power loss

My 2011 Prius two, bought new and owned less than a year, 25k miles, experienced a sudden power loss while on the interstate on May 8, 2012. The "Check hybrid system" dialog box warning appeared. A catastrphic and very dangerous failure. Through a dangerous maneuver I was barely able to get to the side of the road. It was towed to dealership, who told me I'd accidentally hit the gearshift and knocked it into Neutral, and that was the problem. Knowing I had not done that, I took the car anyway, and three miles down the highway it happened again. This time I was able to restart the car and drive it back to the dealership. The dealership has now had the car 2.5 weeks. At first they said they'd never heard of such a thing. As time went on their shop foreman began to drive it with diagnostic computer hooked up and finally the problem occurred again, leaving him stuck and having to be towed. The dealership has worked on it steadily since, talking with a Prius expert in California, and finally called and said they'd definitively diagnosed the problem, and were able to reproduce it. As close as I can come to the description is that it concerns a high voltage line that leads to the wiring in the hybrid transaxle. The solution is to replace the transaxle, which will take another week to get the part and make the repair. While the dealership stated this is a definitive finding, and I certainly hope they're right, I am not sure I will have the kind of confidence I had in the car before this problem. I must say I was badly disappointed, feeling that I'd been driving one of the most reliable cars on the road and then a catastrophic failure like this happens. In the end it'll be three weeks without the car, driving a loaner Camry that's a nice car, but will have cost me about $100 in additional gas costs above what the Prius would have cost.

 

On many cars, a faulty crankshaft or camshaft angle sensor will cause sudden power loss at speed. These failures sometimes recover while the vehicle is in motion. I don't know if the Prius has a crankshaft or camshaft position sensor, but I'd ask the dealer to look into it.

 

We bought a used 97 Camry years ago w/56k miles thinking, the only used vehicle we would get is a Toy. Three days later, it was blowing blue smoke at start-up like no one's business. Took it in and it was the value seals. fortunately the fix was covered by the warranty(just).
The point is, things happen to every make of car.

 

Yep. If you find a make or model of car that never has any problems please let us know :_>

 

I had the exact same thing happen to me in June 2012. Driving down the highway, and the car pops itself into Neutral and the check hybrid system warning light comes on on. Had to have it towed to the closest dealership who pretty much told me the same thing; I must have hit the park button driving down the road. However, about an hour prior to getting on the highway, we were driving down the road, heard a beep and started decelerating. My husband and I were looking around the car trying to figure out Wth and I noticed the car had some how ended up in Neutral. Shifted it back to drive kept on our merry way. Half hour later we pull into a gas station, and the park button is not working. The only way we could get the car into park was by turning the car off (pushing the power button). Once we got back in the car, we checked the park button and it seemed to be working again, so we took off down the highway. We only got about a mile before the car popped back into neutral, the check hybrid system light came on, and we could not keep the car in drive (by shifting it back into drive) because within one second the car would pop back into neutral.

 

My 2010 Prius had a similar thing happen- driving down the street at 45mph I hear a sound like a backfire and hybrid system light comes on. Pull into parking lot and turn car off, restart and light still on. Call dealership and they say "Bring it in". ALL of my service has been done as scheduled at the dealer through my 50,000 mile check( which was about 3 weeks prior). Go about 2 blocks and car dies in the middle of the street! Waited an hour for AAA in record 113F heat and I was towed to dealer. He hooks up diagnostic as tells me he has never seen these codes- no one at Toyota has and they have to call the factory on Monday( this was Saturday). Get a call to pick it up Monday and I was told- 2 hoses were loose and the computer system had to be rebooted and updated! Wth! They had just serviced the car, how were hoses loose! Why was I told "Nobody had ever seen this before"??? After paying the rental car fee, I demanded paperwork explaining what was done and apparrently there was a computer update that should have been done that wasn't. I am thinking this is something all Prius owners should have notice of- your car can die in the middle of nowhere and you are stranded! I am terrified this will happen again! According to the paperwork, if the update is not done before 80,000 miles you are SOL in terms of any warranty! Anybody heard of this!!!!!

 

It happened to me. But I had not moved the car. I was trying to put the vehicle into drive / reverse and couldn't get it out of Neutral / park. Those were the only options it would allow. Stopping (power off / on ) and starting solved it.
I've worked with computers for so long re-booting is 2nd nature I guess...

 

It'd be nice if louqwert had gotten back to us on their final outcome.

For those others who've experienced a legitimate safety defect, I'd file a safety complaint at Home | Safercar -- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Might be better to do it after it's been successfully resolved so at least the cause is known and can be included in the complaint.

 

It sounds like the car was in IGNITION ON, not READY. If you press POWER without stepping on the brake, you first go to ACCESSORY mode, and the next press gets you to IGNITION ON. Most of the dash lights up normally, but the READY light is not ON. In this situation, attempts to shift into REVERSE or DRIVE will instead shift to NEUTRAL.

Stepping on the brake and pressing POWER again will get you to READY, where you can shift normally. Or turning everything off and starting over will work as well.

About the only use I've ever found for IGNITION ON is for putting the car through a car wash. If the car is entirely OFF, then it will be in PARK and can't be moved. In NEUTRAL, the engine will not cycle ON.

 

RobH, .well if it happens again, i will take note.

I was pretty sure I tried putting my foot on brake and hitting start. That procedure turned the car off. WHen i turned it back on it started normally.. But I may have been mistaken... Thanks for the info.

 

To go into READY mode (which is what is required for your car to move), you MUST depress the brake pedal while pushing the power button. It is brake, not break.

If you don't push the brake pedal while pushing power and continue to not do so, you'll only cycle between ACC (accessory: stereo on), IG-ON (most dash warning lights on, HVAC running, stereo on) and OFF modes.

 

My wife had a problem with it failing to stay in D and popping into N. I discovered it was the garmin GPS power cord interfering with the shifter.

 

thanks cwerdna, as I mentioned to RobH, don't believe I missed putting my foot on the B R A K E.... but it's possible.
and me powering off and powering on with my foot on the B R A K E... seemed to do the trick...

But thanks for your posting... Appreciate it very much...