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My prius lost its power while driving this morning!

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by G3priusV, Jun 1, 2010.

  1. G3priusV

    G3priusV Member

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    Up until this morning I thought I had almost a perfect car with a potential of lasting for 10 years but this morning, while I was driving on a local road with 35-40mph, so suddenly my car stopped moving and I couldn't even pull over as it completely stopped with no error or any warning/alerts! So, I turned it off and on again, it started working but I was still nervious if it would happen to me again while driving on a freeway but thank goodness, it didn't and I have made to work safely. Now a question is should I bring it to the dealer today and have them run their diagnostics on their computer to see if anything is wrong with the car engine/ battery/ or anything else or should I just reboot it like we do for computers and go on everytime it happens? It's just little scary to think of its happenning during a busy highway driving! Has it happened to anyone else? I have driven it since July and has about 14K and I have had a good MPG of anywhere between 50 to 60.
     
  2. stream

    stream Senior Member

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    If it were me, I'd drive directly to the dealer. Very unsafe to have a car lose power, particularly on a highway. It happened to me once with a previous car, and it was no fun.
     
  3. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    My Prius is at 20,000 very hard miles and hasn't done what yours has just done. I'd certainly get it round to the dealers asap and make sure they don't fob you off. It might be something simple, but it certainly needs looking at.

    You do not want your car doing that again!
     
  4. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    Heck I wouldn't even drive it to the dealers... call them up and tell them to pick it up and fix it.
     
  5. Salsawonder

    Salsawonder New Member

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    Any chance something accidentally engage the shift to neutral?? Computer glitches are hard to recreate so it may difficult to find the cause.
     
  6. PaJa

    PaJa Senior member

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    If orange "check engine" light was not lit during the incident, the dealer doesn't find anything usefull. My guess is - the 'N' was engaged.
     
  7. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    My fav trick is to accidentally press 'Park' instead of 'Auto' on the a/c!! So far I've been lucky and it's only put the car in Neutral.

    Like other posters have said, are you sure you haven't put the car in Neutral by mistake? Or did the car lose all power, steering etc? and did any warning lights light up?
     
  8. Thai

    Thai Prius Neophyte

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    Just posting to subscribe to thread. I would like to hear what happened.
     
  9. G3priusV

    G3priusV Member

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    Nope, as it was a cool morning I didn't have to use/ turn on my A/C or anything and it was on 'D', no warning light or anything came up. It just so suddenly slowed down fast and stopped moving, I wasn't even able to pull over which I should have been able to if it was on 'N' instead it just lost its power so suddenly. And as it is a scary thing to happen, I brought the car to the dealer a few minutes ago but since no warning light is on they can't do anything for it so they said to bring it back to them if it happens again or leave the car with them for a day which I couldn't since I have to get home somehow today. So, I'll just pray and hope it won't happen to me again. Scarrrryyy!!!
     
  10. V8Cobrakid

    V8Cobrakid Green Handyman

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    there's only 1 time i've experienced anything like this.... 12v short. it resets everything in the car and you basically have to pull over and restart.
     
  11. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    This description is inconsistent. I'm not trying to nitpick or claim you are lying, but what you are saying doesn't make sense. How would losing power prevent you from pulling over as opposed to shifting to N? With a Prius drive system, losing power is effectively the same as shifting to N from the standpoint of coasting to the edge of the road. It's not like a conventional transmission when the stalled engine causes the drive wheels to drag.

    Do you care to expand on your explanation to clarify this inconsistency?

    Tom
     
  12. G3priusV

    G3priusV Member

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    Tom, sorry if I confused you somehow since I'm not an expert on this but what happened to me was just the car stopped moving in the middle of driving even though everything was on (except any warning lights :)) and I did have almost full battery but I'm glad at least it started working okay after turning off and on. One thing that's not really related to the issue but when I turned it on to drive to the dealer today, the Oil Maint. Required warning just came on first time since my last oil change. But I don't think it should have anything to do with it? Anyway, Tom, I myself am pretty puzzled with this and unfortunately no one can explain why it happened! So, I just really hope it won't happen again!
     
  13. phoenixgreg

    phoenixgreg Senior member

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    Was someone else driving it recently?
     
  14. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Okay. Thanks for your explanation. Just so you understand, when you remove power from a Prius it will coast just like you are in Neutral. The difference would be that you will either get a lot of error lights or all of the power will go out, so the whole panel will be black.

    If you accidentally shift to N you will lose all driving power, but everything else will stay powered.

    Tom
     
  15. G3priusV

    G3priusV Member

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    So, did it happen to you too? I tried to pull over too since it was a busy time of the day but I couldn't as the car wouldn't move and all I could do at that moment was to turn on the emergency signal so the cars behind me started going around me. And was it a 2nd gen prius? Anyway, thanks for sharing and glad to hear that it only happened once!
     
  16. G3priusV

    G3priusV Member

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    Hahaha, nooo, I bought car last year July and it has about little over 14000 miles and it's been driven almost everyday except for a week I was out of town and I haven't had any battery problem even after that. And this morning I did have a fully charged battery as the car display said! :)
     
  17. phoenixgreg

    phoenixgreg Senior member

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    The fully charged battery is the traction battery, I would assume. Have you checked the health of the 12 volt battery? With your V, I think you can check it with the NAV screen.
     
  18. Eoin

    Eoin Active Member

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    Hard to understand how such a major event could happen without any warning lights or error codes.
     
  19. Salsawonder

    Salsawonder New Member

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    We had a Chevy Malibu back in the 70's that would have frozen water in the gas line...constantly stalling out. My mom got rid of it quick. Should not be the same with the Prius though because of the engine configuration......Hope the dealer can find something but I doubt it.
     
  20. JimN

    JimN Let the games begin!

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    Based on my 1 unfortunate experience as long as it is under warranty I would leave the car "as is" & have Toyota pick it up. I agree that as long as there isn't a code or a light the most you'll get is "can't reproduce the problem" & "bring it in when it happens again". If your name is Toyoda then MAYBE you could find a dealer that would try to diagnose a problem.