Red Triangle/Dealer Refusing to Honor Hybrid Warranty?

Re: Dealer Refusing to Honor Hybrid Warranty?

Thank you.

I should make it clear I wasn't really saying take Toyota to court because I know the OP would lose. I keep forgetting sarcasm doesn't go over all that well on line. I was really trying to say, no point whining on line about it, if you think you are being harshly dealt with there are things you can try but be prepared that if you haven't got a strong case you will still have to pay your repair bills and some costs on top. I don't think the OP has a strong case.

OP; -Your honour I was driving down the road and the "gas" gauge was reading empty and flashing at me, I know people run out of "gas" often in Prius because they post about it all the time but no one has ever run out while they have 2 lit bars on the gauge, anyway your honour I was driving until this red triangle appeared on the screen in the middle of the dash board and it said words to the effect of "out of fuel" so rather than stopping I kept going because there is a small capacity battery and an electric motor in the Prius that will keep the car going. No I have been a member of Prius Chat for some time and regularly people have warned that the Prius battery will bugger up, oh sorry your honour about my language but that is what they say, anyway they say the battery can be damaged by being allowed to run down below the charge it normally operates at but I pressed on until it almost wouldn't go any more. A few months later the battery died and Toyota believe it isn't their fault.

Judge; - Did you see any warnings about this in the owners hand book?

OP; - No your honour I didn't read the hand book, it was really thick.

Judge; - I award costs against the plaintiff. Yes sir you have to pay Toyota's costs.

SanPR, I should say I thought your intention was to "spread the word about nasty Toyota" when you posted about the warranty issue rather than looking for help with the tech side of things. We have had a little rash of people just posting about how hard done by they are at the hands of Toyota when in fact ther were the masters of their own destiny.

I wish you luck with sorting the warning out and getting back to worry free motoring.

 

The scary thing is I think Priuschat represents a rather small portion of Prius ownership worldwide. I work with 3 other Prius owners and they did not know about us. So I wonder how many new Prius owners are out there with no base knowledge gleaned from here and are running out of gas. And have big trouble then come looking for help. This car is rather unique and if I had not been a long time lurker here a few things the car does would have been a head scratcher. But I'm sure Toy designed the car to go into emergency mode when you go dry so all the drive controls just don't lock up on you like a normal car does so you can at least get off the highway when you go dry. Thank you Toyota! But it was not designed to get you to a gas station which everyone seems to think it was.
Also what I think I'm understanding is when owners do run out of gas they try to drive at highway speeds which seems to stress out the MG's and or hyper discharge the traction. Remember the one guy who came on complaining the car wouldn't do 70+ in emergency mode? That and when the traction finally goes deep dead they then try multiple re-starts which has to be real bad for the electrical system and hoses the small trunk battery.So the car ends up with super dead traction and boot battery and a tow.The tech at the dealer goes Wth? and then see's the gas tank is almost empty. It goes downhill from there I'm sure especially if the car is throwing weird MG dtc's too.
Maybe in the manual it should state when you run out of gas creep the car off the road to safety for short as possible distance and then get gas from AAA or whatever.What would have been cool is if Toyota put an adjustable alert on your trip odo so you could set a fresh tank at say 375 and it would gently alert you at 375 miles and that would be bingo. I don't do any computation of gas consumption I just reset the trip odo and at 375 or so I gas up. This leaves me with 2 gallons or so. 375- 400 miles is a long way between fill ups.I do the same thing on my wifes car. She says I need gas. I ask what does the trip odo say. I then know exactly how long she has before my life takes a very ugly turn.

 

It allows the hapless b@stard driving it to at least get it off the highway, where it would be a hazard to the rest of us.

 

Several things come to mind. First, about "out of gas" warnings. 10 bars disappear to 1. Then the car beeps and the last pip flashes. Then maybe it flashes faster and eventually a drop down message appears on the MFD "add fuel now" or some such. The next warning should be a cartoon mechanical arm wielding a wooden mallet pops out of the dash and bops the driver on the top of the head.

