My 7k miles Prius has broken down on me !

Hello there

Yesterday, on my morning commute on the freeway, suddenly all the warning lights went on and the car start beeping. I was approximately 1 mile from my workplace and right acrross the street there is a Toyota Dealer.

Since the car was still running, I thought I was going to try to go straight to the dealer. I quickly notice that in fact the heat engine wasn't running anymore and I was strictly going on the electric engine, draining my batteries. I however managed to stop right in the front of the service department, the last 30 feet on freewheeling.

On the driveway I could turn on and off the car but couldn't engage D anymore.

They took the car and told me they have only two Prius certified techs: one was on vacation and one is coming back on Wednesday (tomorrow). That's f*cking great.

I believe something went wrong with the heat engine. I think this is serious.

I somehow regret of having continued to drive the car up to the dealer: as soon as the problem occurred and the lights went on, I should've stopped on the emergency lane and called the towing company. What you guys think? Did I made a mistake?

I attached some picture I took of the dashboard and the MFD. I'll keep you update on what's going on...

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bulldog @ Aug 14 2006, 09:25 AM) [snapback]303019[/snapback]</div>

Hello guys

So here is an update. I got my car back on early Wednesday afternoon. They told me they didn't found anything wrong with the car. They just had to manually charge the main battery (they told me it was not fully drained) and test drove it.

On that same Wednesday, on the evening on my way home, one the freeway, the EXACT same problem happened again!!

This time I managed to exit the freeway and stopped on a parking lot before I drained the main battery. I turn off and on the car for like 10 - 15 times. After a while it was back to normal with "only" the "Check engine" light on.

I went right back to the dealer, it was around 8:00PM. By luck the Prius Certified Tech that had previously checked my car was here. I explained him my ordeal and he then plugged his device to retreive the error codes. He then took it for a long test drive, came back and then had a long conversation on the phone with one of his fellow Prius Tech.

He then told me this is very strange and that nothing was wrong with the car. He felt we can take the car back.

I crossed my fingers and drove the car back. I've driven approximately 250 miles since then and nothing wrong happened, like normal.

So what I'm doing is documenting everything in the case of this comes back, what else can I do, except touching wood?


richard schumacher -> I had driven approximately 120 miles since the last fill up. So 1 to 3 bars on the gas gauge had disappear

Godiva -> yeah at this time I was running the AC, on low, but the car wasn't overheated and nothing blocked the seat vent.

Oxygene -> funny because while waiting on Wednesday evening, I had a chat with a fellow Prius Owner who was waiting for his 05 Prius. He had 20k miles on it and I believe he had to change the Inverter coolant pump too !

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(richard schumacher @ Aug 14 2006, 10:57 AM) [snapback]303085[/snapback]</div>

Well guess what ? It happened again today at almost the exact same place it happened the first time. I'm starting to believe there is Prius jammer after me !

So again being less than one mile away, went straight to the dealer, this time without draining the main battery: I didn't turned it off, the dealer took it. They say they will call me back probably tomorrow. I said I don't care how long it's gonna take, I just want it fixed !

I'm getting desperate, this is now the 3rd time this is happening in one week.

What should I do ?