Bulletins
| Bulletin | Bulletin date | Replacement Bulletin | Item no. | Summary | Added |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE - STORAGE - TANK ASSEMBLY | |||||
| TSB-0163-08 | 08/05/2008 | 10034264 | Toyota: fuel tank and fuel gauge diagnostic tips. meter/gauge/display. the design and operational characteristics of the bladder tank and fuel gauge system. diagnostic tips for the following customer concerns are also included. *pe | 11/01/2010 | |
| FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER - STORAGE - FUEL GAUGE SYSTEM | |||||
| TSB-0163-08 | 08/05/2008 | 10034264 | Toyota: fuel tank and fuel gauge diagnostic tips. meter/gauge/display. the design and operational characteristics of the bladder tank and fuel gauge system. diagnostic tips for the following customer concerns are also included. *pe | 11/01/2010 | |
Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE | |||
| 02/02/2011 | 42000 | ||
| Incorrect fuel gauge/rubber bladder caused the engine to shutdown while traveling down the interstate. gauge showed 2 bars 5 minutes before the engine shutdown. | |||
| 05/04/2011 | 33000 | ||
| Tl*the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. while driving approximately 70 mph the vehicle stalled. the contact stated the fuel system warning light illuminated immediately before the vehicle stalled. the contact also stated the owner's manual indicated that when the fuel system warning light illuminated the vehicle should have had at least 3 gallons of fuel left. a tow truck appeared on the scene to deliver more fuel to the contact. the vehicle was not taken to have the failure diagnosed and was not repaired. the failure and current mileages were 33,000. | |||
| 05/04/2011 | 33000 | ||
| Tl-the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. while driving approximately 70 mph the vehicle stalled. the contact stated the fuel system warning light illuminated immediately before the vehicle stalled. the contact also stated the owner's manual indicated that when the fuel system warning light illuminated the vehicle should have had at least 3 gallons of fuel left. a tow truck appeared on the scene to deliver more fuel to the contact. the vehicle was not taken to have the failure diagnosed and was not repaired. the failure and current mileages were 33,000. sm. | |||
| 06/20/2010 | 35000 | ||
| 2008 toyota prius: refueling started to become a problem at 35,000 miles. tank would not refill completely and gas is burped out tank. very frustrating refueling because gas hose clicks off repeatedly even though tank is not full. typically tank will take an additional 2 gallons of fuel after the first time it clicks full. it takes 5 minutes to put in last 2 gallons and then fuel bubbles up and pours out of tank. i could see the air bubbles working their way to the surface as the gas tank burps out the fuel. the bladder gas tank is clearly defective and it is impossible to know when tank is full. michael's toyota of bellevue, washington has been worthless - first telling me they aren't aware of this issue and they had no problem refilling the car and the last time telling me there is nothing they can do and i should call toyota. great customer service... thanks heavens the car is out of warranty because i have no interest in doing further business with them. toyota should acknowledge this defect and replace the bladder gas tank with a regular version. | |||
| 04/27/2010 | 1 | 02/28/2008 | |
| S10 appropriate handling-letter to the secretary from re toyota problems *tgw the consumer stated the brakes made a noise. according to the dealer, there may have been rust on the rotors, due to lack of driving. the vehicle was not getting proper gas mileage and the gas motor made a lot of noise. | |||
| 12/31/2009 | 45000 | 1 | |
| On 31 december 2009 my 08 prius was slowed down prior to turning into a driveway, when it suddenly accelerated. it went out of control and crashed into trees and a powerpole. the floor mat, that according to toyota is supposed to cause this, was properly attached to the pegs in the floor, and in proper place even after the crash recently, on 6 april, 2010, i again experienced a sudden unexplained acceleration when going about 5/10 miles per hour. it lasted about four seconds and did not result in an accident. *tr | |||
| 10/12/2009 | 20000 | ||
| Tl*the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. while the vehicle was traveling at a speed of 55 mph the contact noticed that the check engine light appeared on the dashboard, moments later the vehicle suddenly shut off. the vehicle was taken to the dealership. the contact was informed that the failure was due to the fuel tank being empty. the failure mileage was 20,000 and the current mileage was 35,000. | |||
| 10/01/2008 | 6000 | 1 | |
| The fuel gauge on my prius registered 3 gallon fuel remaining (according to the owners' manual). i ran out of fuel on a busy expressway without warning. fortunately, i was not hit. i was towed to a toyota dealership who informed me that the prius gas tank is a plastic bag and the fuel gauge does not register correctly. i asked what toyota was doing about this. i was told that they were looking into it. that was more than one year ago. the toyota dealership told me to keep the gas tank 1/2 full in order to prevent my prius from running out of fuel. of course, this cuts the vehicle range in half. i assumed that toyota would work for a solution, but frankly, after all the recent revelations, i wonder if toyota has looked for a solution. at the very least, toyota should inform all prius owners to keep their gas tanks 1/2 full in order to avoid the potentially dangerous event that i experienced. (i am a registered professional engineer, mechanical, state of california.) *tr | |||
