News Story Stalling Prius'

[momstoys]

The news has been quick to jump on the problem of stalling in the Prius but lacks details. Does this happen only in one geographic area? Using certain octane gas? VIN no's.? Ambient Temp? Does the car restart after stalling? Any other details (need some reassurance) that tell me my Prius is immune to the problem? (NW Mich)

[GSpozars]

The problem was first reported on National news, weeks ago. Toyota has had a "software fix" for 2004 models and some 2005 models since earlier this year. As reported, 33 Prius with reported problems out of 88, 000 sold is a very, very small percentage.

[sparkymarvin]

Maybe it's just me, but I love it when my motor turns off.

[jtmhog]

Engine shutting off at highway speeds is unsat!! 33 out of 88,000 doesn't matter--fix the problem!! Hard to believe that Toyota sold 88,000 units that may have a software glitch. Sounds like a problem GM would have. Sales at GM And Ford continue to go down.

[Blue-Adept]

33 out of 88000 is .000375%

Millitary Radar caused Lexus vehicles to stall in alaska and ca. Maybe something simular.

Could be a fluke. We don't know the details of each issue. They could have bad gas for all we know.

I owned a 1996 Eagle Talon that would stall at any speed. It must have stalled 100 to 200 times. They never could fix it. Chrysler bought the car back.

Blue

[Tadashi]

I am not sure that is an issue. I live at Ft. Bliss and get blasted by radar all the time from the air defense artillery units in the field and classes next to my office from some very powerful stuff and have not had a problem.

[bobc]

Tadashi,

Just wondering if you've had problems with your eyes twitching.... :wink:

[jsorger]

Unfortunately the number is most likely much higher than 33.
Many of us who were not traveling at 'high highway speeds' never reported the problem to anyone but the dealer, who performed the software flash. I doubt that they report such things to the Feds, as they took very little info from me.

[SDiego]

Well mine is a 4-05 Production, and sometimes I wonder if it's worth a phone call to the dealer to see if there is any updates that can be done, to prevent any of this. You would think they might now by producion dates if it is the latest or not.

Ron

[outoftown]

I had repeated stall problems with my 2001. The first time it had to be towed. I don't think the problem with the stalls was reported as much with the first generation because of the 3 year all maintenance included for free deal. The software glitch happened at least three times to me that I can recall and a couple of times when my wife was driving, including instances after taking it back to different dealers more than once to address this issue. The most embarassing moment was trying to leave a restaurant parking lot when the car went completely dead with other relatives in another car behind us. I had to wave them around and wait awhile to reboot. I thought the software glitch was an issue of the 1st generation and was surprised when my first 2004 experienced a similar lock down and limp home mode problem, which we were able to drive to the dealer with the exclamation mark showing on the LCD without significant loss of speed. The later 2004 I bought did not have any problems like this and so far we've had it almost a year with 16k miles without a glitch.

I think Toyota is only at fault for not notifying owners of the potential problem, and for not mentioning the need to drive or coast to a safe place, wait and reboot (restart) as a solution, which heretofore, has never been thought of as a way to get a car moving again, then get to the dealer ASAP for a software check or reload. There wouldn't be as many upset customers because most people don't realize this kind of problem has to be dealt with like your DirecTV receiver or your home PC instead of your old ICE car. Toyota should have realized this could be a problem from the complaint feedback on Hertz Prius rentals.