appearing; ambient temperature at 104 degrees. Drove home and connected wifi elm 327 that displayed P0A080 dtc. Failure mileage 152510 just outside 150K California emissions warranty but below 10 year warranty at 9 years and 2 days failing 07-16-18. Drove to nearest Toyota dealership 07-17-18 who diagnosed dtc P0A80 P0A3000 to battery blocks V06 $12.67 volts, V07 $13.91 volts. V05 $14.14 volts, V09 $14.18 volts, V10 $14.18 volts. Detail code 1 is 123. Poor fuel mileage and oscillating charge discharge of hybrid battery pack began 02-09-2015 at 91,036 miles typically 42.7 mpg. Toyota motor sales denied good will assistance request citing out of warranty case # 1807172401. Remedy is replace hybrid battery pack at near $4K with core exchange.
On 05/12/2018, the vehicle was in motion, merging onto the freeway, when the check engine light came on and the message "check hybrid system" was displayed. The vehicle was not driveable at normal street speeds and had to be towed off the freeway onramp. The vehicle was towed to a Toyota dealership on 05/16/2018, where the diagnostic found that the inverter needed to be replaced. The diagnostic did not find any other fault codes. The inverter was replaced under warranty. Then, 3 weeks after the completed repair (less than 200 miles), on 06/11/2018, the vehicle was stationary and idling when the check engine light came on and the message "check hybrid system" was displayed. The vehicle was towed to the same Toyota dealership, where the diagnostic found that the fault code was with the hybrid battery this time, when it previously had not been an issue. After the code was cleared, the vehicle was 100% driveable and taken home while we consulted options for alternative repair or diagnostics.
Brake actuator has failed. Traction control, ABS, brake lights illuminated on dash. More effort needed to engage brakes. This affects the regenerative braking as it no longer charges on braking as it was designed. Checked Toyota website for recalls since this is safety related, and there are none. Which is quite disturbing. I've researched Prius forums and this seems to be an ongoing problem. Toyota issued a recall for the generation 2 model, however this seems to be a problem for generation 3 models as well. The problem did occur when on the highway traveling at 60 mph.
I had a sudden loss of power with a popping sound. The failure nearly caused an accident because I was turning into a traffic lane. This left me stalled in that lane of traffic. The failure turned out to be the inverter over heating was caused by the cooling pump in the inverter failing, which caused the inverter to overheat. This was not covered by warranty and was a very expensive repair. I chose not to have the dealer repair it at their extreme prices. I paid the dealer to diagnose the problem. Then I had greentec in olathe ks. Repair the system at 1/2 the cost that the dealer wanted
At about 125K miles, my Prius nearly ran out of oil between services, and I religiously service my vehicle. I burned 1 to 2 quarts between services since. At 272,408 miles, I just paid $5751.59 for a complete engine rebuild... rest of car is in great shape. Oil consumption problems were known by the dealerships, but I was given no recourse except dealing with it. Latest issue..check engine light on, misfire on cylinders 1 and 4 (progressing to all), horrific knocking noise with sound of rushing water upon start-up. Eventually, (once the cylinders fired significantly) the engine could run satisfactorily for the remainder of the drive... until the next start. Early on I read that Toyota knew of the under-engineered motor of the 2010S, but I have not received anything announcing a recall or care to fix their engineering issue. I have my service records to validate the care I've given to my car. The date of the engine rebuild is what I will provide as to when this happened, but the oil consumption began years ago.
Water leaking from engine cowel getting into ignition coils which is causing engine to shudder and stop sometimes too. Seems to be a known Toyota issue yet not being rectified by manufacturer. Seals seem to allow water to get into the ignition coils hence the issue. Vehicle is stationary when first observed then shuddering and misfiring occurring as vehicle is being driven also leading to loss of power as its being driven which is quite dangerous on highways.
In fall of 2015 recall for hybrid system failure was preformed to computer system. In the fall of 2016 I was pulling out onto traffic onto a state route when engine lost power and lights for the hybrid system came on. Was running on only gas engine with limited slow acceleration to about 35 mph. Was able to safely drive it to a location to park it until flat towed to the dealership. Was told by Toyota dealership that the hybrid system failed, upon research I found it failed exactly as stated in the recall that was done in fall of 2015. The previous recall "fix" was too little too late the damage had already been done. Fought with Toyota dealership and corporate about that this was a recall fix that failed and didn't fix the problem. They would not cover the cost of the $3000 repair entirely and I am stuck paying half of the repair that should have been covered entirely under the recall.
Oil consumption. I purchased my Prius with 77000 miles for a local Toyota dealership. My car now has 140000 miles and consumes 2-3 quarts of oil per week. I have contacted Toyota customer service for help. I was directed to have an oil consumption test preformed. If there is a problem Toyota may offer repair assistance however my engine is not on the list of Toyota approved vehicles eligible for complementary repair. I am required to pay out of pocket for the test and repairs. I will update with results as soon as possible.
While accelerating on a highway going from the right lane to a left lane with my two young children in the car, I got a" check hybrid system" on the screen. Which made the car unable to accelerate, all I could do was to put my hazards on and pull thru 3 lanes of high speed cars to get to a breakdown lane next to an on ramp, so I was in the middle of the 4 lane highway and 2 lane on ramp. I then got my kids out and ran across the on ramp to put them on the other side of the concrete barrier for protection. Then I went back to the car to gather waters and food because it was 90 degrees out in Utah, I waited on the side of the road for 30 minutes until a tow truck came. I am very very upset about this because it could've caused an accident and also put our lives at stake from possible re end.
While in motion at 30 mph on a city street(bridge), all of the warning lights on the dashboard came on and the car slowed down to less than 20mph. I was able to drive the car at 20 to a repair shop. Had this happened on a freeway with limited or no shoulder or while in the left lane, it could have resulted in a serious and deadly accident..since Toyota failed to notify me of this problem, I took it to an independent repair shop and they diagnosed the problem as failure of the intelligent power module (ipm), part of the hybrid inverter. I then had the car towed to a Toyota dealership where the repair was completed as part of the warranty enhancement program. I am including a pdf that shows the diagnosis performed by hawthorne auto as well as a copy of a letter from Toyota that I never received. I cannot overstate the potential danger this defect could cause. A less experienced driver might have panicked. Certainly, if this had happened on a freeway in rush hour traffic, I could easily have been rear ended - drivers generally and reasonably do not expect cars going 60 to slow down for no apparent reason to 20. Toyota has determined that this problem merits only a "warranty enhancement" rather than a recall. I believe that they do not want to issue a recall because this is an expensive repair. I hope that NHTSA will take steps to make this a recall before some innocent person dies as a result of this serious defect. I have sent you the documentation that I felt would be sufficient for your investigation but I have more if you need it, including many pages that detail the results of the diagnostics performed by hawthorne auto. Respectfully, [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Visalia, CA, USA