| 02/05/2010 | 35100 | 1 | |
| My 2008 toyota prius gas pedal stuck and pushed forward against my control, and i slammed my foot on the brake and gas pedal at same time and it stopped. i am reportint this to the toyota dealer at priority toyota in chesapeake virignia right now and they said because they can not reproduce the incident they can't do anything, but for me to call toyota 1-800-331-4331 and report it, i did, and talked with a representative, and he said all he can do is put it in the case file, and if i wanted to i can report it to nhtsa. i will not become a death statistic to prove the problem occurred. *tr | |||
| 08/13/2009 | 13560 | 1 | |
| Toyota prius, 2008, involved in accident , august 13, 2009 when it accelerated rapidly out of control after being at a stop sign for 4 minutes stopped in a line of traffic, hitting car in front and being very difficult to bring to a stop. went from 0 to 45 mph very quickly and hard to stop .toyota has not responded to complaint or my insistence that it be fixed. was deemed by judge who heard the appeal of ticket to be a mechanical failure. first accident for me in 48.5 years of driving. initially i thought it was brake failure, but after the info came out, it matches exactly the accelerator sticking that has been described. filed complaint with toyota in october and have not heard back. haven was the contact, claim number at toyota is #0910145720. also notified dealer where it was purchased and have not heard from them. was assured i'd hear in january and got a letter indicating that i should take the floor mat out. it happened again in november of 2009, although i immediately recognized it and got the car stopped quickly. i'm now afraid to drive it but need my car to work. *tr | |||
| 08/18/2009 | 62013 | 1 | |
| My 2008 toyota prius has a defective fuel tank. i can't reliably fill it up or rely on the fuel gage to determine endurance. running out of fuel in the left lane on a busy highway is a major safety hazard for myself and other drivers on the road. *tr | |||
| 02/09/2009 | 15000 | 1 | |
| Over period of several weeks car would refuse to accept fuel. stated capacity is over 11 gallons. vehicle has never taken more than 9 gallons to fill up at an indicated empty point (1 bar on fuel gauge). car would not accept fuel without burping fuel all over the side of the car and pavement surrounding. each successive fill up would require less fuel before burping at fuel cutoff from pump. toyota claimed that i had been doing to many mini fill-ups (not intentionally since gauge was malfunctioning). toyota dealership reset fuel system early march 2009 and since has functioned properly. believe toyota (and us gov't agency that approved this faulty system in the first place) should replace fuel system with version the europeans are using as i haven't seen any complaints in europe on this issue. *tr | |||
| 03/20/2009 | 350 | 1 | |
| 2008 prius, can not fill gas tank without continuous stops and starts, and then fuel percolates out of the tank, onto shoes and ground. very unsafe. can cause fire. this is due to defective rubber bladder gas tank. dealers can not fix. *tr | |||
| 02/09/2008 | 22000 | 1 | |
| 2008 toyota prius, is advertised to have an 11.9 gallon gas tank - yet when you fill it up it will only take 7 gallons. the dealer says that they cannot fix it. i am uncomfortable with a gas tank that does not work properly and i feel this is a serious safety issue. *tr | |||
| 05/25/2008 | 2500 | 1 | |
| The first time this happened was approximately 3 weeks after purchasing my new '08 prius. i was attempting to fill my nearly empty gas tank, when the gas nozzle clicked off after about 2 seconds of filling. i repeatedly tried to continue filling only to have the nozzle repeatedly click off without filling any further. i would squeeze the handle, a little gas would go into the car and the nozzle would click off. after about 5 minutes of this frustration, i removed the nozzle from the car and whatever gasoline was in the tank came gushing out of the gas tank. a lot of gas, poured down the side of my new car and onto myself. after this, the gas gauge was apparently stuck on ?full?, as i drove the car a about 100 miles and the gas gauge remained at the ?full? setting even though i had not even put in 3 gallons of gas in my seemingly empty tank. with most every subsequent fill after this it would take forever to fill the tank with the nozzle constantly clicking off?plus it is difficult to tell when the tank is actually full. the gas has continued to pour out onto my car and myself on occasional fills over the course of the last 5 months. i've put 16,000 miles on my prius and it has most always been the same routine when fueling?the nozzle constantly clicking off and me standing there squeezing the nozzle handle over and over and trying to guess when the tank is actually full. i often could not put more than one second of fuel in my prius before the fuel nozzle would click off and i keep having to pull the pump spigot out until it just barely squirts gas past the little flapper door, and even then it keeps shutting off. it takes me almost 20 minutes to put less than 6 gallons of gas in this car and it is an environmental and a safety concern to continue having gas pour out of the tank to the ground and onto my clothing/body. toyota will not remedy this problem and it is both an environmental and safety concern to myself and others. there is documentation since 2004. *tr | |||
