I picked up my new Prius C Friday of last week. Monday I started my car to go to work and a red warning sign came up in the shape of a steering wheel with a red exclamation point next to it. Needless to say I had to call Toyota and got a tow back to the dealership. They told me my car is losing power and the power steering is shot. They plugged in the reader to see what is wrong with my car and it doesn't display anything. Today they took out one of my computers (there are three in the Prius C) and they tried contacting corporate to get the part. Unfortunately there are no part numbers as of now for the Prius C. They are still not sure if this is the problem. It just sucks that I've only had this car for 2.5 days and something goes wrong already and they have no clue what is wrong. Why don't they talk to a mechanic from corporate. Someone has to know what is wrong with my car. It's been 4 days going on 5. At least they gave me a loaner Prius (not a C though) to use in the meantime. I'm just fed up with it. I wish I could put the Lemon Law into effect but it has to be the same thing three times. Has anyone had this issue yet or heard of it?
It sounds like you have a fairly clear component fault, however the dealership is clueless. There are part numbers on Toyota dealerships' websites that use the digital microfiche. I've posted a link to one of them in a bunch of threads, but don't have it bookmarked on this laptop. If you can't find it I'll post it tomorrow. Your dealership is A) incompetent and B) lying to you about the lack of part numbers. Time to call the dealership owner and inform him his employees are dropping the ball. Why are they taking out parts when their computer came back with no information?
Sheesh give it a chance. I totally understand that it sucks big time having a brand new car with an issue and fair enough to be annoyed - I know I would be - but it's not a normal issue (I've certainly never seen anyone else report it here). I noticed elsewhere you said you had a remote start installed - when was that done out of interest?
The dealership called me today and was going to order a new part for it called the ECM computer which is the main brain of the car I believe. The problem is they were going to take it out of one of the other cars on the premises but I guess my car has a different computer because I have the 16" rims not the 15" because I upgraded them. The Service Manager said that they should have the part on Wednesday and hopefully I will have my car by the end of the week but I really don't want them to rush anything because I want to make sure everything is in working order. As for the remote start it was installed before I got my car without my knowledge. My boyfriend had it installed as a Christmas present by a guy who's worked with this Toyota dealership for years. The GM admitted it was his fault for letting the car get out of his hands. I was not very happy because I would have never wanted a remote start or a security system on my car and now it has to be taken out of it. They unplugged everything this past week and the power steering is still not fixed so I don't think that's the issue. Why would someone even tamper with a car that has so many computers in it (I think they said 26 all together). Who knows at this point. Does anyone else have the Prius C four with the 16" rims??? I don't think there's a lot of them out there.
It would make more sense if they replaced the electric power steering ECU. Why do I have the feeling that they are throwing parts at this problem?
I agree with you dick_larimore. I have a suspicious feeling that's what they are doing because they really don't know what is wrong with it. They did plug in the computer to see what was wrong and nothing came back but still there was an obvious issue. Well, today is Wednesday and I didn't hear anything yesterday if the part was or was not going to be in so I'm assuming they have it. I'll just have to wait and see what they say later today.
That's what the tech said to me he just didn't know about it until he tried taking one of his other Prius C computers on his lot. I called the service manager today and they still don't have the part. I'm guessing it's probably coming from Japan. And again, they still don't know if that's the solution. So, frustrating...
There is an extensive section in the repair manual for electrical power steering problems. If no DTC (defect trouble codes) can be found with Techstream, one of the 1st things that should be checked is to make sure that all the connector pins in the sockets connected to the power steering ECU are properly seated. These guys at the dealership can read this stuff just like I can.
Well, I got an update today. I guess the part isn't going to be in until January 8th because it's coming from Japan. I had to talk to the GM to find this out. The service manager seems like he keeps telling fibs. And another thing is that come December 30th there is going to be a strike for imports coming into the US on the East Coast. So, this isn't looking so well for my part coming in on time. I also still don't think that that's the problem, I guess all I can do is wait and see.
So, the part came in on Thursday and they put it in and drove it and nothing was wrong everything was going good. I get the car back on Friday and it worked great the whole weekend. Today comes around and I get the slip indicator light go on. I pulled out of my garage and parked my car and ran back inside to get something. I came back and there was the light blinking at me and making no noise. I put it in reverse and it went away. I called the service manager and he thought that was weird especially since it didn't make a noise. So, sad to say it's going back into the shop tomorrow morning. This is so frustrating.
