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2019 Prius hybrid system failure alarm/fail

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Den Rand, Jan 8, 2020.

  1. Den Rand

    Den Rand New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 8, 2020
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    Location:
    Alaska
    Vehicle:
    2019 Prius
    Model:
    XLE AWD-e
    its been a while since last entry. mostly waiting out Toyota and busy. the final determination on this Prius was they were unable to provide a reasonable answer to my questioning why there were no codes stored when catastrophic failure imminent alarms present. they finally did offer to buy back the car which was good. then came the lockdown and it seemed near impossible for them to complete the transaction but 2 months later and that's done. the dealer did satisfy my concerns about the original failures of the vehicle to perform...water in the gas, however that came to be. while the car's performance after the water issue was cleared up was satisfactory it seemed folly to keep the car when not certain about how the system would perform should there be a subsequent failure of any sort. I could only wish they'd be more forthcoming about troubles and not so proprietary. I believe there's a bug in the computing system due to re-engineering and software associated with the four wheel drive. maybe get one a year or so down the road when bugs are fixed. thank you all for your inputs
     
    bisco likes this.
  2. pianewman

    pianewman Active Member

    Joined:
    Dec 17, 2019
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    Location:
    DallasFortWorthTEXASregion
    Vehicle:
    2018 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    I didn't go back and re-read the whole thread, but I'm wondering about water in the fuel.

    Obviously, hybrid engines aren't running all the time. IF there were small amounts of water in the fuel, isn't it possible that water is (randomly) freezing in random places in the fuel system? In -20f temps, with the car moving, it seems like it wouldn't take long for the "random" freezing to interrupt fuel flow. It would manifest as totally random, intermittent engine failure.

    Discuss.
     
  3. Den Rand

    Den Rand New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 8, 2020
    8
    1
    0
    Location:
    Alaska
    Vehicle:
    2019 Prius
    Model:
    XLE AWD-e
    really not a lot to add. certainly what you say is true and there were some early warnings such as hesitation on hard left hand turns such as roundabouts but when the final failure happened it wouldn't do anything but start, gas engine start and idle for a few seconds then system shut down. when the car was returned to dealer the hauler put it in the dealer shop and next day after everything thawed out there was never another failure and their tech drove it in sub zero for 6 weeks. still failure to log alarms is .... well... alarming, enough that I didn't want to deal with it anylonger. kinda miss it. liked all of those driving features especially the distance feature. I've always tended to follow too closely.
     
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
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    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    that's a good dealer
     
    Tande likes this.