Prius (2001-03) :: Suddenly Dies In The Middle Of Freeway
Mar 28, 2016
I'm at a loss here, I bought a salvaged 2001 Prius at an insurance auction and fixed it up. After driving it for about a year the car suddenly dies on me in the middle of the freeway and i had to pull it over. the car hasn't started since. I can get it to turn on but the engine won't turn, and whenever I turn the steering wheel more than 45 degrees it makes this electrical sound the wheels jerks back to the original position and the PS message beeps on. I brought it to a dealership and they said it was a problem with the transaxle but they weren't sure.
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My car: 2008 Prius (base)
Here is the problem: All of a sudden the two middle vents in the dash stopped blowing. I have played with the settings - on, off, all the way hot, all the way cold - nothing from the two mid vents. The left and right vent blow with no problem. There is also cold air coming from the vent near the windshield - just the two middle dash vents are not functioning.
What I have done so far: I had it looked at by a mechanic who I trust. He said there is a small motor (he called it a servo motor) that controls that middle vents (open/close). He said that had gone bad. He manipulated it so that the air blows out of the vents now and said not to change any settings until I am ready to replace the part.
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Driving on the freeway over 50 miles per hour the car dies goes really slow goes down to 30 miles per hour almost no power....
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My 1996 Volvo 850 Turbo Wagon died in the middle of the freeway last night without any warning...I was driving it home after purchasing it from a private seller who is completely ignoring me now (of course). The car ran fine on the test drive and fine for the 40 or 50 miles on the way back home and then suddenly stepping on the gas did nothing and I had to get off the road immediately. I'm 8 months pregnant so needless to say, I was extremely freaked out.
Anyways, I had it towed home. Today I went out and started it and it was a little bit hesitant but it started. The RPMs were bouncing around below 1000 and the car sounded like it wanted to stall but didn't.
I read online to start it and turn the AC on see what the RPMs do and that this can diagnose an idle control valve that needs replacing. I went out and started the car again, blasted the AC and now the RPMs were staying steady at 1000 and the car no longer sounded like it was about to stall. The RPMs did shoot up passed 2000 once shortly after turning the AC on. I'm assuming this must mean that the idle control valve needs to be replaced.
Someone else had posted about their car (same model/year as mine) would die unexpectedly and in their case it turned out to be the mass air flow sensor. I am really wondering about the fuel pump, fuel pump sensor / relay.
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The prius I bought with 200+ K buzzes so loud especially on the freeway. There are no engine lights on and it drives great aside from the sound.
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I finally drove the Celica for the first time to work after rebuilding the front end. As I was exiting off the freeway the car suddenly stalled. I coasted into the lot and tried to restart. The car struggled to restart and when it finally restarted it ran extremely rough with a lot of metal on metal clatter. I tried to drive it to the other end of the parking lot and the clatter got worse and worse. Sounds like the contents of a tool box in a paint shaker.
It's always run great prior to this. The only thing that seems to have changed is the work I did to the front end and the replacement of some seals on the timing chain cover. The car still has oil but I can see oil splatter on the bottom of the distrubutor. I'm going to have it towed home in the morning.
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2 or 3 months ago i had to get my fuel pump changed due to my car dying randomly on the free way multiple times a week. The problem disappeared after changing the fuel pump, however it has started happening again recently. The car wont completely die but while going 60 mph or more, the car will suddenly lose all power and the gas pedal doesn't do anything for a couple seconds, then all power comes back and i have control of the car again. Why this is happening?
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The master waning light came on while I was commuting on the freeway. There was no MIL. I've seen this a month or so ago and, as before, since nothing seemed wrong, I kept going. The last time this happened the warning went away after a day or so. This time it is sticking around. As before, there seems to be no problem with the car -- 80 mile commute, no loss of power, same gas mileage as before. I have a generic ELM327 OBD reader. I tried reading codes but there were none (at least none that it could read since there was no MIL).
Any second source for the Prius Mini-Scanner (or have one they want to sell)? Or, can a regular OBD scanner be trained to read the special prius codes?
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Yesterday, for the first time ever, car had to be towed to the dealership for some major problem. My dad was driving to work with his car , a 2003 GLS V6, and suddenly it stalled in the middle of the road. Turns out it was the fuel pump that caused it. Never mind the expenses which is ridiculously high and can't do anything about it (yes, i'm loyal to my dealer). His car had 129399kms on it plus a km to the dealer and mine had 70136km for a 2002 GLS V6.
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Okay, So this has happened to me about five times now over the past year or so. I will be driving and my car will literally shut off. yesterday, I was driving on the freeway and was just cruising at 75mph when all of a sudden out of no where my car makes a big jolt and then the rpm's go from around 3k to 0. I have had this in the shop for this problem many times and no one can really seem to figure out what is wrong. when my car shuts off while im driving, the oil light comes on, traction control light comes on, as well as the battery light. What's even more weird about this problem is once the car stops, if i try to start it right away it wont fire up... It will just roll over. But. if I wait for a while the car starts and drives normal with all the lights off. This is not only annoying but very dangerous.
