Loss of power / stalling.

Hi everyone. I'm new here. I joined because my father has a Prius and I don't think it's safe for him to drive it. We need some advice.

The situation is loss of power and stalling for no apparent reason. This can happen on the highway or at a stop light. It could happen in the middle of an intersection while turning and cause an accident.

He has brought it to the dealership many times. They can't find anything wrong. They claim there are no codes being thrown. They say there's nothing that they can do about it. Most cars that I know of will throw a code when stalling but they claim otherwise.

I suggested to my father that he should ask the dealership for a Toyota area rep. to look into this matter. I'm not sure what else to tell him. It's not a fuel issue. He buys gas at different stations.

It seems my father is caught between a rock and a hard place. He is beyond the time for the lemmon law to be enforced.

My father no longer trusts his Prius. He is going to go on a 400 mile vacation to San Diego soon but will not be in his Prius.

how many times has it stalled? is it constantly doing this?

is he still using the stock 12v battery? he should change it if so.

if it's not charging right, and kinda stalling, and has reduced power yet not throwing codes.. then it's potentially an ignition coil that's gone out.

if the vent fan is blowing away all the time and it's constantly acting funny after longer trips, or hills, it could be the battery fan...

if the system is acting funny on a more of a constant, but more so with use.. it could be the inverter pump.

so... check the 12v battery voltage (car off).. it's in the rear on the right.

check to see if there is turbulence in the inverter reservoir (up top in the center of the engine bay with pink fluid in it.. pop the cap and make sure it's running...) ... car on of course during that test...

Thanks for the reply. No, it's not constant. It does it on longer trips and on hills. It has also done it in city traffic. It gets very hot here (Tucson) if that makes a difference.

I don't know if he has the stock 12v battery or not. I can find out.

I will check it and the inverter coolant tank and see if there's turbulence.

I would hope that the dealership already checked these things but who knows?

it probably qualifies for the inverter pump recall anyway... though... i'm not sure which years do qualify. i know i do but i haven't done it yet.

it really does sound like an inverter cooling issue.

the dealership checks for codes being thrown.. that's kinda about it...

if that is the problem, you risk basically burning up everything.. the battery you can get for a cheap-ish price.. the inverter always tends to cost from what i've seen...

Thanks. Also, I'm just guessing it's a 2006. It might be a 2008 or 2009. I'll have to ask again.

well.. as a guess... there are only a few ways to tell off hand... 04 and 05 have black brake lights... 06 - 09 have silver brake lights... i like the 04/05 (my model) because the mini window kinda has a vanishing look to it... black on black...

LOL, thanks. I can just ask my dad as well.

So it's time for the lemon law to be enforced but you don't know what year the car is, how old replaceable parts are (such as the 12v) etc.

Hmmmm. Perhaps it's time to find some facts out first? Perhaps if we establish further details of the car including the mileage we might be able to work out what's wrong with it

As far as I know the Prius you refer to has 280k miles, no service history, is 8 years old with the original 12v and has been sat in the Arizona sun all its life.

It is possible that engine overheating will cause a stall, replete with a flash the the red triangle, but not set a code. Some reasons for this would be broken "serpentine" belt, electric fan not working or installed backwards, system airlock, thermostat stuck closed.

Just about everything else, including HV battery problems, engine misfire due to ignition coils or fuel pump/pressure, inverter cooling pump, etc. will set a code, provided that 12V power is not removed in the process.

Or crap gas since he buys it anywhere. My 2006 seemed to prefer Shell. My 2010 didn't like Wawa but runs fine on Citgo.

Check if it needs the throttle body cleaned out.

JeffD

Sounds like the 12 volt battery, if it is original, I would change it just to be sure. It could have a shorting cell that clears out, causing the problems without generating codes.

Thanks guys. I'm going to ask him for more details on the car.

"The" dealership, as in, the same one every time? Take it somewhere else; the first guys may simply be clueless. It happens.

Can you ride with him until it happens, preferably more than once? That might shed a lot of light.

BTW. There was a very similar thread posted just a few days ago: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-technical-discussion/95785-really-unfixable.html

If either of these users find the root cause of the problem I hope that they post it here to possibly help others who might some time get the same problem.

Communist Anti-American gas from Hugo Chávez!!:madgrin:

OK, it turns out to be a 2009 with about 16,000 miles on it. They had already replaced the 12v battery.

My dad took it one more time to a dealership and once again they said they couldn't find anything wrong so they were unable to fix it.

My dad gave up and traded it in. He got 75% of the retail price for the trade-in value. He ended up getting a 2011 Corolla.

At least he got another Toyota.

I'd never heard of Citgo (guess it's a US only brand) and was surprised by your comment and looked them up on wiki.

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citgo]Citgo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

I was shocked. This oil company is wholly owned by Venezuela's oil company which is obviously owned by the Venezuela Government, who like you say are Communist and Anti American in everyway possible.

Every dollar profit from this company must go to the Venezuelan Government one way or another and allows them to continue their hatred of the free world and especially America.

Perhaps as an outsider I don't know the full facts (and am open to hear them) but I am surprised America would allow Venezuela to make money from them. If ever there was a reason to reduce oil dependency this is it!

How is this worse than America allowing Saudi Arabia and the other unfriendly Middle East countries to make money from sales of oil to the US...