| 10/19/2008 | 415 | 1 | |
| Gas tank does not operate as advertised and poses a potentially very serious problem for consumers who run out of gas or can't refill the tank as advertised. the gauge does not appear to work accurately and does not truly reflect the amount of gas remaining or the consumption of gas. *tr | |||
| 07/27/2008 | 700 | 1 | |
| I own a 2008 prius. the fuel gauge does not work at all and the dealer has told me it's a function of the bladder gas tank. i cannot fill the tank because it will not take enough fuel before the pump shuts off. this is a common problem i am told now by other owners. toyota should tell people before they buy the car. i have less then 1000 miles on the car now. *tr | |||
| 07/28/2008 | 2400 | 1 | |
| Fuel gauge and fuel tank report lower than expected values which lead to miscalculated trips between fill ups. on the first day, the tank reported full at around 11gallons. the second time of filling up, i could only fill up 8 gallons because the fuel pump sensor would stop at the gas station. the third, and fourth time would only allow me to put in 6 gallons, and 4 gallons. this makes it extremely inaccurate in reporting how much gas is left in the car. i nearly ran out of gas going through az for a long drive because of the inaccurate amount of reported gas. toyota makes a european version which does not have this bladder problem. (the fuel tank capacity for a european nhw11 without the bladder is 50 litres ) why not modify or replace the american version which is clearly reports bogus gas readings? it's a serious problem when you run out of gas on the highway or overestimate to the next refueling station. prius 2008 model, purchased 6/2008. *tr | |||
| 05/23/2008 | 1 | ||
| I recently returned from a 2,300 mile road trip that began in woodland wa. during this trip, we filled up in ashland ore on our way to reno nv. ore requires that an attendant do this and off we went, next gas fill up was to have been reno! we headed east, turned off i-5 and onto hwy 89 and switched drivers. after only 83 miles, the gas tank showed that there was less than 1/2 a tank. luckily we had not missed mccloud california, last stop for gas for many miles! when we filled up in reno, the gas pump shut off way too soon! we had to pull the gas nozzle way out and extremely slowly managed to fill up the gas tank. during this slow process, air and gas would bubble up and at times out of the tank. we repeated this process at every fill up along the trip and since we have gotten home. temperature, time of day and altitude seem to not have any effect on getting the tank filled, the pump shut off early at every instance. another issue is the fuel gauge. the car would travel 200 miles before even one gauge indicator would click off. there are 10 indicators and the tank supposedly holds nearly 12 gallons of gas. i bet that the car does not get 200 miles per gallon! i spoke the owner of a 2005 prius. he indicated he also has challenges filling his tank. he was told that this has to do with the ambient temperature. i have talked with a toyota prius technician. he stated that there are no parts that can fix this issue. he noted that this has been going on since the first prius, that there is no fix available. he also noted in the winter that at least one prius owner comes in each and every day with this same gas tank concern. i also did some research on the internet and this appears to be a long outstanding safety hazard! it appears that toyota is continuing to manufacture a defective, unsafe product with full knowledge of the issue. i thank you in advance for working on this major safety and longstanding safety problem. *tr | |||
| FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE - STORAGE | |||
| 05/05/2008 | 5000 | 1 | 01/07/2008 |
| Tl*the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. while placing fuel in the vehicle, it will not fill to its full capacity. this is a continuous failure that occurs in all weather conditions and temperatures. there is a malfunction with the fuel gauge device. the inaccurate readings of the fuel gauge causes discomfort when driving. the toyota manufacturer stated that the vehicle would only consume 6-7 gallons of gasoline, even though the fuel tank capacity was 11.9 gallons. the manufacturer is aware of the failure, but the fuel tank cannot be replaced in these vehicles. the tank would need to be redesigned. the contact recently took the vehicle to an authorized dealer and the mechanic stated that the fuel tank failure was related to the bladder system. the vehicle is currently being repaired for the failures. the failure mileage was 5,000 and current mileage was 9,000. updated 07/07/08. *lj updated *jb | |||
| FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE - STORAGE - TANK ASSEMBLY | |||
| 10/12/2009 | 120490 | ||
| Tl*the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet trail blazer. the contact stated that the fuel tank was leaking around the spout since there was an inlet check valve fracture. no maintenance was performed on the vehicle prior to the failure. the vehicle was taken to the dealer who confirmed that the inlet valve was cracked. the dealer refused to assume responsibility for the repair cost. there were no recalls or warranties related to the failure. the chevrolet manufacturer was notified and stated that they would review the case and inform the contact of the outcome. the failure mileage was 119,000. | |||