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I have a 2003 new beetle with a manual transmission. It has about 60K miles. I was driving down the freeway (about 60mph steady, not stop and go), and my car suddenly lost all acceleration. Pressing on the gas did not rev the engine. Otherwise, my car was on. I pulled over and put it in first and it still would not go. However, when I turned my car off and back on, it started like a charm and I was able to move and accelerate. .
I took it to the mechanic and they could not find anything wrong with it except that the battery was low. I don't think that could be the problem, could it? I'd hate to bring the car back out on the freeway, but how can I fix it if there's nothing wrong with it.
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The engine of our VW Passat 2000 quit suddenly while driving home on freeway. Night. Rain. We put on the flasher lights as we were slowing while trying to move to the right lane. No shoulder as we we were on a bridge. Do not remember being rammed from behind. Had a new battery installed one month earlier after VW mechanics could find no reason for intermittent non-starting of car which we had been experiencing. They had run "fault codes".
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OK so here's the deal. Driving around town @ lower speeds I've yet to have this problem. When driving at freeway speeds seems like between 1/4 tank & reserve all of a sudden the power just drops off . I mean like the ignition has been turned off. No throttle response .. nothing..... just begins coasting & dropping speed. When throttle is depressed... totally dead. This lasts for about 5-10 seconds then after coasting & looking where to pull off the highway all of a sudden the engine kicks back in like nothing ever happened. Where to look for Jetta MK 4 18T Fuel supply problem??
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While driving with cruise control set at 80 mph in my 2002 Toyota Camry, the engine suddenly revved up to 4200 rpm while going up a hill on the freeway. I was wondering if this sudden high rpm could do damage to the engine? The car has 163,000 miles on it.
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Tranny died 12000 miles ago and shop rebuilt tranny with new torque converter.
Problem then and now is after long freeway run 60+miles it dies and bogs down with any shift change. If it is placed in 2nd it will bogg down and die. If the tranny auto shifts it also dies. If it cools or just sits it will run again for a while. This does not happen always so it is hard to duplicate it.
Truck is not towing or even loaded most of the time and only once was it loaded when it died, the first rebuild. Truck has 249000 miles, ex v10.
So any clues as to what the shop missed last time and is it worth rebuilding again. Truck is only worth a bit more than the cost of shop time.
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I haven't driven the Prius for months. The other day, I needed it and tried to start it up but of course, it was dead. I should have known that would happen but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to these things.
So, I jumped it with another car, making sure not to reverse the polarity by doing it wrong (I think I did okay) and sure enough it started...for about 5 seconds and then died. The car we were using to jump it was on just like the manual said and we pushed it to 2,000 RPM again, just like the manual said. We tried it again and it comes on for about 5 seconds and then goes right back off. We even juiced it for about 3 minutes straight at 2,000 RPM and same result.
The display comes on and the icon with a car and an exclamation mark is red. What should I do? I guess the v12 battery is dead?
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About a year ago when driving on a 3ish hour trip, I made it almost to my destination and the hybrid warning lights came on. I noticed my windshield wipers were moving extremely slowly, and about five minutes later the screen and all the lights flickered off, the power steering went out, and I came to a dead stop on the side of the road. After calling a friend to come rescue me, they arrived and for fun I attempted to start my car and it ran fine, and the next time I drove it all the lights were off. I drove it for several months afterwards with no problem. It happened again a few months later and I took it to the dealer who "completely disassembled" my car and said they found nothing wrong with it.
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95 Ford Escort shuts down like you turn off the key. This just started happening with no warning. Idles fine had to replace the plugs,wires and the dist.pack.
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I have a 2003 Toyota Prius with ~250,000 miles. Yesterday I was driving and the vehicle started to "stutter" and the warning lights came on. My ScanGauge indicated code P3125. I drove normally for 2-3 miles and parked for a bit. When I returned, I was able to start up and drive home with no problems (about 20 miles of highway and stop & go traffic), and drove most of this morning, but around noon it happened again and this time the vehicle would hardly move at all. It had no reverse and I had to push it out of the parking spot. I managed to limp home and park it.
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I have a 2002 Celica GT.
It was driving fine for a few months after buying it and now all of a sudden it will just die while driving down the road. It will start and idle fine for hours but after about 15 minutes of driving it down the road it will just die without any kind of notification. It will start back up and run again after I let it sit for 15-20 minutes but will do it all over again but if I try starting it right after it dies, it will start and immediately die again. The only codes it is reading is the #1 spark plug is misfiring, but it has been that way since I bought the car.
I was told to clean the O2 sensor and throttle body, which I did and it ran fine for a few days but is back to dying randomly.
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I am at my wits' end with my 98 Honda Civic LX. The problem starts around late summer of last year. It is sporadic, so I didn't quite pay attention until one day the engine died on the highway after I picked up the kids at the school. It didn't make any sound nor giving any warnings, just suddenly died. After that highway episode, it seems like it just taken its own fancy schedule as far as when to die, so to say. In a given day, it could 4 episodes in a day. Then it runs perfectly for some weeks then it starts again and went away again.
It just quietly dies while being driven. I had to turn it completely off, wait for some moment and try to turn it on again. Sometimes it just turns on again without me being frustrated and there were moments when I had to do several attempts. Once I heard clicking sound before the engine died, only once, the rest makes no sound at all. No lights are on.
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