Second, if the traction battery is damaged by driving without gas wouldn't there be an immediate problem? My interpretation is the car acted normally for 2 months after the incident.

Third, if there is a county or state Consumer Affairs office perhaps the OP should file a complaint.

 

Re: Dealer Refusing to Honor Hybrid Warranty?

One of the differences is when running out of gas with a 'normal' car you can not drive it further without more gas, with the hybrid it appears on can do so. SO since McDonalds has to put on danger hot liquid in cup, maybe it would be prudent of some cut off switch being standard issue.

I am going to re fill at 2 lines myself, but I see Toyota loosing this in a law suit. Common sense has little to do with it.

Dr. C

 

See below.

 

the whole dashboard lights up. one knows if one runs out of gas. the car does not just keep going.

 

wow.. this post has gone south. settle down and get a room you guys.

Have you tested to make sure the HV battery is charging the 12V battery once the car is turned on? I ask because your problems sound familiar to my low voltage problems. there is only one difference, your 12v system doesn't light up once the car is in "ready" mode.

 

The battery is NOT fuel for the car.

Where does the battery get it's electricity? From the gas tank. The battery is just a temporary storage of a TINY bit of excess energy.

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I think the pack you got from ebay is bad. Perhaps the red triangle is telling you that the voltages from the battery ECU modules are way out of wack.

 

and you don't get it...

It "fuels" the car untill the hybrid battery clicks on... If the voltage is low, the systems can't click on.

when the system runs, the hybrid system charges the 12v.

i'm just staying the original poster should check to see if his/her 12v is getting a trickle charge or not.

 

Unfortunately, like with the prius out of gas ... yes, you CAN run a car without oil ... for about the same length of time ... maybe 30 - 60 seconds before, "POOF". Oil is maintenance ... coolant is maintenance ... gas is maintenance ... air filter ... maintenance, etc. Do without, and suffer the consequences. Count your blessings you went over 80K miles before this happened.

 

That would seem to be a very good thing. AND in the time it would take one to stop from even 75 MPH would not cause any damage to the car. Egos bruised not withstanding. ;-)

the whole dashboard lights up. one knows if one runs out of gas. the car does not just keep going.

Alan

 

Re: Dealer Refusing to Honor Hybrid Warranty?

NO cut off switch!! God I hope not as Toyota has graciously given us an emergency reserve to get off the road. Toyota is not going to lose sh*t in this or any other I ran out of gas and beat the battery's to death because I'm to lazy or to cheap to have AAA lawsuit. It would be an embarrassment to the plaintiff. But think about this: I wonder what our electric steering system does when it's completely dead jim? I don't want to ever know. At least in a normal car when you lose hydraulic pressure you can still steer to an extent. I bet in this car it just locks up. Imagine that....the car goes dead and with your cut off switch the steering wheel locks...while your doing 40 mph's down the road!! WOO HOO!!! Oh lordy. You want lawsuits? You got it!!! Toyota please do not change a thing. I greatly appreciate your thoughtfully designed car. It is an excellent machine.

 

I ment the hybrid traction battery. Not the stupid 12 volt thing that boots the computers.
Since people were talking about the hybrid using two fuels.

 

Have you checked to see if the service plug is properly installed?? After you rotate the "handle" up you have to push it down to complete the circuit. If it is not correctly installed you will get the master warning light and the vehicle will not go into Ready mode. Just a thought.

 

Re: Dealer Refusing to Honor Hybrid Warranty?

Just so you know that your steering is not electric in the way you think it is, if you were to lose electricity it would be the same as losing the hydraulics in a regular car.
Its power assisted by electric instead of hydraulics otherwise its the same as any other car.

 

Re: Dealer Refusing to Honor Hybrid Warranty?

Oh your right..sorry..was thinking of the AC system.

 

Uh.,... no... actually it happens to be the other way around... the BATTERY fuels the car... the engine turns on when the battery's charge is considered to be "too low".

 

Don't run a diesel out of fuel, the fuel in a diesel lubricates the high pressure fuel pump which has clearances measured in microns. A diesel fuel pump can cost thousands if damaged and may sieze if run dry.