Broke down 700 miles from home! Help!

mann,mann! please lots us know what toyota customer service work out.

 

I noticed there hasn't been an update to this thread in about a week. Anyone know what the verdict was? Did Toyota Customer Service "step up or what?

As a driver of a high mileage second generation Prius myself I am kind of curious.

Happy driving,
Chris

 

I'll be calling the dealer today to see what's been going on, we were waiting for the charging unit to be shipped so they can charge the HV battery and troubleshoot from there. Once I know more i'll post, but as you've read on the first page this dealer hasn't been very forthcoming with information. Now that Toyota customer service has a formal complaint with their name on it concerning the inconsistancy of information that we HAVE been receiving, who knows what they'll do know.

What I can update with is that within 48 hours after Toyota customer service was called, the car just so happened to not be outside anymore. Not sure if they received the charger or not, but something compelled them to drag the car inside the shop.

 

Amazing. Sounds like you've landed in the Twilight Zone of Toyota service centers. Hope it works out in the end!

- D

 

Update!

While i'm not 100% if there are employees at the dealer who might keep an eye on this site, i'm not really concerned. These happenings are too weird to not be broadcast.

It had been a week since I had heard out of the asst. service manager, so I dropped by after work. Come to find out, they charged the HV battery and managed to get the car started. As soon as this happened, a fuse blew (no, they didn't mention which one) and some relays just happened to be found as bad (again, not sure which ones; I will be requesting an itemized listing when I actually pick up the car) while all along smoke started coming from somewhere, assuming the engine compartment, apparently they grabbed fire extinguishers as a precaution.

Ever since this occurance, they've supposedly driven the car 70 miles and haven't managed to get the car to duplicate the problem since. 3 error codes came up on the ODBII, one of which was "transmission ECV" code all of which were reset, and never duplicated themselves since they were reset on the computer.

Now, all of this also occurred following the inquiry submitted to Toyota customer service and the battery charging costs have magically been stripped from the service bill on the car. The asst service manager said he'll call by the end of the week to release the car once they're confident the car won't try to catch fire (i'm still speculating if this happened or not) but once this whole thing is over with i'll post with closing remarks.

 

This was an amazing thread, I read the whole thing. It sounds like the "Mechanic" was not only a novice on Prius but cars in general. As Hobbit said, when trouble shooting, you probe, look, listen, check all fuses, relays, and replace as needed. Checking the 12V and replacing is easy, I'm wondering about the HV Battery tho, if one was to check the overall output voltage out of the battery pack, what might be the test points? can it be done with the safety switch pushed back in, and will a ordinary multi-meter at that 250-500VDC work? As for being prevented from checking the 100 fuse (while the car was outside), that's preposterous! Incidently the weather for the last week has been hellatious, probably in Kansas too, how did the dealership work om the car outside???? My regards to you and your parents, I sympathise with thier plight. Keep us tuned in. Andy. PS Pat called those relays early.

 

To be clear, the car is in Albuquerque. the car is registered in Kansas, where the parental units live. I'm stationed at Kirtland in Albuquerque and they were driving down to visit. As far as the weather, we haven't had anything to complain about but it has been chilly with some "moderate" wind chills high enough that i'm sure no mechanic would stand outside and try to troubleshoot a car during said conditions.

You're absolutely right, this whole situation is completely bizarre and while i'm sure the vehicle had a unique issue it still baffles me how these techs here managed to have completely contradicting information from what our Kansas dealer was explaining about basic principles of operation for the car. When those stories didn't add up and the ABQ dealer was in a position to make more money with their side of the story, that's when we started wondering what the heck was going on.

 

We have the car back!

Unfortunately, they can't give us a concise answer as to exactly what went wrong. Apparently, when the HV battery was recharged the inverter began to smoke and either a fuse blew at this point, or they had only looked for/ discovered the blown fuse following all of this. The dealer drove the car approx. 180 miles and could not replicate the problem, I picked up the car yesterday. Aside from the dealer burning half of the tank of gas in the car, they're waiving all repair costs and even paying for airfare so the parents can fly back and drive it home.

The only conclusion I can gather is that the customer service line was convinced that the dealer wasn't being honest with us and had been sitting on the car. The car is sitting in my garage right now, apparently the only fuse that was replaced was a 15 amp AM2 fuse in the fuse panel under the hood of the car, top right 2nd from the top. according to the dealer, this blown fuse rendered 4 or 5 relays to be inop and without them most of the electronics are toast in the car (again, according to the ABQ dealer).

Either way, we still don't know what was really wrong. Either way, we have the car back and it's working fine now.

Any input on this, we'll be more than happy to see what you all think. We're just as clueless as anybody else on this.

 

This dealer sounds absolutely horrible and sounds like a bunch of amateurs. It's good that they waived all the costs but did they at least give you an itemized list of the work done, codes, and parts replaced? It doesn't sound like it.

 

I hope they didn't damage something that will show up down the road. I would keep all your paperwork and document the stuff they did for later referance.

