At 65MPH dashboard lights all lit for a second and then died w/ burning smell

History: 2005 Prius has 130,000 miles and was rear ended in mid November (less than 2 months ago) on drivers side rear with $5500 damage.

Yesterday my husband was driving at 65 MPH when all the lights on the dash all lit up for a second before the entire car died. The car was DEAD, wouldn't do anything except the lights worked (I'm assuming cause it's the starter battery). Ran hazards for approx an hour waiting on tow truck but the rear left light only flashed approx 1 in 10 times compared with the rear right light. Car had a terrible burned smell.

1.5 hours later the tow truck shows up and says "man, your car smells terrible". We towed it to Toyota Dealership.

Dealership calls today and they still don't know what is wrong and said both batteries are dead. He also said they haven't seen this before (although this is the Saturday crew, I believe there are less and possibly less experienced staff). They asked us if we can pay more than the previously agreed diagnostic fee.

Has anyone heard of this before? I'm scared we're going to wind up with a repair bill totalling into the thousands. Do you think the accident is related?

Please help, your thoughts are appreciated especially how this could relate to the accident.

 

SteveLee, I think you nailed it but I will find out for sure on Monday. It seemed to be an instantaneous failure. Good point on the diagnosis, no they are not the same companies.... Thankfully.

 

We replaced the coolant pump about a year ago. Both of us would never, never, never drive with the idiot lights on. We know that driving in that condition does more damage most of the time. We are way beyond any warranty with 130000 miles on the car. I'm located in Minnesota, Friday was an abnormally warm January day with highs somewhere in the low 40's.

Friday was a normal day at the office for my husband, 22 miles to work and this failure happened about 2 miles into the commute home at the end of the day.

I wasn't in the car, but my husband's words to describe the dash board lights were "instantaneous". He said all the dash lights lit and a moment later everything shut down. Again I know he would never drive with idiot lights on, we've had a few discussions on that over the years.

I sure hope they can still get the codes, but both batteries are dead, so I'm guessing they may not be available.

This problem smelled really expensive right from the start (literally and figuratively). If the dealership thinks it's related to the accident and is willing to put that in writing, I'll have them fix it (first try to get approval from insurance co of course). If not I'll report back here and see what you think of the estimate etc...

I have concerns that either the hybrid batteries need to be replaced or the electric engine failed. Both expensive. Is the electric engine in the back? I know the hybrid batteries are.

I would love to take it to a competent independent shop, but I have no idea who is competent locally to work on these cars. Due to the magnitude of the problem we figured Toyota was the best place for it. I originally called a local auto repair place I like and they said "we have some experience working on issues like that on those cars". After he said that I decided not to take it there and go straight to Toyota.

 

I wasn't thinking the body work was the cause, but rather the impact may have resulted in a premature death of the battery? Don't any of you think a collision strong enough to bend the rear axle could do other damage that wasn't found on the original repair? How much impact can the batteries take?

I don't think it's the water pump again because Toyota dealership said they have a $120 diagnosis fee. They called back midday yesterday and want to increase the diagnosis fee up to $300 because they can't figure it out yet. He also stated he has not seen this before and this is probably the largest and most reputable Toyota service in the Twin Cities. If it were the water pump, I would expect them to have found it immediately.

No it didn't run out of gas and we don't drive on the hybrid battery ever either. We've read years ago never to do that for the reasons you've stated. Again, the Toyota service probably would have figured that out with the $120 diagnosis fee.

I truly this is an unusual one and unfortunately expensive repair.

 

****MORE INFORMATION*****

I was wrong that the brakes didn't work. My DH originally told me "I couldn't stop and I had to coast" which I took to mean the brakes didn't work.

Talking to him again, he meant he couldn't stop because he was in the middle of rush hour in the middle of the freeway so he had to coast a bit to get over to the side of the road. Ugh... makes me cringe to think about the poor car. He added he didn't smell anything until half way through coasting before stopping.

 

Unfortunately the time between the incident and the time they looked at it was around 20-22 hours, so by no means "short period". In that time a cold front moved in and cold has a way of getting rid of smells faster. They smelled nothing by the time they looked at it (I know that cause he called and I told him about the smell he said he didn't know that).

It's unfortunate the service shop was closed when we dropped it off, we didn't talk to them face to face.

 

Britprius, I sure hope and pray you are right. I hope Monday brings some good news. The coolant pump at this point would be awesome news. I just don't understand why they wouldn't figure that out immediately. Unless they have a skeleton staff working Saturday with less experience. The more experienced people may work M-F. If I have to pay $300 for them to tell me I need to replace the coolant pump, that seems a little ridiculous. I believe too they may waive the charge if it ends up being coolant pump.

I received the recall notice in the mail this week, I haven't even opened it yet. I didn't really know anything about it until today.

I will definitely post the result. My husband also asked me to do this so the next guy sitting in his dead prius with an iphone can figure out the problem while waiting for a tow. All he found was the coolant pump issue and hopefully that is the answer.

 

Thanks Dave, that does sound identical. Especially seeing the info about the lit up instrument panel (this is a bit different than our original failure of the water pump). This would be a great outcome. I'll let you guys know tomorrow the outcome.

 

I finally opened my mail from last week and the Toyota Recall Notice.

The recall I received says:

There is a possibility that the coil wire of the electric motor installed in the water pump may have been scratched during the coiling manufacturing process at the supplier. In this condition, the coil wire may corrode at the scratched portion and in some cases break. If this occurs the water pump could stop, leading to illumination of various warning lights in the instrument panel. There is also the potential that a short circuit can occur between adjacent coil wires, resulting in an open fuse for the electric power supply circuit. If the fuse is open, the hybrid system will stop while the vehicle is being driven, which may increase the risk of a crash.​

It's an exact match to what happened. I haven't heard back from Toyota service yet, apparently the tech working on my car works the evening shift today.

I probably would have given more consideration to what edthefox5 said, if he hadn't rewritten what happened. He said we probably kept driving with the instrument panel lit up and then because we thought we were in a starship we drove 70 on the hybrid battery. Needless to say he lost credibility with his imagination.