Road Reality » Prius

Toyota Announces Repair Bulletin for 2004-2007 Prius, over Cooling

John Suit — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:00:59 +0000

The Toyota Prius has seen its fair share of ups and downs over the last year, seeing unintended acceleration and other recalls. Now, Toyota has announced a Repair Campaign. While not a safety recall, it’s still a fairly serious issue. From the press release, it looks like some 378,000 Priuses in the US can develop an issue with the hybrid drive’s cooling system. Click past the jump for more details and the press release.

Hybrid batteries require cooling to keep them in their optimal operating temperature, so any automaker who produces a hybrid car needs to add a second cooling system. On the 2004-2007 Prius, apparently a fault in the water pump for the hybrid cooling system can allow air bubbles to be introduced into the cooling fluid, which leads to hotter components and eventually the car goes into “fail safe” mode, which reduces engine power. The check engine light will illuminate as well, a secondary indication of a moderate to severe problem.

According to Toyota, the repair campaign will begin in early December, 2010. Owners who bring their vehicles in will have their water pumps replaced with a newly-designed one, free of charge, so long as they schedule that appointment before November 30th, 2013. As a side note, no accidents or injuries have been reported as a result of the water pump issue.

This is another fault with a Toyota product, and isn’t going to do any good for their already tarnished reputation. I would expect more hybrid buyers to consider the offerings from Ford, Nissan and others, as an alternative to the immensely-popular Prius.

Show Press Release

by John Suit

Source: Toyota

Uh-oh: Prius driver loses credibility

John Suit — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:15:23 +0000

Last week, it was reported that Jim Sikes was driving his Toyota Prius when it suddenly accelerated and wouldn’t slow down through the use of its brakes. A California Highway Patrol officer showed up and gave him instructions on how to get the car back under control. Now, through some research and testing, many facets of his story are starting to unravel.

Toyota ran some tests on the allegedly faulty Prius, and found that it passed with flying colors. Not to mention that the automaker says Sikes’ Prius was already equipped with a “brake override system,” which negates any gas pedal input (real or otherwise) when the brake pedal is pressed. On top of all that, it seems that the engineers looking at the brakes found that the wear patterns were consistent with periodic but only moderate pressure, meaning Sikes didn’t even slam on the brakes – he may have pumped them slightly.

Next up on the list is his debt. According to automotive web site Jalopnik, Sikes is up to his eyeballs in debt, to the tune of $700,000. Moreover, he’s behind on his lease payments on the very Prius he claims got away from him. Suspicious? I think so. Furthermore, Sikes has apparently retained counsel, but according to him, he has no plans to sue Toyota.

This story just gets better and better, and I am quite interested in the outcome, and I’ll of course share it with you when it becomes available.

by John Suit

Source: Jalopnik, CNN

CNN: Cops help Prius driver stop runaway (w/Video)

John Suit — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:00:11 +0000

As part of one of Toyota’s recalls, the 2004-2009 Prius already has enough attention. Adding to this is a video and report of a California man whose Prius took off on him – unintended acceleration and all. The man’s car took after trying to pass a slower-moving vehicle, and a California Highway Patrol officer used his PA system to talk the driver and inform him how to stop the car. Read on for more details and video.

The driver, Jim Sikes, said he sped up his car to pass a slower-moving vehicle and it, “it just did something kind of funny … and it just stuck there.” The car then sped up to 90 mph. A call to 911 netted Sikes with information on how to stop the car, but the brakes wouldn’t do it. A California Highway Patrolman, Todd Neibert, pulled alongside Sikes’ Prius and used his PA system to tell him to use the brakes and the emergency brake at the same time, which slowed the car to 50 mph.

After slowing to 50 mph, Sikes was able to get the car turned off, at which point it coasted to a stop. The aforementioned police officer used his cruiser to stop the runaway Prius from moving forward again, and the crisis was over. Sikes then told Officer Neibert that he even tried to pull the acceleration back to its idle position, which didn’t work.

