Prius Down!

Sunday morning after about 3 miles, I got the dredded "Red Triangle". It was about 10 degree out and have not had any problems with the cold so far. This is my first Chicago winter with the the car. I let it warm up for about 2 minutes before starting out since this morning was the coldest of the season so far.

Just before the Triangle showed up, the ICE seemed to be faultering with very noticiable power loss at approx 45 MPH. Next thing I get is the Triangle with the the amber Engine Check light. My Display panel displayed PS with the battery symbol and a round symbol with a picture of a car.

I did not want to drive it very far as I still had some Electric power left so I pretty much coasted into a driveway of a gas station. One thing for sure it picked a good place to die on me. With the panel in the status mentioned above, I could not tell how low the battery was. The last I rembember when I started out, I had the display in consumption mode and it had a full charge just minutes before.

The scary part of this thing is the car was just in the shop on friday morning for its 30K service. I had 33K miles on the car. All the routine items for that service were done with nothing else needed. The car received a clean bill of health. I am wondering if something was unhooked during the service and not re-attached? I had the car towed into the dealership not wanting to risk limping in on electric mode for 8 miles in city traffic.

It took the tow truck driver with a flat-bed about 45 min. to arrive. Just before he hooked up the chain to pull me up onto the flat-bed, I told the driver I may be able to drive it up onto flat-bed on Electric power. To my suprise when I turned the car on, the main display panel had cleared itself of the PS and battery error but the amber engine check light remained. I was able to drive it up onto the flat-bad no problem.

Has anyone else experienced this symtom I just descibed? I will give an update on what was wrong as soon the dealer checks it out this morning.

 

Thanks for the replies. Jayman, is your car the O4 or a Classic? Due to way it died, I agree its not worth letting it go. Whatever happened most surely has to be covered by the extended warranty for sure.

 

Just got off the phone with the service Rep at the dealer with what was found on my car today. I was amazed on what was wrong. They ended up replacing the main ECU and putting the latest software update on it. That cost approx $1000 for only the ECU replacement. The also found a throttle sensor that was bad and needs to be replaced. All of this is being covered under warranty. They were able to replace the ECU and will be getting the car back tonight. Unfortunately they have to order the part for throttle sensor from California and will not have it for 5 days. In the meantime, they have given me the ok to drive it until the part arrives and service is scheduled for it. They even offered the the free use of a loaner car on the day that occurs. I will get more detailed info when I pick up the car so I will be adding more updates later when I get the details.

 

This was definately a TCB related problem. Although they stressed it was not a recall? By the time I picked up the car tonight, all of the service folks had gone home for the day. All I have is what's on invoice.

It states the cause of the trouble was TSB EG011-03 was done with description 'EG2002 R&R Engine Control Module TSB'

The part they ordered to be installed when it arrives is the Throttle Control Motor. I need to call them in the morning to get a better understanding of what all occurred today. I think with the knowledgable people here, I will get a better response and explaination based on what I have noted here. I really feel they are not going to give me much info. So far getting what info I have over the phone was more like pulling teeth.

My question is if this was truely not a recall, why is something so costly being replaced under warranty if they know about the potential of the problem happening?

Anyone have any explanation if they deemed the Throttle Control Motor bad, how could they give the OK to drive it? They have told me it will be 5 business days to get the part. This means I will be putting a minimum of 600 miles on it before it gets replaced. I explained the driving I would need to do and they insisted it will be ok. Honestly, I'm a little skeptical here so any input on this would be much appreciated.

PS.. I already have the Platinum Extended Warranty. With this new technology, it was hard not to get it not fully knowing the full potential of what can go wrong. I have no regrets on spending the money at all.

 

Just wanted to give everyone tracking this thread an update on my injured Prii. I did not drive the car from Wed of last week until Sunday afternoon because I was out of state for Christmas. I drove it yesterday about 20 miles without any trouble at all. This would be the first time I had not driven it for that many days in consecutively.

On my way to work this morning it died again with exact same error indicators except after 8 miles rather than 3 miles. After my last experience of the error clearing itself all but the "check engine" light, I was able get the ICE back. I gingerly drove it back to the dealer. The previously mentioned throttle motor has not been replaced yet due it not arriving at the dealer yet. How long does it take to get parts from Los Angeles to Northern IL anyway?

At any rate, this dealership's service department gave me the OK to drive it in the meantime even after telling them I would be putting a minamum of 600 miles on it. I told them this does not sound like a good idea but they insisted to not worry about it.


They have given me a courtesy loaner car (05 Camry) until they figure out what's really going on. I just have one questions for our experts here. If my ECU was replaced, would my radio presets still be there when I got it back on Tuedsay? Nothing appeared to even have changed, all the presets were still the stations I had previously selected.

I will post an update on the dealers findings when I get them.

 

I picked up the car tonight after work. All they did was replace the throttle motor!

In regard to mentioning that my radio presets were not deleted after the ECU replacement after its first visit to the shop last monday, I get it back tonight and find all presets set to channels that were definately not mine!

At this point, I'm wondering what the real story is and what in the heck they really did. I picked it up late after the service people went home so I could not get any error codes they may have pulled. I will call them in the morning to ask. Does anyone else besides me think something very odd is going on here?

All I'm getting out them is they think the throttle motor had some kind of short in combination with the cold temps on the mornings of the failures. One day it was 10 degrees and the other was 22 degrees. At any rate, I sure hope whatever they fixed is fixed.