Help! Wife stuck on side of road in '06 Prius

[cbs4]

Just got a call from my wife, who is currently stuck on the side of the road with her 06 Prius. I don't have the manual (as it's in the car) and I don't have a clue why the car won't go.

She says "it has plenty of gas in the tank." She says the "VSC" light is flashing.

On edit: Turns out, HER definition of "plenty of gas in the tank" differs substantially from mine (and the rest of the world's) definition. HER definition is "well, when the empty light was blinking last week, I went another day and a half before I got gas..." So to HER, that meant she had plenty of gas.

When I got to her and her car, the empty light was blinking. Unfortunately, I didn't get to her before the tow truck did, so I had to pay for the tow truck too, as I finally caught up to her at the dealership where she had been towed to.

Now, back to the rest of the old (obsolete) post:

A red triangle is flashing, and the check engine light is on.

Car with an exclamation

So far, I've told her to hobble the car entirely off of the road to safety at an exit.

I then asked her to call work and tell them that she would be late (to the most important sales meeting of the new year, btw).

I then asked her to completely shut off the car, lock it, and walk away (out of the SKS range) in order to fully cycle the power/computer etc. She did, and the same problems appear.

I finally asked her to dig out the owner's manual and call me...

She's got the manual in hand and it says to take it to the nearest Toyota dealer immediately.

Should she drive it there? Or have it towed?

[unruhly]

Originally posted by cbs4@Jan 27 2006, 12:17 PM
Just got a call from my wife, who is currently stuck on the side of the road with her 06 Prius. 

She's got the manual in hand and it says to take it to the nearest Toyota dealer immediately.

Should she drive it there?  Or have it towed?

[snapback]198660[/snapback]

Call the closest dealership. Since it's still under warranty it's really their problem. It's only fair to ask them how the car should transported to them for analysis.

Does the car move at all? ICE run?

[TonyPSchaefer]

You could have her cycle the power a few times. SLOWLY. Not off-on-off-on-off-on. Rather: off . . . on . . . off . . . on . . .

In same cases of weird lighting, cycling the power clears the error queue. Unfortunately, this also clears any error codes and any hopes of decyphering those codes.

In the one hand is the sales meeting and in the other hand are the error codes.

[cbs4]

Originally posted by unruhly@Jan 27 2006, 09:26 AM
Does the car move at all?  ICE run?

[snapback]198664[/snapback]

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the car to know what ICE means.

What is ICE?

We have contacted the nearest Toyota dealer, and they gave us the number to a tow company.

I've now asked her to read the manual about the proper way to tow a Prius.

Is the big shipping hook that is removed upon deliver necessary to reinstall for towing?

[efusco]

Originally posted by cbs4@Jan 27 2006, 11:33 AM
Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the car to know what ICE means.

What is ICE?

We have contacted the nearest Toyota dealer, and they gave us the number to a tow company.

I've now asked her to read the manual about the proper way to tow a Prius.

Is the big shipping hook that is removed upon deliver necessary to reinstall for towing?

[snapback]198671[/snapback]

No, it needs to be towed on a flat-bed...not by the wheels.

Sorry you're having so much trouble.

The ICE is the Internal combusion engine...the main gas engine.

[JMcPhee]

Originally posted by cbs4@Jan 27 2006, 10:33 AM
Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the car to know what ICE means.

What is ICE?

We have contacted the nearest Toyota dealer, and they gave us the number to a tow company.

I've now asked her to read the manual about the proper way to tow a Prius.

Is the big shipping hook that is removed upon deliver necessary to reinstall for towing?

[snapback]198671[/snapback]

NO. forget that hook, it's for someone to pull you out of the mud. They'll tow it like they tow any other car, except up on a flatbed. Start treating it like any other car, get the tow to the dealership, and just prepare yourself mentally for your wife's tirade.

Oh yeah... ICE stands for Internal Combustion Engine.

[unruhly]

Originally posted by cbs4@Jan 27 2006, 12:33 PM
Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the car to know what ICE means.

What is ICE?
Is the big shipping hook that is removed upon deliver necessary to reinstall for towing?

[snapback]198671[/snapback]

The ICE is just an abbreviation used here for Internal Cumbustion Engine.
The VSC (Vehicle Stability Control), so I've been told, can damage Hybrid components if bypassed or if it malfuntions.

I wouldn't worry about putting the shipping hook/ring back on. The tow truck driver will have the necessary equipment.

Please inform us of what they tell you at the Toyota Dealer, and wether or not it is a simple fix.

Thanks and Good Luck!

[cbs4]

Well, now the phone in her car won't work... I can no longer reach her.

Now I have to leave work immediately (so now both of us are loosing the income we need to help pay for the Prius, and get in my reliable ExxonValdez of a GMC YukonXL that has never left me stuck on the side of the road, and go rescue her.

I'll sign off for now. Thanks for the help, and I'll keep you informed.

BTW, she was depleted in tears when we last spoke, so I don't think she will even have the energy for a tirade.

[maggieddd]

which dealer is she getting towed to?

[cbs4]

Originally posted by unruhly@Jan 27 2006, 09:40 AM
Please inform us of what they tell you at the Toyota Dealer, and wether or not it is a simple fix.  Thanks

[snapback]198677[/snapback]

My fellow Prius owners:

Turns out, HER definition of "plenty of gas in the tank" differs substantially from my (and the rest of the world's) definition.

HER definition is "well, when the empty light was blinking last week, I went another day and a half before I got gas..."

So to HER, that meant she had plenty of gas.

When I got to her and her car, the empty light was blinking. Unfortunately, I didn't get to her before the tow truck did, so I had to pay for the tow truck too , as I couldn't catch up to her until after she and her car had already been deposited (via flatbed tow) at the dealership where she had been towed to.

I gathered her, her belongings, and my composure, and spirited her off to her sales meeting that by this time she was 2 hours late to, leaving the empty Prius at the dealership.

Then, I had to find a place to buy an empty jerry can for gas. That was a journey in and of itself that would choke the bandwidth of this site, so I won't go into it.

Then I had to intoxicate myself with gas fumes while carting the full gas can inside my car to the dealership. Then this new fangled so-called "spill-proof" container turned out to be anything but spill proof, saturating my hands, the side of the Prius, splashing on the ground, back onto my pants, shoes, what a mess. The "spill proof" nozzle doesn't pour without being depressed, and once depressed, it dribbles everywhere, while a small percentage of gas makes it into the tank.

The Prius Certified tech, the one who confirmed that the diagnositc trouble code that triggered the check engine light was indeed "ran out of fuel," took one look at my latest and greatest EPA approved jerry can and immediately turned around to get a funnel. He said "those new cans SU_K", and advised me to remove the nozzle altogether.

But now I had the choice to wash residual transmission fluid down into the fuel tank from his well used funnel. And on it went...

After delivering her refueled Prius to her workplace and dropping off the keys with the office staff, (deftly avoiding meeting her face to face and revealing my inner cauldron made all the more volitile by the fumes that lingered on my skin), I began calculating the cost per gallon of what was salvaged from the spill-proven can on my WALK back to the dealership to pick up my car (the shuttle driver vaporized faster than the spilt gas on the ground).

With the towing, the new can (which I just gave to the dealership), the cleaning bill, my time lost at work, her time and reputation lost at work, oh, and the gas itself, I figured I paid well over $200.00 per gallon to bring her tank with "plenty of gas" up to a level where the Prius was driveable again.

So, I post this to assure Prius owners as well as would be purchasers of the Prius that my wife was not mysteriously stranded by her new Prius.

She is mysterious though.