Prius v software recall

This is same recall as the Liftback EOE. Any thoughts on why Toyota has taken this long to identify the v's?

Later models, fewer miles, buying time, continued failures?

 

Wow, if my wife's 2014 v has to go back and if we lose 5-10 mpg then we will be at 25-30mpg. Omg!!!

Currently at 35 mpg calculated...

 

Driving in "B"?

Bob Wilson

 

Nope, she just drives it like a normal car (she actually accelerates pretty slowly though) and pumps the ac full blast almost all the time.

Her commute is only 9 miles each way and has a bunch of traffic lights and some elevation change.. Not the best combo. I am going to show her the YouTube pointer video again...

 

That explains it

 

My local dealership said,yesterday,a notification via snail mail will be sent when more info is received. I will call them myself,weekly,and not depend on them to contact me.

I drive too many highways for a problem to cause my Prius v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) 3 to stop suddenly!

Scared!!

 

Take 5 mph off the top speed and you'll be fine. The energy required increases by the square of the velocity . . . especially above 45 mph where aerodynamic drag has the greatest contribution. Slightly slower speed helps a lot.

Bob Wilson

 

Hard to drive under 55mpg where we live,hgwy with 3 traffic lights to get into town. Tailgaters if we drive slower which is really stupid,rural folks in Jeeps and pickups


iPad ?

 

If you are already driving close to "under 55mpg" (assume you meant 55 mph), you have nothing to worry about. But if you are flooring the accelerator to get up to 70 mph climbing up a hill, there is a problem.

Drive softly and look for other traffic to follow ... semi-trailer trucks and pick-ups with a trailer. Not all but handicap licensed vehicles also work. Just 'get stuck' behind them until the patch arrives. <GRINS>

Bob Wilson

 

Yup yup. And keep at it after the patch.

 

I am a new member here only because this issue has happened to my wife. She was going about 50 MPH when the car shut down. The dealership diagnosed the IPM is the problem. Has anyone experienced this issue? I am really scared to put her back in this car knowing this can happen.

 

Welcome to Priuschat.

I have had our 2003 shutdown ~40 times and our 2010 about 6 times. In all cases by running out of gas. So I put the spare gallon in the car and drove to a gas station. Still, people should not live in fear.

It might help if you could provide more details as I would like to repeat the failure. I already drive mostly at 50 mph so that doesn't work. We have both a 2010 and 2003 Prius and except for deliberately running out of gas, no problem.

How old is the car?
Who diagnosed the problem?
Was it a warranty repair?

Bob Wilson

 

The recall has now reached Australia for vehicles built between November 2011 to November 2014.
==================
Toyota Australia has announced a recall on approximately 2900 of its Prius V hybrid family cars, affecting models built between November 2011 and November 2014.

Forming part of a wider recall that affects around 625,000 Prius V models globally, the issue centres around a software glitch that could cause the vehicle’s hybrid system to fail.

In a statement today, Toyota Australia said that software settings in the motor/generator control ECU and hybrid control ECU “could result in higher thermal stress in some transistors, potentially causing them to become damaged”.

Toyota says that, in most cases, an event of this nature would result in warning lights illuminating and potentially a switch to a failsafe mode to avert further damage.

The company notes however that “in rare circumstances”, the hybrid system could shut down while the vehicle is being driven, resulting in a loss of power that would bring the vehicle to a stop.
==================

Does anyone know what "failsafe" mode means? How should a driver respond should it happen when this happens?

 

Usually "failsafe" means the car operates at a reduced speed and power mode. For example, the NHW11 noisy encoder failure would limit speed to 25 mph. The traction battery 'turtle' also reduced power when it got too hot.

Bob Wilson

 

Our vehicle is 3 years old. We've had it for ~40 months. 2012 Prius V. No issues until Friday when this issue occurred.

Had about 8 gallons of gas in the 10 gallon tank, so not an out of gas issue. I was changing lanes while accelerating and was doing about 50 mph. I would not consider any of this out of the ordinary, so I would guess not repeatable.

It felt like I lost power (Steering, reduced speed, etc), and I was able to coast to a stop. Several dash lights came on (if you look at the preliminary notification for the recall, those were the illuminated lights).

I turned the power off and let the car sit. Called husband, checked oil, fluids. Called the dealership and they said it should be safe to drive in. However, after restarting the engine, more lights were illuminated, and the car would not go into drive. Had the car towed to dealership, and was told that there were over two pages of error codes spitting out.

Toyota service diagnosed the problem. They said it is the first one they have ever had with the issue. It will be covered under the Hybrid warranty. They will replace the IPM, but they do not have the software repair ready. Therefore, it could potentially happen again.

 

KFRED thanks for the detailed description.

As we get more and more electronics in our cars, I think all cars are going to be susceptible to this type of failure. A manufacturing variation combined with imperfect code that was never designed to handle the situation. I say this as one who played at the intersection of hardware and software for 37 years.

 

Toyota Recalls Certain 2012 - 2014 Prius v | Corporate

 

It is for the Prius v and it is discussed in the News forum. For the Prius hatchback, it is an old recall.

Prius v software recall | PriusChat

Toyota to Recall 1.9 Million Priuses to Update Software | PriusChat

 

We can only assume it's been fixed on the Gen IV.

 

No. See this thread:
Prius v software recall | PriusChat