"Check Hybrid System" running without key fob @ car wash

I bought my 2013 Prius Persona in Dec '13. Perfect on-schedule maintenance, drive conservatively, no problems ever. Dealership offers to buy back the car, so I go to car wash before my appointment. I pull up, nobody behind me. I go looking for my key fob, but attendant tells me I have to go in and pay first. When I get back, the car is going through the car wash without the key in it. (The last time I washed it there, they lost my key fob in the trash, so I just let it go.)

30 minutes later, I get in the car, and I realize that the car was running the entire time, while all the guys were rubbing their towels all over the console and buttons. The error lights were on saying "CHECK HYBRID SYSTEM. STOP WHEN SAFE." I turned off the car, and the engine makes a light clunk clunk clunk sound, something I've never heard from this car before. I drove it to the dealer's repair department. On Fri, they said that, if you drive the car without the key fob in it, that's fine. But if you turn the car off without the key fob in it, the car won't restart. They didn't know if something along those lines happened to my car at the car wash. They say that it's late on Fri, nobody can look at it until Mon because no hybrid specialists are working Sat.

On Sat, they call and say that the computer is not communicating with the block/sensor, that I need to pay a minimum of $1500 to fix that, and they can't know for sure what's really wrong with the car until after that is fixed, so the $1500 is a minimum payment.

I ask how this could've happened. Toyota says it was a coincidence that it happened at the car wash, that it would've happened while I was driving around if I'd never taken it to be washed. So I ask them who diagnosed this if there was no hybrid-certified mechanic there on Sat, and he stuttered a bit and said that the guy came in specially to help them out. I asked the service guy how many times he's seen a Prius with <5yrs need a new computer and block/sensor, and he said this was the second time in 10 years.

My questions:
1) Is it typical for a Prius computer to just crap out like this? The service guy appeared not to think so. Did I just buy a lemon, then? If the computer does break, does that mean that the car problems cannot be diagnosed?
2) Should I trust what this service department said? None of this passes the sniff test. I understand that coincidences happen, but this seems like a big one to me.
3) Can anyone think of a scenario where something like this happens as a result of driving without the key fob and pushing a button or something in the car?

ANY ADVICE would be appreciated.

 

Just called Toyota again (Sat), and they said that it appears that because the car was running for so long without the key fob inside it, that the computer was searching for the key for so long that it burned out the computer. Last night (Fri), they told me a story about a guy who drove his car an hour away before realizing that he'd left the key fob at home. Then he drove home to get the key. So how did my computer "burn out" with just the 40 minutes it sat idling at the car wash?

This is going to be an expensive fix. It is not my fault. Either the car wash took my car without my permission without the key, or the Toyota is defective. Which should I argue, and how do I prove this? I'm going to ask the Toyota service department for a statement in writing about what happened.

Any thoughts?

 

When I left it at the dealer, the CHECK HYBRID SYSTEM warning light was on, in addition to the steering wheel light, the triangle exclamation light, and a bunch of others. The car would turn on and off easily, but it made a clunk clunk clunk in the engine upon shutting off, though.

I'm on the phone with Toyota Customer Experience Center right now to see what's going on, because Cust Exp is saying that there's no way this has anything to do with the key fob.

 

On Fri afternoon, as I was still at the carwash, I pulled out the owner's manual, and the page on the 12v battery said it could be drained if the Prius is left in Accessory mode rather than On mode for too long. I thought that maybe the car wash staff had pushed the power button while cleaning (and while the car was running while the key fob was outside the car), putting it in Accessory mode for the entire 30-40 minutes it was being cleaned. Today, I called the dealership after they'd said it was the computer, and I asked them to check the 12v battery. They said they'd already checked it and it wasn't that.

 

Toyota service told me that there was no communication between the computer and the key block sensor. I was hoping that it was the intelligent power module computer, because that has an extended warranty on it, which would solve my current $1500+ problem. But it's not.

Can they not get diagnostic codes if this computer stops communicating? By the way, thank you for all this help because I clearly know nothing about this.

 

AGREED! The ironic part is that this was only my second time at that car wash and only because I was on my way to Toyota to get the car appraised to see what they'd give me to buy it back. The first time, they took 20 minutes to dig my key fob out of the trash where they'd accidentally thrown it. This second time, they took a dirty car that had never had a problem, and converted it into a very clean -- but no longer functioning -- car.

 

I have no idea whether it was in neutral as it went through the exterior car wash because I was told to go inside to pay and it had been driven in before I could give them my key fob. The exterior wash took more time than in most car washes, but I'd say no more than 8 minutes. Then they drove it up a little incline to the area where the interior wash/vacuum guys worked on it. I had no idea that the car was still running because they had it there for another 30 minutes at least. Who leaves a car on that long while you're just cleaning the inside?! It wasn't cold out, they weren't running the heat/air, and all the doors were open. I was standing about 20 feet away the whole time, and I didn't realize it was on until I saw a bit of exhaust coming out of the back. I've never noticed exhaust out of this car.

 

It certainly does help! What I don't understand is, if it's just the 12v that was low, why didn't the car have any problems restarting, which I did 3 times (the third time after waiting around 20 minutes), and why, each time I turned it off, the engine made a clunk clunk clunk sound. None of the dash lights were low either. It didn't drive particularly sluggishly, although I only drove it 0.8 miles to the dealer's Toyota service station. They have the car right now, so if I wanted to check it, I'd have to go in and get the car out of their garage.

 

It was a letter from the dealer that sold me the 2013 Prius and a 2017 Prime. I wasn't necessarily going to sell them the car. I wanted to know whether they really meant 20% over KBB and the dealer is across the street from my kid's school, so I thought it'd be worth the 15 minutes and the $40 to clean it.

I made the final payment on the 2013 Prius less than a week ago, which meant that I'd driven up the mountain and was getting ready to coast down the other side for another 4-5 years of no payments. We had our manual Camry for 12 years 150k miles without even changing the transmission.

I go to car washes maybe 2-3 times a year. Now that I've looked around more, I see that there's a guy only a bit further who washes the cars by hand and for a bit less than the ones who broke my car. Definitely learned and relearned several lessons here. When someone condescends to tell you what you know isn't true, just stick with what you wanted to do in the first place. (I TOLD HIM to wait so I could get out the key fob.)