[arizona charlie]

Today I had the following happen to my Prius.

As I attempted to drive down my driveway, the car which had been left running while I was loading stuff into the back, would not go into gear but stayed into neutral. All of the various dash lights were on including the triangular warning light, brake light, and all of the other warning lights.

The display came on and said to press the Park button. I did. Again I attempted to put the car into drive. It would not go. Tried reverse gear, but it would not go there either. I pressed the Power button and the brake pedal simultaneously, but the car would not shut off. I pressed the brake, which was not engaged, although the brake light was on. The brake engaged. I then released the brake. The car still would not shift out of neutral into drive or reverse.

I frankly don’t know what I did to eventually make it start since I was by now frustrated but, eventually I was able to put the car in gear and it has run perfectly since then.

This happened to me once before but I have no idea why it happened or what I did to make the car go into gear. I would take it to the dealer but I know it is impossible for them to diagnose a problem that is not happening when you bring it to them.

Has anyone had this experience, and if so, what did you do?

Arizona Charlie

 

[moocatdog]

Arizona Charlie,
I have not had this happen to me, but, since warning lights came on, your car may be storing codes which could help a service tech diagnose the problem. If it were me I would definitely take it in for a checkup.
Good luck,
Moo

 

[windsurfdog]

Was the "READY" light on?

 

[Susan5s]

A similar thing happened to me, but as Windsurfdog asks, was the Ready light on? I had hit the Power button without hitting the brake and didn't realize it. It looked like it was misbehaving and not going into gear, because all the other dash lights were normal. But I realized my mistake, turned it off and rebooted. All was OK after that.

 

[pumasalad]

similar things have happened to me a couple of times. Sometimes, even when I put my foot on the brake and press power to turn it on, if I don't do something else to the car within a minute or so it will turn all the yellow lights on on the dash and go into a kind of slepp mode that won't let me shift into gear.

The symptoms you describe seem to happen to me when I get into the car and dally too much before going. Dallying includes plugging my iPod into it's holster, choosing a tune to listen to, chatting on the phone, or basically anything that takes a couple of minutes before I'm ready to shift into gear and go.

I've discovered that pressing the power button again (sometimes twice), without my foot on the brakes, usually wakes the car up and puts it into ready mode. try that if it happens again.

 

[moocatdog]

similar things have happened to me a couple of times. Sometimes, even when I put my foot on the brake and press power to turn it on, if I don't do something else to the car within a minute or so it will turn all the yellow lights on on the dash and go into a kind of slepp mode that won't let me shift into gear.

My '04 does not exhibit that type of behavior. I have sat in mine powered to the "Ready" state for long stretches (20 minutes or more) without it ever going into any kind of sleep mode as you describe.
Does anyone else care to comment on this?
Drive happy,
Moo

 

[windsurfdog]

Very interesting that the originator of this thread has ignored the responses.......must've been user error after all.

 

[BIF]

Very interesting that the originator of this thread has ignored the responses.......must've been user error after all.

I think "ignored" is a strong word. He only started the thread on Saturday, and after all, it WAS the weekend. Let's give him a break. I know it's hard to believe, but not everybody hangs on every update here on Priusonline. :wink:

Personally, I have been the cause of confusion for my own car, usually when I leave the car running while I do something like adjust the cargo in the back, throw out garbage, or wash the windows. Typically, I do something dumb like press the "on" button when I get back into the car.

Y'know, no engine sound...so it's my human nature to hit "on". Well, in this case, pressing "on" shuts it off. And realizing my mistake, I hit "on" again before car fully powers down. Of course, too many quick off/on sequences will confuse it, and light up the red triangle. I just have to stop doing "off/on/off/on" too quickly, so my car will have a chance to react.

 

[JRjr]

I just experienced the same 'sleep mode' in my 2 day old '04. I came back from a 6 hour hike and opened up all the doors and moved in and out of the driver's seet while getting all my gear stowed. Once I was ready to go I hit the power button (with my foot on the brake) and it turned on but the ready light would not go on, I couldn't shift, I couldn't turn it off... I even inserted the key into the slot but still nothing... and when I tried to pull the key out, it wouldn't budge. I tried every combo I could think of but nothing worked and after about 2 minutes a string of 5 yellow warning symbols came on. A minute or two later I was able to turn it off and after restarting, everything was fine.

