on the side of the road typing this. The dash lights were not present when I started the car and then when I turned it off this blinking car popped up. I am on the side of the road. Please advise.
Blinking car just tells that the Prius has immobilizer so you can’t steal it. Blinking light is on almost all cars to indicate this or alarm. Just try to restart it. If you can’t get dash to light up but can drive it then you have bad combination meter. You can drive it without working combination meter but you just have to guess your speed. In case of bad combination meter you can turn the Prius of by holding the power button for 5 seconds.
yep combo meter. Very common must be replaced. You tube combination meter or go to top of this page and use "Search Forums" button and put in the search word: combo meter hundreds of posts about it. Its basically the dashboard led assembly. There's a few regular posters who can repair it for you or you can buy a repaired board for $100. if you get yours repaired it will have the correct odometer reading if you buy one repaired it may not. On ebay search...you guessed it...combo meter.
Bad news for me then. Everyday so far I have found something needing Thanks. i would drive but no dash lights and would not turn off. Thanks for the tip on turning the car off.
I reset it yesterday and it was fine for a while but this morning it's off again. Bad news for me, I buy a car and find out the very next morning the combo meter is bad. I contacted the dealer and they won't answer/return my calls. I left them a message saying I was stranded on the side of the road and to please call and they still haven't called. I called twice. Looks like I'm stuck with this combo meter problem on my first day of owning a Prius. I will have to look for someone to fix it here in a manner that will retain my mileage and hopefully get my car back together correctly. I was searching and found this. - the combo meter for 2004- certain 2009 Prius, has a 9 year Warranty Enhancement, for this problem.If you have a 2009 you might still be in luck. Mine is a 2008 so this repair comes out of my pocket.
I thought your moniker looked familiar. That's the problem with "verbal" warranties....or I hope you got something in writing? Not a good sign, that the vehicle had codes and warning symbols before you bought it, and now continues to have problems. And not a good sign that the place that gave you a 6 month warranty isn't returning your calls. All I can do is continue to wish you the best of luck. Hopefully this is a singular issue, just the combo meter, you can have it repaired or replaced and then move on to enjoy your Prius. But yeah, it's pretty depressing when you buy a used car, and almost immediately start having problems with it. If it makes you feel any better, I lived through similar experiences when I was younger. Unfortunately, I can't say any of those experiences ended particularly well, but they were learning experiences. Expensive, painful learning experiences. Good Luck. Let us know how things go, with the warranty support, the replacement/repair...one way or another. It is possible, that you replace the combo meter and then go on with good reliability.
I went to the stealership yesterday and they told me that my headlight condensation issue wasn't covered anymore and neither was the combo meter. They also wanted $200 to change my Transaxle fluid, tried to sell me a car rather than repair mine, and made me feel guilty about asking about the warranty work that had expired. I just left. When I got home, I called 2 dealerships and the cost to replace the combo meter ranged from $900-$1200 and my car would be out of commission up to 3 days. After I got that good news, I sent the dealer that sold me my car another email saying they if they didn't agree to reimburse me for the cost of the combo meter or agree to repair it within 48 hours I was going to start telling my story on the internet. In under an hour I received an email response saying he would fix the combo meter at no cost to me.
