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RECALL GONE BAD!!!!

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by sleeping_doc, Nov 5, 2005.

  1. sleeping_doc

    sleeping_doc New Member

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    I have a 2005 White. Was really happy with the car until Toyota announced the recall.
    I took the car in on Thursday, Nov 3, 2005, the dealer told me to come back in a couple of hours after the simple "glitch" is repaired.
    Then I received a phone call after one hour from the service advisor Michael telling me that Toyota didn't anticipate another "glitch" and he has been in touch with Toyota to try to solve the "glitch" and he also tried to order another computer but has no idea how long it will take since it's on back-order with this new "glitch".

    According to the advisor, by using different scanners to try to re-program the Prius, my Prius now is completely inoperable.
    The service advisor is a great guy if any of your guys know MIchael at Torrance Toyota.

    Just wanna know from other members whether they have experienced the same problem since Michael tells me other dealers across the nation are ordering new computers all a sudden.
     
  2. bee13

    bee13 Member

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    I have an '05 white as well. In what month was yours built? Mine was build in July. Just wondering if mine might be in the same recall group.

    Sorry to hear about one thing leading to another. I bet that's not what you envisioned happening when you drove to the dealership.
     
  3. sleeping_doc

    sleeping_doc New Member

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    Dec 2, 2004
     
  4. bee13

    bee13 Member

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    Yep, I think you are in the recent '04 and early '05 campaign.
     
  5. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Thus my decision to wait a few months. The Flash should be safe, but it's also pretty easy to screw up if the techs don't follow the procedure exactly and, in some cases, can fry the ECU necessetating replacement of the ECU. It sounds like that's what happened here.

    Once they've done 10 or 20 of them the procedure is pretty easy and fast.
    --evan
     
  6. galaxee

    galaxee mostly benevolent

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    i imagine that "glitch" was a tech "screwing up", as efusco just mentioned.

    they don't like to use the words "we screwed up" on a regular basis so they fed you that line. sorry to hear about that. :(
     
  7. paprius4030

    paprius4030 My first Prius

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    Hey can somebody repost that link where you type in your vin number to see if this recall applies to you. I haven't heartd anything from Toyota and my car was built in Aug.05 so I think I'm safe.

    Thanks!
     
  8. galaxee

    galaxee mostly benevolent

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    no worries, paprius. mine was built in feb 05 and i escaped the recall.
     
  9. wb9tyj

    wb9tyj 2017 Prius Prime Advanced

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    Thats why i will wait ,as well. Seeing how my 04 was builtJuly of 2004, ( the VIN says i need it, but i have not heard a word, nor received any letter of "recall"...i will wait ...after 33000miles and a cross country trip under my belt...i will see...
     
  10. jkash

    jkash Member

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    I am scheduled for a 20,000 mile service this coming Friday. I spoke with the service writer about completing the recall at the same time, but think I will speak to the tech doing the work before I proceed. The techs have been pretty good where I take the car, but I hope mine is not the first recall they have done.
     
  11. hdrygas

    hdrygas New Member

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    The same sort of thing happened to others with an early ECU flash recall. The first people to do this had their ECU's fried. There were a number of reports. Several of the dealers were more forthcoming on why the problem happened. Once they get the procedure down it is easy, but some people need to learn the hard way to follow directions. If I recall correctly one of the problems was they needed to put a charger on the battery to supply power through and they skipped that step and the loss of power scrambles the ECU so it can not be reprogrammed. I think of it like unplugging your computer during a defragmentation of a hard drive or maybe a OS install. They should be providing you with a car to use. I am going to wait a bit. I have not gotten my letter yet and the car has worked well with out problems. I can wait.
     
  12. Charles Suitt

    Charles Suitt Senior Member

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    :( NOT GOOD NEWS, sleeping_doc


    Sorry to hear of your problem. That might make me consider "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.!" My Prius IS within the VIN range listed as needing the ECM flash.

    Did the Dealer provide you a Prius to drive while they're correcting their F.U.?? ... or at least adequate transportation.??
     
  13. Charles Suitt

    Charles Suitt Senior Member

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    <_< I did get my letter - SSC 50P ECM update.

    I'm with Evan and will defer having the reflash done until my Dealer has successfully done half a dozen or more. I will also have the brake light switch replacement done at the same time.

    **SIGH** I suppose it's the Prius Owner's lot to be essentially a "beta tester" in some ways by driving such a technically advanced car.
     
  14. mikepaul

    mikepaul Senior Member

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    I sure hope somebody else goes first at my dealer...
     
  15. aaf709

    aaf709 Ravenpaw of ThunderClan

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    You should be all right. One link is http://50preflash.imagespm.info/fra_home.cfm
    I don't know how well it works. I get a message saying I need to enter a valid VIN, while others says it shows them what they need to do. It's possible that the site is designed to assume you are part of the recall and tells you what needs to be done. If your VIN isn't part of the database it tells you to put in a correct one, rather than saying you're not part of the recall. Give it a shot and see how it works.
     
  16. smackoww

    smackoww Junior Member

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    i disagree on your analogy. its more like flashing the bios in a computer. if you lose power during a reflash, the program used that accepts the flash in the prius is damaged (along with the rest of the software on that chip). thus, cannot be reflashed. this risk was reduced in some computers by having redundant flash chips. if the update fails, the backup can 'fix' your screwup so you can try again.
     
  17. unique2006

    unique2006 Junior Member

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    Dual Bios motherboards :)
     
  18. hdrygas

    hdrygas New Member

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    I stand corrected you are absolutely right. It was something I have never done so it was not on my radar.
     
  19. DaveG

    DaveG Member

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    I bought a dual-bios motherboard... then the power regulator fried (as in actually turned in a black, smoking mass) on the board.

    There's just no winning sometimes...

    Dave
     
  20. smackoww

    smackoww Junior Member

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    hahaha, well thats an entirely different problem

    kind of odd that they made the prius flash upgradeable, and didnt make a redundancy. its not exactly difficult to do, and the technology for it has been around for quite a while. (and much cheaper than replacing the whole ECU) - not to mention all they have to do is pull the affected chip and put in one with intact software. (which is what you can do for a few dollars for a motherboard)