Sikes had recently taken his 2008 Prius to his local Toyota dealership and showed them his recall notice, and was then informed that his car was not on the list of recalled vehicles. He told officers he’d be back at the dealership the following morning. Toyota has been notified of the incident, which lasted 20 minutes, and has dispatched a “field technical specialist” to San Diego to investigate the report and offer assistance.

by John Suit

Source: CNN

PedalGate Update: Recall on 2010 Prius / Lexus HS

John Suit — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:35:25 +0000

We knew it was coming, and Toyota has announced another recall; this time for the brakes on the 2010 Toyota Prius. In a slightly surprising turn of events, the automaker also included their 2010 Lexus HS250h hybrid, which is based off of the same design as the Prius, with Lexus appointments and refinement. Toyota is recalling a total of 148,500 vehicles for problems with the dual braking systems mentioned in the previous article. The problem occurs when the car’s computer needs to mix the traditional friction braking system with the regenerative braking system employed by most hybrids. This transition period can leave drivers without proper braking power, even though Toyota says that the brakes will work and that drivers just need to apply more pressure to the brake pedal.

The specific models affected are the 2010 Toyota Prius and 2010 Lexus HS250h, both manufactured since May, 2009. Owners of affected Prius models should receive a letter from Toyota starting next week, while HS250h owners should expect to see their letter a couple of weeks later. Toyota is still finalizing the software changes which will be applied to owners’ cars to fix the braking issue, and will announce the fix as soon as it’s ready.

It’s a tough time to be a fan of Toyota, so let me know if you’re experiencing any problems with your Toyota, or are affected by the recalls.

In the mean time, if you do experience braking issues with your Toyota, remember to apply constant pressure to the brake pedal and use as much force as is necessary to stop your vehicle. The brake pedal is one of the strongest parts of a car, so don’t be afraid to stand on it with both feet.

by John Suit

Source: Toyota

Update: 2010 Prius DOES have braking issues

John Suit — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:00:20 +0000

From the previous posts on this subject, it has become apparent that the 3rd generation Prius, starting with the 2010 model, has issues when braking. It seems that on slippery or bumpy surfaces, a loss of braking can occur. In a move that is no longer shocking for Toyota, it appears that they knew about the issue and didn’t tell anyone until it became news earlier this week. Hiroyuki Yokoyama, Toyota’s manager of Quality Control, told the New York Times that they had fixed the issue and any 2010 model year Prius sold since late January has the fix built in. No specific date was mentioned, but expect when a recall is announced. While Toyota has yet to confirm a recall, I highly doubt they can let this one go without announcing another recall.

The problem stems from the way a Prius is slowed. Hybrids have both friction and regenerative braking systems. The former is the same as on traditional cars, while the latter uses the car’s momentum to slow itself and charge the hybrid battery pack at the same time. Regenerative braking is used because it makes use of normally wasted energy. HowStuffWorks has a great article on this, if you want more details on the subject.

With these dual braking systems, the car’s on-board computer has to take the driver’s input and divide it between the two braking systems. This brake controller is where the 2010 Prius’ problem is, causing a momentary lack of braking power while it switches between the two systems. On less-than-ideal road surfaces, be it weather or potholes, this can lead to accidents. Normal braking for a stop light probably wouldn’t cause an accident, even experiencing the lack of brakes, because most people give themselves plenty of room to stop. When the driver isn’t anticipating a lack of brakes, this issue could lead to an accident.

So why is this a problem with the 2010 Prius and not the 2003-2009 models sold in the US? According to Toyota, the 2010 Prius uses a different regenerative brake system than its predecessors. Also, the complaint count for the 2010 Prius is up to 124, with 4 known crashes in the United States, and Automotive News is reporting that the NHTSA is officially looking into the problems with the brakes on 2010 Prius cars.

Whenever new information is known, I’ll have an update for you.

by John Suit

Sources: New York Times, Automotive News

Update: Japan orders Toyota to investigate Prius brake problems

John Suit — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:00:19 +0000

Automotive News is reporting that the Japanese Ministry of Transportation has ordered Toyota to look into customer complaints about the brakes on its third-generation Prius model, which went on sale in 2009 as a 2010 model. There are over 100 complaints worldwide, at least two of which caused injuries to American drivers.

The issue stems from a lack of braking rather than gas pedals and acceleration, and seems to be most problematic on bumpy roads, where drivers report that pressing the brake pedal is ineffective. One woman injured her neck when her brakes didn’t slow her car, causing her to collide with another vehicle. Another driver reported that, “While braking, if I hit potholes, the car speeds up from loss of braking action, even thou (sic) I am still pushing on the brake pedal.”

Look for Toyota to make a statement later this week or early next week, before their House committee hearing on February 10th, where Toyota North American president Yoshi Inada will go before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

by John Suit

Source: Automotive News