Prius stalling?

I've experienced the same thing exactly. And I mean EXACTLY, except for being in Boston. The warning lights all turned off on their own, there was no problem to be found, and that was that.

Todays LA Times (5/18), front page of business section "Prius Glitches Highlight Problems of Car Computers."

"...The National Hihway Traffic Safety Administration said it had recieved

Article continues to say that "...The company eventually identified the problem and wrote a patch that dealers installed on 20,000 hybrids."

Doesn't say if the patch is available online and if it is user installable.

Neil R

I had a similar situation, except I was at a stoplight when all the lights came on. I pulled over rebooted and drove home. About an hour later everything seemed fine. I took the car in for service the next day and they installed the software patch. So far everything is has been all right.

Hmm, the dealer plead ignorance with me. I wonder if they installed the patch and didn't tell me? I wouldn't think so, they have always seemed to be very open. Curious, how long ago did this happen to you?

FWIW - the "stallingest" car I've ever had was the 1984 Nissan 300ZX we traded for our '02 Prius. Just one failure - it turned out to be a bad connection to the ignition coil primary - left me sitting in traffic dozens of times (as many as five times a day) over a two month period. Sometimes it would start immediately, sometimes after several minutes. Then it began running for only a minute (or was it 30 seconds?) at a time... the ECU thought the engine wasn't running. And the intermittent at the ECU connector. And the bad connection inside the battery that kept resetting the ECU while I was driving. And the intermittent ignition switch. And the ignition cutout at 2500 rpm when the AMM failed. And the times the fuel delivery got confused and the engine wouldn't restart until I pulled the PCV hose off and sprayed starting fluid into it. And the bad connections in the immobilizer, which not only killed the ignition but left me sitting in a car that was rhythmically honking.

One day a woman noticed my car and asked me if I had any clues why her husband's 300ZX was stalling. I wrote out the list for her.

Mike

You mean, an incompetent dealer, one who didn't know enough to hook up a diagnostic computer and read the trouble codes from the car? No. My

They claimed to hook the car up to a diagnostic computer, they claimed the code was for running out of gas. Which I had done, about 7K miles before this happened. Good thing about a prius, if you run out of gas, you get to limp along on battery for awhile. The battery dies fast, so hurry.

bridge.

bridge.

Most cars have at least one mode where they will stall without warning. I had a 92 Ford F150 pickup. The distributer wire shorted to something, killing the engine instantly at 65 on the freeway.

Had it happen at 70 MPH on the freeway with my Mazda RX7. The rear differential gears shattered as I was accelerating up to speed. This one also had a fuel filter that got clogged with gunk from a brand new gas station's tanks. Engine sputtered and died when going up hill.

Had a mid 70's ford LTD that would die for no reason when it was cold, but would then start and run for hours.

The Prius problem has been isolated to a software error, and patches are available. Since most people are getting the car serviced frequently, the patch should be applied as it's serviced.

Same thing happened to me. The service people both on the phone and in the bay didn't recongnize the condition, but the mechanics did and patched the software.

I'm told that there was not a recall, but rather an "advisory" that was issued. I'll see if I can find the details on my receipt.

Saw the news today, oh boy. The reported problems seem to be with 2004's. I've had a 2005 since January with no problems at all. Anyone else have stalling issues??? Do dealers have a software patch???

"Mike Stevens>> I had a similar situation, except I was at a stoplight when all the

• There has been a total of something like 30 reported cases of stalling by '04 and early '05 Prius.

On a different group a poster reported that there are a total of about 100 freeway stalls per day in Los Angeles.

These don't tend to make the New York Times.

earle

Mine exhibited this issue once a few months ago at a traffic signal, as the OP, so there was no stall as such. The software/firmware was updated by the dealer and it has had no re-occurrence of the problem. However, since it happened only once in 15 months of ownership, it was an extremely isolated incident and difficult to say whether this patch has done anything.

Must be virus in the software, these hackers can get into any thing! Do you use a Firewall or Norton on the Prius? (o: Julius

The Prius firewall is located between the engine and passenger compartments. Look for the problem there. :-)

Blue screen in the instrument panel is sign of virus! Must reboot!(o: Julius

szaki schrieb:

The worst virus in the Prius is normally sitting in front of the steering wheel. ;-)

• The single most common problem with the Prius is the nut that holds the wheel.

earle