Prius cars may have stalling problem - GreenHybrid

lkewin · #1 (**permalink**) 10-13-2005, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Prius cars may have stalling problem

Toyota will notify about 75,000 hybrid owners of potential glitch

DETROIT - Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it will notify about 75,000 Prius owners in the United States about a potential software glitch that may cause the popular hybrid cars to suddenly stall or shut down.
Toyota said the problem may cause warning lights in the cars to illuminate. That can prompt the vehicles to enter a "fail safe" mode that may cause their gasoline engines to stall.

Hybrid vehicles twin a gasoline engine with an electric motor and batteries to boost fuel economy.

Toyota spokeswoman Allison Takahashi said that, if the gasoline engine stalls, the electric motor in the vehicles will have enough power to allow the driver to pull the vehicle over and away from the traffic.
The vehicles involved in the Toyota service action are from the 2004 and 2005 model years.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received a number of complaints about the hybrid vehicles stalling or stopping unexpectedly, often on highways.

Toyota will be sending out letters asking customers to take the cars to a dealership for free repairs, Takahashi said.

No recall notice has been issued, she added.

Toyota sold 53,991 Prius cars in 2004 and 81,042 so far this year. There is usually a waiting list to buy the vehicle, which gets as much 60 miles per gallon of gasoline.

Jason · #2 (**permalink**) 10-13-2005, 12:12 PM

Is this new news? I thought I heard of this a long while ago and there was a simple software upgrade. What's the source?

zadscmc · #3 (**permalink**) 10-13-2005, 12:49 PM

Where is this from?

When quoting a news source, the source should be explicitly referenced? Yes?

lkewin · #4 (**permalink**) 10-13-2005, 02:01 PM

A thousand apologies...
The Signature file from the news clipping service I use is a graphic image and did not paste when copied.

This news story was from Reuters News Service who released it 10/13/2005 at 2:17:02 PM

Schwa · #5 (**permalink**) 10-14-2005, 03:50 AM

http://pressroom.toyota.com/Releases...T2005101389230

Sounds like a similar 'recall' to the recent Honda Civic Hybrid ECU reprogramming recall earlier this year.

javawebgrrl · #6 (**permalink**) 10-14-2005, 05:45 AM

I just found this link:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...s_stalls2.html

This quote from the artical made me wonder :
"NHTSA has received 33 reports of the gas-electric hybrid shutting down without warning, typically at speeds between 35 miles per hour and 65 miles per hour."

Do you think you could be on the highway at 65mph, switch to electric power, and have no indication via the dash display that this is happening? Other reports in this thread seem to indicate that a warning light would go on.

Schwa · #7 (**permalink**) 10-14-2005, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by javawebgrrl

Do you think you could be on the highway at 65mph, switch to electric power, and have no indication via the dash display that this is happening? Other reports in this thread seem to indicate that a warning light would go on.

When they say 'without warning' they mean there was no warning before the engine shut down. When the engine shuts off due to this bug quite a few of the dash lights come on, and you'll totally know about it because the car will slow down from running on battery (max 20 HP) alone.

It's a rare problem, and if your car is one of the possibly affected ones you'll get a first class letter telling you to bring it in for service.

blueskies · #8 (**permalink**) 10-15-2005, 10:52 AM

The HCH recall was due to the engine running too lean at times causing damage to the catalytic converter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schwa

http://pressroom.toyota.com/Releases...T2005101389230

Sounds like a similar 'recall' to the recent Honda Civic Hybrid ECU reprogramming recall earlier this year.

EricGo · #9 (**permalink**) 10-15-2005, 11:27 AM

Jason -- this is the same problem we heard about last year. Only difference now is that Toyota has specified a recall on certain serial numbers.

I have been under the impression that more than one cause has lead to the stalls reported. This seems to be supported by the recall, which will upgrade firmware AND apply some grease to decrease the chance of short.

I remember some people anecdotally reporting a decrease in FE after a firmware revision last year. We can only hope that is not the case for the affected cars now.