Hybrid system shut off this morning

[Charles Ingalls]

Hey, I was wondering if someone could shed some light on a weird experience I had this morning on my 4 month old Prius while driving to work.
I had the heater and front defroster running on medium with temp about 80. (it was high because I wanted a quick warm up) I had the air circulator switch turn on so it was using cabin air even though it "wanted" to use outside air. After about 10 minutes it seemed like the hybrid system randomly shut off. Everything still worked but the display stop showing MPGs and any movement of the axles. And it was all gas I was using from what I could tell.
I pulled over, and turned on the climate screen and a message came up saying "check AC connection".
I then shut it down and restarted and everything was fine, like nothing happened. I then continued to drive but only used the "outside air switch" and all went well. Does anyone know what maybe could have happened? Does it have anything to do with me using cabin air for the defroster? Is this nothing or something I should be concerned with? I was also using my ipod during this.
Thanks.

[efusco]

Did you have a loss of power? I'm not sure what "it seemed like the hybrid system randomly shut off" means, please describe the symptoms, not a diagnosis.

There's a mix of stuff here, it seems. To some degree it sounds like the car may have gone into the 'limp home mode'...there was a problem with the early '04s that required a ECU flash to fix...but in that condition there's no power from the ICE, but you can 'limp' along in electric only.

The "Check AC connection" thing sounds more like a problem, also with the '04s, where the MFD malfuctioned....but there should be no mechanical/driving issues related to that.

It probably is worth taking the car to the dealer, at your convenience, to have the DTC codes pulled and checked in case there is some problem.

[Tideland Prius]

Yeah, it sounds like the MFD failure... on an 06?

[galaxee]

sounds like the display stopped showing you what was going on, but if the hybrid system 'shut off' you would have seen the whole dash light up.

maybe the new mfd's are temperature sensitive... how cold was it when this happened?

[nicoss]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Oct 26 2006, 11:30 AM) [snapback]338793[/snapback]</div>

sounds like the display stopped showing you what was going on, but if the hybrid system 'shut off' you would have seen the whole dash light up.

maybe the new mfd's are temperature sensitive... how cold was it when this happened?
[/b]

…the dreaded “check AC connection”.

It happened today, driving on the WB 60 doing around 70; Radio ON, A/C auto.
Was fiddling with the navigation trying to enter a voice command.

First the MFD went blank, pressing the AUDIO button shows that Radio is OFF,
Pressing the MAP button shows a message that “an external system not connected”
pressing the CLIMATE button shows the “check A/C connection”.

The radio actually worked and the steering wheel buttons would control it with no visual feedback of course.
The a/c could be controlled (I think)
The phone buttons on the wheel did not respond.

Traction was just fine.

Drove off the freeway after a couple of miles and after shutting down and restarting the car the MFD appears to work OK.

I’ll drop by the Wondries Toyota on Friday when their main prius tech will be in and talk to him.