Since I've only had the car 2 days it is quite possible that I was doing something wrong but it did seem very odd behavior.

 

[Fredo]

I've had this happen a couple of times, too. The first time I though maybe I hadn't had my foot on the brake, but then steping on the brake and pressing the Power button should have put it into Ready, and it didn't.

What does seem to work is: Brake not depressed, and hold the Power button down for 5 seconds. This should shut down and allow a normal boot up.

 

[windsurfdog]

Hey BIF,
Does "ignored" qualify now?

 

[BIF]

Hey BIF,
Does "ignored" qualify now?

No. We don't know his personal responsibilities or his life. He may be travelling, or he may have a business, personal, health, or family emergency to attend to. Maybe he has a computer problem or difficulty accessing a computer with web capability.

We simply don't know.

Arizona Charlie has never struck me as a "troll." We should give him the benefit of the doubt until he proves us wrong.

I would give you and Moo and Daniel and Patrick and Bradca and Jflower and John1701a and the other "regulars" here the same benefit of the doubt. As I would hope that you all would in return.

 

[AgentElrond]

Personally, I have been the cause of confusion for my own car

Ditto. When I first got my 2004, I had a tendency to "light it up" without starting it in order to get everything set up (seat belt, NAV, etc.), and then I'd hit the button without the brakes and shut it off. Oops? :wink:

 

[pumasalad]

Mine (7 months old) did it again yesterday. In fact, it's completely reproducable and it does it every time.

When I get in, put my foot on the brake, push the power button, everything comes on as advertised. Then if I take my foot off the brake, play with the navigation or my iPod for a couple of minutes and then try to shift the car into reverse or drive, it won't go.

even though it said ready when I pushed start, since I didn't go within some alloted amount of time, it goes back to sleep. The nav system is still on, the radio still works, whatever, it just isn't "ready" any more. The way around it is to push the power button to turn it off, put my foot on the bakes, and pust the power button again. Then it says ready again, then I go.

Like I say, whenever I don't go within about 4 minutes, it does this. I assumed it was a "feature".

 

[JRjr]

I think this 'sleep mode' might be part of the anti theft system. A quick way to get out of it seems to be to exit the car and use the fob to lock and unlock the doors. When you get back in everything is responsive again.

 

[windsurfdog]

Hey BIF,
Does "ignored" qualify now?

No. We don't know his personal responsibilities or his life. He may be travelling, or he may have a business, personal, health, or family emergency to attend to. Maybe he has a computer problem or difficulty accessing a computer with web capability.

We simply don't know.

Arizona Charlie has never struck me as a "troll." We should give him the benefit of the doubt until he proves us wrong.

I would give you and Moo and Daniel and Patrick and Bradca and Jflower and John1701a and the other "regulars" here the same benefit of the doubt. As I would hope that you all would in return.

BIF,
It's kinda tough to give this guy the "benefit of the doubt" after this thread:
http://www.priusonline.com/viewtopic.php?t=1633&highlight=
Being called an a*****e brings scrutiny.
As for this thread, user error all the way.......

 

[JRjr]

It may be user error but it still is worth talking about. The one time it happened to me the car was completely unresponsive... I couldn't turn it on or off, couldn't shift and when I inserted the keyfob as a last ditch effort, I couldn't remove it. Very frustrating. After waiting a couple of minutes all was well.

 

[windsurfdog]

JRjr,
Please don't apply my statements about the original poster to you or anyone else who posted. I was saying that the original poster was in error. My apologies if that was not clear.

 

[Daniel]

I believe that taking your foot off the brake pedal too soon when you power up the car can put it into an anomalous mode. You might then need to hold the brake pedal down while pressing Power to power it down, or press Park first, or something. I'm not too clear on this part. The issue has been discussed elsewhere, but I don't remember where.

 

[cjarabia]

I have had the EXACT same problem

All the dashboard lights come on and I can only shift into neutral. I took my car to the dealer, they were able to replicate the problem, and they replaced something, a "regulator" but the problem is still happening and still not fixed. I'm wondering if they bothered to Google it to even see what the problem is, because I'm clearly not the only one having this issue. They don't seem to know why the problem is happening either. It took them 2 weeks to get the part in (Regulator) and I was already without a car for those 2 weeks and it's frustrating that the problem is still not fixed. Would love to know if you solve this problem or find the source of it or a resolution so I can tell the Prius experts at Toyota how to fix it.