Gas Pedal Stopped Responding

[Bill Merchant]

You are unique, priusnowork. One in a million, literally! I'm glad that YOU got your Prius and have saved the rest of us. Thanks. It must be your car, couldn't be driver error. The dealer must have been wrong, sell your Prius now (so many people waiting.) 60 is what, only 5 miles over the speed limit. Criminal.

[donee]

Hi Prius...,

Can you remember putting your foot on the brake during the restart. This is common for newbie Prius owners to forget to push down, or all the way down on the brake during starting, especially under stress.

Alternatively, the brake pedal switch might be bad.

BTW, do you have long legs? As other people have indicated, long leg people can accidently knee the shift knob into neutral. Also, are the people that were with you that day prone to playing pranks (like pushing the gear shift into neutral)?

[TheAnnoyingOne]

It is highly suspicious that whatever happened did not cause a Christmas tree display on your dash. The most probable cause was that either you or your passenger shifted the car into NEUTRAL - if there was any electric, mechanical or computer breakdown you would have seen one or more bright signals on your dash.

The car WILL activate the electric system any time the START button is pressed but it will NOT allow driving unless the START button is pressed WHILE the break pedal is firmly pressed.

It happens to many new drivers - the car did exactly what it was told to do.

[malibujohn]

I had a similar problem yesterday. I was driving on a winding country road in Ontario (Canada) There was a light rain falling. I entered a tight left turn at speed & a warning buzzer sounded & a red triangle with an exclamation mark appeared. The icon would go off & on periodically. The word "PROBLEM" appeared at the top of the screen with what appeared to be a thermometer or temperature icon. I came to a straight stretch of road & pulled off to the side . There was not much traffic on the road. I checked the oil level & coolant quantity & both seemed normal. The lower rad hose was hot but appeared normal. I started the car again hoping the icons would reset, but they reappeared intermittently only this time with the CHECK ENGINE icon.
The car is a 2007 Prius purchased in Feb.08. It has 5300 Mi on the odometer. Private deal in Toronto.
I drove the car 60 - 70 miles to a Toyota dealer. They said it is displaying icons they had never seen before. They scheduled an appt. for Thurs. morning at 9:00. At first they said they would clear the icons but then suggested they leave them until the car was repaired or diagnosed. I drove another 20 - 30 miles to see my son & after the visit headed home. The car was in cruise control at 80 KM/Hr, when I noticed that when it was going uphill, the engine would race. At first I thought it was normal but then it occurred more frequently, I disengaged the Cruise control & found the car was losing speed. I would press on the gas pedal , the car would go a little faster but not in relation to how hard the gas peddle was pressed . When I took my foot off the gas, there was a rattling sound. The engine finally quit & I had to pull off the road before I entered an intersection. I turned everything off. After 1/2 hr., I restarted the car but could not get it into Drive. It would go very slowly in reverse. The car has been towed to the aforementioned dealer. Due to the Canada day holiday, I do not expect any communication from the dealer until Wednesday.
I suspect a transmission problem.
Has anyone had a similar experience?

[metal_chair]

Originally Posted by priusnowork

Hi all, thanks for responding. This form rocks.
It was the wierdest thing. I was going 83 on the freeway and all of the sudden the speedometer started showing 82, 81, 80, 79, ect... I was in the carpool lane with 3 passengers (on the 405 in Southern California) and I had to start jack Knifing the freeway to get over to the shoulder. I basically slowed the entire freeway down to 40 miles per hour while I was cutting everybody off. Once I made it 7 lanes over to the shoulder I shut the car off and turned it back on. When it came on again, the car wouldn't go into any gear (it was stuck in Park). I had my brother try to get it in gear and he couldn't either so we shut the car off again but this time we waited 3-4 minutes to turn it back on. After the second re-boot the car finally was able to get into gear. The car acted very strange the rest of the trip... it felt like the engine was pulling at times and then the steering wasn't quit right. I drove 60 miles per hour (right next the shoulder) the rest of the way. I took the car into Toyota and they drove it for 200 miles and said they couldn't find anything wrong. They gave the car back to me, but it's sad cause I'm super scared to ever take it on the freeway again. The Prius was a great car, but after that happened to me and my family, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I'm sorry but the car really sucks. I've never heard of a car that shuts down on the freeway and risk the passengers lives like that.

yeah right!

[qbee42]

Originally Posted by malibujohn

<snip> I suspect a transmission problem.
Has anyone had a similar experience?

The Prius doesn't have a transmission, at least in the normal sense, so you can rule that out. All of the normal work of the transmission is done by one set of fixed gears and two motor-generators (MGs). Without codes it's hard to comment, but it could be a battery or inverter issue, assuming the engine is running correctly.

Tom

[patsparks]

Piece of crap, I suggest selling it for $5000 under market value and putting this down as a learning experience. Advertise it on priuschat, who ever gets this Prius cheap, don't forget to thank me.

[metal_chair]

Ill buy it for $2000 U.S. and you pay to ship it. then we will make it into a Drag Prius

[statultra]

the car probably shut down on the freeway becuase you werent driving a prius, you probably got a bootleg from GM

[richard schumacher]

I had a similar problem yesterday.[...] The car has been towed to the aforementioned dealer. Due to the Canada day holiday, I do not expect any communication from the dealer until Wednesday. I suspect a transmission problem. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Please let us know what codes the dealer finds.