 

I'm sure once they arrive back home the car will be taken back to our dealer and have a good look over, but I haven't talked to them about it since yesterday. We're still scratching our heads over the whole thing, but the important thing is that the car is back and it does drive. Unfortunately, if they break down again I won't be able to drive out to go get them.

 

[The car is sitting in my garage right now, apparently the only fuse that was replaced was a 15 amp AM2 fuse in the fuse panel under the hood of the car, top right 2nd from the top.

Same as my car when my inverter coolant pump went out. Possibly in this case it (the pump) slowed or stopped on an intermittent basis, say after hours of running on the trip. I would make sure the drivers check for coolant flow/ pump operation regularly on the trip back.

I monitor the temperature of the inverter in the warmer months, anyone with an older prius should do this in my opinion.
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...-all-monitoring-temperature-mgs-inverter.html

 

Have an extra fuse, too

 

Shoot, they didn't even bother giving the car enough of a look over to get us a new air filter, it was one of the things I checked this afternoon and I found an abundance of dirt and bugs inside. I'm trying to decide whether to go back to the same dealer to buy parts or find them somewhere else.

That's an excellent idea though, i'm going to take up a collection of some select fuse sizes and keep them in a box that will stay in the car.

For the previous poster, is there a simple way to check the inverter for those issues?

 

Glad to hear that your parents' car is back in service. Too bad you don't have a list showing what was done.

Prius uses an unusual tiny fuse size that you may not be able to find at your local discount auto parts store. Might have to buy them from your dealer.

For future reference, there are a number of Toyota dealers that sell parts at ~25% discount from MSRP. The engine air filter may cost ~$20 at your local dealer; you can buy for $14 here:
Champion ToyotaWorld

Regarding the inverter coolant pump, you can verify its operation by looking for turbulence in the inverter coolant reservoir and by listening to it run. The pump is located behind the driver's side headlamp assembly and it sounds like an aquarium pump. You should not hear air bubbles. The pump runs at all times the car is IG-ON or READY.

I've suggested that owners should replace that pump at 100K miles as a preventive move, and did that a few months ago on my 2004, posting about that on this forum.

 

I will definately look into the inverter coolant pump, i'll double check if it has been serviced since all of the records would be at the home dealership anyway. I know you can hear a bubbling sound when the car shuts down, i'm not sure if that would be what you're referring to or not.

I'd take more time to tinker around with the car but the wife and a 5 week old takes priority over the car when $h!t hits the fan, or diaper for that matter.

On a side note, is there a simple way to clean/restore the suede fabric surrounding the interior door handle? the car has been heavily used and is in need of some TLC while it has downtime here in ABQ.

Thanks again, everybody. The information from this forum gave us more insight to the going-on's with this fiasco and was a major contribution to the outcome of this repair.

 

On my 2005 I've had good luck with Prestone brand upholstery and carpet cleaner. Works well, smell goes away fast, the smell is mild and pleasant, and it dries fast in warm weather. The trick is that the arm rest fabric is fragile and must be treated gently. Do not use the plastic scrub brush on the top of the can. Squirt the foam onto your hand and gently get rub the foam in. Then blot the foam and dirt up with a damp white rag. Then blot dry with another clean, dry, rag and let dry. You may have to repeat the process, but I find the fabric looks cleaner after it's dry than when it's wet.

I've used the Prestone on all the upholstery of my Prius and Escort. They were both"new to me" when I got them and I was pleased that the cleaner got rid of the cigarette smell. Later, Dan

 

As a postcript to this thread it was noted that Famtruss had discovered that the MAF sensor may have never been cleaned. From the condition of the air cleaner and surounding area it sounds like normal maintenace may have been non-existent. That being the case it should have been selfevident to the dealer. And a total checkup should have been forthcoming JUST from general condition. The dealer is to be applauded for his final treatment of your parents.The assigned mechanic was apparently an idiot, however the dealership was "In Charge" Maybe the screw-up was Holiday Schedule ???

 

The dealer, or Toyota regional ?

 

The dealer's attitude did a 180 degree turn after Toyota customer service was contacted, after that the costly repair estimates disappeared and magically the car started running again. Of course, the timing for all of this would have been in close proximity anyway but their attitude and cost estimates changed immediately once Toyota was involved with our accusations of them telling us the car operated in a manner that didn't make sense.

Unfortunately due to my work location I haven't been able to drive it much this week, there's a dirt road with many potholes that i'm not keen on driving the Prius on so my F-150 is taking the brunt of the spotty weather down here.

As far as routine maintenance, the car had gone in for an oil change before the trip but i'm not sure what was involved or why the MAF filter hadn't been changed. Also, the amount of time it had sat at the dealership negates any argument about scheduling; the fact alone it had sat outside for two weeks told me they weren't actively crawling all over the car looking for the problem.

Anyways, i'm repeating myself at this point. We're just happy we have the car back, and on a happier note they did buy a 2010 Highlander to replace another car of theirs that was in need of replacing. I'm happy to report they're thrilled with the vehicle, and it was a nice touch to know that the vehicle is based off of the camry.