My Prius lost its mind this morning

Chuck Olson · 2006-12-30T19:45:28+00:00

Got into my 05 Prius about 7:00AM - - it was cold in the garage - - thehi/lo thermometer showed a low of 38 deg. f. I punched the "ON" button (withmy foot on the brake pedal) to start the car . The first thing I noticed wasthe "brake" light was lit (odd, I never use the parking brake) - - then theABS light and the "icy road" light stayed lit, too. The right turn arrow wascontinuously lit dimly even though I had not signaled a turn. When Isignaled a right turn, the signal was very rapid, perhaps 5 per second. Ichecked the parking brake by pressing and releasing it a few times - - noimprovement, "BRAKE" still lit. I put it in drive and pulled out of thegarage - - seemed okay. Pulled out on the street and noticed the climatecontrol fan had turned off, even though I had the temp set for 70, and whenI came to a stop light, the brakes required unusually high pedal effort. Iturned around at a corner and drove back home to put the car back in thegarage - - too many questions to keep driving it.Around 10:00AM, I tried it again. Still bad, so I figured I should head forthe Toyota dealership. I drove the car out onto the driveway in the sunshineand removed all my goodies from their various locations, expecting to leavethe car in the repair shop for a few days. About a half hour later, Istarted it up - - oops - - no BRAKE, ABS or "icy road" signals - - turnsignal works correctly again. Heater fan is running and brake pedal isnormal, signifying energy recovery is back in operation. Damn - - anintermittent, probably due to the low temperature - - dash outside temp isshowing 50 deg. f. now.I bought this car with a "salvage" title, so I'm in for a non-warrantyrepair bill. Any ideas what went wrong, and what kind of an expense I canlook forward to if this becomes a permanent failure?Thanks, guys.