Car died on way home from 30K service!

[pycnanthemum]

I got my 30K service today on my 2005 Prius and on the way home the car stopped accelerating...on a highway...and then the "Problem!" light came on...and then I only had battery power...and then that ran out and I had to pull over.

Now I am back at the service place and they are towing my car in. If they didn't have free wireless here I would be scratching someone's eyes out.

Thanks for letting me vent :-).

[jdenenberg]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pycnanthemum @ Jun 14 2007, 10:16 AM) [snapback]461498[/snapback]</div>

I got my 30K service today on my 2005 Prius and on the way home the car stopped accelerating...on a highway...and then the "Problem!" light came on...and then I only had battery power...and then that ran out and I had to pull over.

Now I am back at the service place and they are towing my car in. If they didn't have free wireless here I would be scratching someone's eyes out.

Thanks for letting me vent :-).
[/b]

let us know the "codes" that were reported and the repair suggested by the dealer. It is probably not a coincidence that the problem occurred as you were driving home after work was done on your car.

JeffD

[pycnanthemum]

It is hard to believe this could have been caused by anything other than the service that was just done, for sure. We have never had a single mechanical problem with this vehicle, even though we had the stall recall (and of course had them fix that) we never had any problems associated with it. We did have damage to the vehicle after an accident but that was over a year ago and it came to this same service place for the repairs.

I will ask for the codes and repair when they are done, I am sure they will love me even more after that! :-)

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jdenenberg @ Jun 14 2007, 09:58 AM) [snapback]461532[/snapback]</div>

let us know the "codes" that were reported and the repair suggested by the dealer. It is probably not a coincidence that the problem occurred as you were driving home after work was done on your car.

JeffD
[/b]

[pycnanthemum]

Ok, I am home now and the car is hopefully fixed, here are the details as I remember them:

The service manager said a piece of leaf somehow entered the hose that brings air to the engine. The fragment made its way up to the air sensor (I forget the exact name for the part) and blocked any air from getting to the engine causing it to shut off. He said this happened when the service guy was changing my air filter, but very strongly stated that this was in no way the fault of the service guy, and that they haven't had something like this happen "for twenty years." They cleaned the hose and replaced the sensor even though they didn't think there was necessarily anything wrong with it, and will get warranty coverage from Toyota for that.

Of course I was so hosed myself after the whole ordeal that I just took in what he said and made sure the car was ok and drove home...totally blanked about asking for error codes etc.

I have the piece of leaf - will add photos later. Looks to be an oak leaf, it's dead and brown and about 1cmx2cm.

I would like to believe what the guy said but part of me (the part that knows nothing about the inner workings of cars) thinks this sounds like exactly what would happen if someone did a shoddy job of replacing the filter and making sure no crud got inside on the wrong side of the new one!


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jdenenberg @ Jun 14 2007, 09:58 AM) [snapback]461532[/snapback]</div>

let us know the "codes" that were reported and the repair suggested by the dealer. It is probably not a coincidence that the problem occurred as you were driving home after work was done on your car.

JeffD
[/b]

[efusco]

I think freak things do happen. I wouldn't blame the tech here either assuming what you're being told is true. I just hope it's not a situation where they actually forgot to put the air filter in and that's what cause the leaf to be allowed in...that WOULD be his fault.

[Swanny1172]

I call BS on their explanation. The only sensor in the area that you are talking about is the Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor, which is used to determine the mass of air entering an electronically fuel-injected engine. However, I have never heard of an MAF failure causing an engine to shut down. Sure, it may cause your CEL to come on, but that is usually about it.

[tnthub]

I find it difficult to me that a leaf made it all the way past the air filter with enough pressure to "seal" the intake to the point of choking off the engine to the point of disabling the vehicle. I have seen enough filty air filters in my life to question the ability of a simple leaf to cause this type of problem.

Most newer cars have a MAF and it is a highly sensitive device often with a few very fine hairlike strings running across on the inside with resistors on them. If those resistors are screwed up to the point where they are not accurate most engines will run rough but I have never seen one simply quit although i suppose it is possible for that to happen.

Weird stuff and it sucks to be inconvenienced by such a freak thing.

[pycnanthemum]

Mass Air Flow Sensor - that is what the guy was talking about, they replaced it.

Forgot to put air filter in, that is a very interesting theory...

[Swanny1172]

The other thing is that every MAF that I have seen has had some of plastic screen on it on the air filter side to prevent any debris the filter might have missed from damaging the hot wire on the MAF. So, even if the leaf made it to the MAF, I highly doubt that it would have damaged it in any way.

[chinalfr2]

BS. This is purely a fault from the tech. I think the Service manager trying to cover his butt and his buddy tech butt.

Another possible cause is when the tech removed the filter, got a long smoke break with the air filter covered open/exposed and dirts/leaves got in.

Now you should be more concern that some dirt got suck into the engine and might cause more wear inside the engine. A good oil and oil filter change might be the safer.