Repeated false alarms

In November my lovely White Pkg #9 began to false alarm at work. I took it to the dealer who indicated he was going to adjust the sensitivity.

The problem appeared to be corrected until mid-February at which time the car began to false alarm between 5 and 12 hours after being locked. The only way to stop it (before I was able to go to the dealer) was to leave the car unlocked - not an optimal solution.

After a week at the dealers where they eventually resorted to calling Toyota it turns out that they've seen cases of the car false alarming due to faulty front door locks. The locks send an incorrect signal that the car is being broken into. Toyota is aware of the problem and had two FTS's working on my car over the past week.

Other symptoms included the locks not being as responsive and having to press the unlock button multiple times to unlock - or the car not responding immediately to use of the door handle.

Thought it might help others so they would not have to wait a week to get the problem resolved.

 

Well, Rick, I spoke too soon. The new front door locks were installed, the car went home with one of the service engineers that night - and the alarm went off regularly. :roll:

Back to the drawing board, the new theory is that there is something wrong with the wiring harness. That's now on order and should arrive and be installed on Friday.

If this also turns out not to be the issue, I'll repost.

I would like to say that as annoying as it is not to have my car and to have apparently so many people fussing over it and it still doesn't work, I do feel like Toyota and the dealership are being very responsive. I've been without my Prius for over a week now and likely won't be able to get it back until Sunday. Keeping fingers crossed that this issue does not reflect future issues yet to be seen.

 

Ok, here's the update. Mario Jaime an FTS from Toyota corporate, according to my dealership he was involved in the design of the Prius, was brought in to diagnose the problem.

He concluded that the problem was in the wire harness. Turns out there are none to be found in the U.S. and it needs to be ordered from Japan. So, I'm in the rental car for the indeterminate future.

Question for folks here who are vastly more knowledgeable about all things car related than I. How worried should I be that it's a wire harness problem and how worried should I be that the solution resides in Japan?

Does this portend future bad things for my darling little Prius?

 

So, let me start with. I love the Prius, it took me a while to get used to not driving a little 2 seater rag top but I adore both my cars for their own unique benefits.

Here's the story:
November: car false alarms at work daily and repeatedly. Toyota adjusts sensitivity. Appears to have corrected problem.

February: car false alarms at work and every night between midnight and 5am (bleagh). Into the shop for 3 weeks where the door locks and the wiring harness are replaced. In the wee hours the morning following the cars arrival home the alarm goes off. seems like volume and lights associated with alarm are "weaker".

March: Toyota has car for a week, can't reproduce problem make me take my baby home. Car false alarms at work and at home. GPS is completely whacked out and has me driving through virtual fields while I'm on the highway. I've calibrated multiple times while sitting on the street in front of my home - to no avail, each time I turn on the map or request directions to a location I'm in some unknown part of CA. When I turn Power on without having foot on brake the nav display window comes up, radio comes on but no lights on the HUD - behavior different from previous.

April: Called Toyota Customer Care, expect to hear from them today. Keeping fingers crossed that this has a happy outcome without costing me too much.

:|

 

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the fast reply. My dealer won't look at the car any more so now it's in the hands of Toyota.

WRT the GPS, when I first got the car back it was set to Pennsylvania. I reset it to California and it remains there but seems to have no idea where I am. I've checked a couple of times just to make sure I really did set it to CA.

thanks!

 

quick update.

now working with Toyota Customer Care, they put me back in touch with the FTS (Mario Jaime) who had previously worked on my car. the current thought is that the lojack may have been hooked into the alarm wiring and may be drawing down the battery and triggering the alarm.

getting in touch with lojack folks to identify general location of sensor so Mario can look to see if there's any effect.

the ancillary problems which Mario believes may have been the result of the last service are:

• 
  
  this latest contact gives me some confidence that we're on the right track. am happy with toyota and the service to date. the FTS agreed that the dealership was giving me some pretty whacky explanations - more along the line of this is some female who likely won't understand a word we're saying.
  guess they hadn't counted on an engineer