| 05/05/2008 | 5000 | 1 | 01/07/2008 |
| Tl*the contact owns a 2008 toyota prius. while placing fuel in the vehicle, it will not fill to its full capacity. this is a continuous failure that occurs in all weather conditions and temperatures. there is a malfunction with the fuel gauge device. the inaccurate readings of the fuel gauge causes discomfort when driving. the toyota manufacturer stated that the vehicle would only consume 6-7 gallons of gasoline, even though the fuel tank capacity was 11.9 gallons. the manufacturer is aware of the failure, but the fuel tank cannot be replaced in these vehicles. the tank would need to be redesigned. the contact recently took the vehicle to an authorized dealer and the mechanic stated that the fuel tank failure was related to the bladder system. the vehicle is currently being repaired for the failures. the failure mileage was 5,000 and current mileage was 9,000. updated 07/07/08. *lj updated *jb | |||
| 06/01/2008 | 7700 | 2 | 02/01/2008 |
| Summary: prius low fuel warning light/buzzer came on, and only 5 miles later car ran out of gas, in a bad place at night on highway. the manual states that when low light comes on you have three gallons or less. with the prius, even treating this conservatively as only 1 1/2 gallons, that should still be over 60 miles. i had driven the vehicle between 30 and 50 miles with low light on multiple times previously. this usually works occasionally fails fuel warning is clearly dangerous. and from internet researching, it is clearly a widespread problem, and toyota not only is completely ignoring it, they denied to me having received any complaints on this (there are previous complaints on this even right on this nhtsa website). driving from colorado to kansas city on i-70, a little after passing the sign that said topeka 27 miles, just after 10 at night, the low fuel light illuminated and warning sounded. we planned to stop at the next fuel stop, which we expected to be within 20 miles at the most. about 5 miles after the light illuminated, the car suddenly lost power, the gas engine clearly had quit, the red triangle warning illuminated, along with another warning. after the initial scare, i pulled the vehicle over, slowly, under battery power, not knowing what had happened. in the manual we found that the second warning indicated hybrid system malfunction, and not to attempt to drive the vehicle. some 10-15 minutes later, as we were trying to get emergency help, that warning disappeared, and a new message came up, add fuel. eventually we borrowed gas from a family that stopped to help us in this rural area, and got help from a highway patrolman. toyota checked vehicle, denies problems, denies receiving complaints, refuses to send warnings to prius owners. nhtsa, this is a safety issue, like your recall 00v384. *tr 6/19/08 add **cw the consumer believed that the low fuel warning light was defective. | |||
| FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER | |||
| 02/27/2010 | 1 | ||
| Throttle malfunction - 2008 toyota prius. driving 50-55 m/h on north 280 near millbrae, ca in heavy rain. vehicle accelerated without pressing the gas pedal. engine revved 3 times in succession (sounded like: vroom, vroom, vroom) while accelerating to 65 m/h. all this time i was stepping on the breaks. acceleration eventually stopped went back to normal after a few minutes. i drove the car directly to the nearest toyota dealership in daly city but was told that there was no problem with the car. this malfunction only occurred once. *tr | |||
| 07/05/2009 | 8000 | 1 | |
| Driving home from church july 5, 2009 the beach traffic was bumper to bumper. stop and go traffic. i was stopped behind an suv. the traffic started to move and my prius bolted forward into the suv which in turn pushed it into another suv. my car was totaled. the engine was pushed all the way back into the front seat. this should have been just a fender bender. no one was injured. *tr | |||
| 09/10/2009 | 1 | ||
| Driver in toyota prius was stopped at a red light. according to witnesses, for no apparent reason the vehicle accelerated, rolled or drove into intersection where vehicle was struck by another vehicle. prius driver was killed. updated 03/14/10 *bf *tr according to the police report, there was only one death and no injuries. updated 06/15/10. *jb | |||
| 08/18/2008 | 650 | 1 | |
| Just bought brand new 2008 prius. owner's manual claims that with just one bar showing on fuel gauge there would be 3.0 gal. or less in fuel bladder. the fuel gauge is totally unreliable based on these results: 10 bars (full fillup) got 200 miles to 9 bars -- 3 bars left got 100 miles to 2 bars -- 2 bars left got 20 miles to 1 bar -- 1 bar left got only 5 miles before car came to a stop and would not restart --. the hybrid battery gauge showed 0 charge. after putting in 2.5 gal. the fuel gauge showed 2 bars. engine started and i could drive 1.25 miles to a gas station. this problem occurred on i-40 at 9:00 pm in new mexico. we were very lucky that there was a gas station nearby, because there are many stretches of i-40 where there is no gas station for 20-40 miles. there have been many complaints about both the unreliable fuel gauge and the bladder type fuel tank. the toyota dealer never mentioned these defects, nor does the owner's manual. *tr | |||