Blown Engine

When you loose the oil, the light should come on. It looks like an oil can. Once it comes on, you need to pull over and stop the engine as quickly as possible, which I a mean 1 minute or less. My wife had this happen many years ago, and she ignored it "the car was still running, so I thought it was OK". I had to swap the engine. It cost me $400 for the engine and a few weekends of work. That was 25 years ago! The price you were quoted sounds reasonable. My father in law just did the same thing (he was low on oil, not out) and he made his car an oil burner. This light means business, never ignore it!

 

This really sucks and I hope it gets resolved. When I was a teenager we had a similar experience during a cross country move and my dads pickup truck was on a tow dolly behind our Uhaul. Somehow the truck managed to pop into gear from neutral and eventually the entire engine compartment of the pickup went up in flames. Surprisingly my parents car insurance did cover it.

 

Pat, that was beautiful. Thanks. By any chance do you write for Harlequin?

 

Thank you, thank you.
Maybe I should look into moving in that direction.

 

[Jayman on all fours, kissing the carpet, eternally grateful he is happily single]

 

Sometimes, when the 12 vdc battery is disconnected, and wiring harnesses are unplugged, odd behavior happens.

 

It could also be a symptom of microfactures in the soldering of the mfd circuit board... I recall some people having problems with the a/c controls and missing data from the mpg graph...

 

I thought the majority of Prius having the MFD issue were 2004-2006 cars??

 

I think it is the 2004-early 2005 cars. The late 2005s don't seem to have the problem.

 

On 6/24/2009, I was driving my 2007 Prius from the San Francisco area to Los Angeles. About 5 miles outside of my destination, I got the "red triangle of death" on my dashboard and a "check engine" light on the top left of my center screen. I stopped my car and got it towed to a nearby Toyota dealership.

I found out from the service advisor the next day that my oil drain plug was missing (no damage whatsoever surrounding it), there was no oil, and that my engine was "heavily damaged." I promptly called my insurance company and filed a claim.
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(after repair)
Everything else in the car seems to be working fine.

I just read the original complaint , and what puzzles me is the only complaint you originally have are the engine lights. Wouldn't lack of lubrication first cause major valve train noise? Was there any? Curious how fast you were going, and if you had to turn off the engine or did it die?
I don't happen to fully trust dealerships. Anyway, am curious and want the whole picture, thanks in advance.

As an aside, I don't understand how lack of lubrication causes the red triangle to illuminate;from another source-'Red Triangle of Doom is my name for the HV system dashboard warning light, an indicator whose illumination should always be treated with the greatest respect, since it can come on for any fault detected in a hybrid high voltage (HV) system; and that includes a potentially dangerous isolation fault caused by a breach in the high voltage insulation.'

Also - I may be going out on a limb-
One odd thing I noticed was how my cd player worked after a couple of hours of driving.
Odd electrical happenings after hours of driving; I be sure to check your inverter coolant pump is working, an overheated inverter could possibly cause this. Or it could be a bad switch. Just something to check.

 

Yes, it doesn't make sense that the steering wheel controls work but not the unit itself. I understand that was temporary .
I have no clue about that.

I harp on the inverter pump going out because it stranded me once, and the dealership didn't even notice it when it was towed in, just replaced a fuse to make my car run again. Anyway , it's easy to see if its running, turn the car 'on' , ( it, the pump, produces the subtle hum by the front left headlight area), pop the hood and remove the cap of the little reservoir by the inverter , you will see some turbulence in the pink fluid, similar to fish tank amount of water moving from a pump,, it won't spray you, fairly low pressure. My car didn't warn me with engine lights, until it overheated ,that it-the pump- was not working.
I noticed your car is an 07, fairly new,so this probably isn't a problem, but something definately to know about.