My tch let me down again tonight. Three blocks from my house this time - I was at a red light. When the green light came on I hit the gas lightly and heard/felt a thud from the engine compartment. Very quickly I realized the ICE was not running and I was only going on the electric motor. Every single warning light on the dash came on along with "Check VSC System" on the mini display. Fortunately I was in a residential area three blocks from my house (all down hill!) and just literally coasted back to my house. We parked the car out front and went in, by this time the main battery was down to two purple bars.

About twenty minutes later I went back out and tried turning the car on. This time the ICE kicked right on and started charging the battery, but now the "Check Hybrid System" message is back on the mini display. So I let the ICE run long enough to bring the main battery back up into the blue range and backed the car into the garage. I'm going to ride with the tow truck driver to the dealer in the morning to make sure the car isn't left in "N" draining the battery again.

 

Dear Charles,

This is such awful news. Best of luck with the repair and keep us posted.

 

This is starting to sound alot like something that we have heard before from a friend here.

Your records and accounts of the events that you have gone through are invaluable to the rest of us.

We will not rest in finding out what is the problem and we are all with you!

I am just a newbee. But the collective knowledge here is awsome!

Everyone wants to help.

 

This time you'll make sure the car is not left on to allow the battery to discharge. So I hope that they'll have all the fault codes stored when they go to look at it. But if I were you I'd be researching the lemon laws in your state.

 

Sure does.. When Charles said earlier they just charged and reset the system, the first thing popped in my head was I wonder if he'll be telling us how the same thing happened in another day or two... And here it is...

 

You description sounds almost (if not) identical to a problem many Prius owners had. It was fixed with an ECU update (simple software flash). No wrench turning required.
I am disappointed if this problem has carried forward to the TCHs.
J

 

I was wondering if your 2007 TCH is an early production? Could you let us know the last five digits of your VIN or the range it is in between or the month it was produced?

Thanks, and good luck...

 

The last five of my vin is: 02547. The car came over from Japan at the beginning of July and I took posession sometime around the second week of July.

Well I was able to drive it to the dealer this morning with all the warning lights on. I sure hope it is something as simple as the ECU/Prius type update I've heard about before and not a DC converter like norb's. Whatever it is hopefully they will diagnose and fix it - and that it is not something that will eventually occur on all tch's!

CORRECTION--> The last five of my vin are: 12260

 

02547 looks more like a May arrival. I wonder where it was for the month of June?

 

Schmidtj. A bigger issue than when it's made is how far it has to travel after reaching the US. I'm on the east coast. I've got production number 922, but it didn't make it to my dealer until June 9.