Toyota Prius hybrid car radio problems?
Is anyone having problems with the radio in their 2005 Toyota Prius?Editor's Note: Originally this post was focused on radio problems with the Prius, but many have posted other problems with their Prius on this post as well. Thus, please feel free to add comments regarding any problems with your Toyota Prius.
Labels: hybrid cars, toyota prius
posted by Dahcredyns @ 5:59 PM
37 comments
37 Comments:
yes, at first I thought it was a fluke..radio lost all programing. I didn't have time to reset it all so turned the car off over night, and it all came back the next day!!The second time it didn't come back and I reset everything manually. Now it has happened a third time, and I have not reset anything for two days, programing still has not come back. Had my 2004 Prius about 1.5 years. Will be calling the dealer.
If you catch this reply, please respond back as to how your experience with the dealer goes regarding this problem.
Thanks.
My 2004 Prius radio has always had reception and engine noise problems. It has been to the dealer three times, changed the antenna once, yet they say it is no different from other Prius".
I have the same problem with reception. They are telling me that the radio stations don't broadcast as stong as they use to. I know this is boggus but I can't get any traction with them.
I have a 2005 Prius and just started having an intermittent problem where my AM reception is all but destroyed by static when I first startup in the morning. The sound of the noise appears to be related to the electric motor and not the gas engine. The noise diminishes substantially when I stop. It also clears up after a few miles of driving. Any help would be appreciated before I take it to a dealer.
I own a 2004 Prius with 42000 miles. Energy Display and Climate control displays go on and off intermittently. Spoke to dealer service rep in El Paso who had no idea about the cause. The electronics are now out of warranty and Gold coverage does not include. Any thoughts on how this problem can be remidied?
I have a 2004 Prius. I hear static on the stations when I use the gas pedal and the brake. When AC/heat is on it is bad too. Radio was clear until the display console went black and had to have it replaced. Since then the AM and FM is static and horrible. Been to dealer 3 times. Said the antenna was plugged in correctly and they said that it was the radio stations, and they said it was the way all prius cars are because hybrid car. I'm so frustrated I don't know what to do. Said there is nothing wrong with it.
I am also having a problem with the display working intermittently. The little electrical paths disappear, the battery bars vanish. My radio and CD player shut off of their own free will. I have even had the bizarre experience of not being able to shut off the radio.
I am just out of the warranty and the weasels at the dealership just shrugged and said they could do nothing except diagnose and then fix. This of course means mucho dinero.
Prius Owners with AM radio problems:
Your perceptions are correct. Toyota has an AM radio reception problem. It is a manufacturer defect, not your ears.
I travel all over California for my job. I have been doing so for 20 years. I have owned Fords, Chevys, Cadillac’s – you name it. I have never had an AM reception problem. And when I bought my 2005 Prius the AM reception was “great”. I repeat, in the beginning “It was great”.
I work in the Bay Area and I could pull in Fresno KMJ 580 (a powerful station) and Sacramento 1530 with no problem. A little static, but not much. I could get 560 in SF with no problem.
That lasted about 1 ½ years. Then the reception became almost all static. It was very obvious to me – I can tell the difference.
So what was the problem? I have taken the car into two different dealers and both said there was no problem. Either they were tone deaf, or Toyota knows they have a problem and they do not know how to fix it, so they do not want to admit it. I even had one dealer cite the section from the Prius owner’s manual regarding AM radio reception - Give me a break.
I have bought longer whip antennas hoping it would boost reception - and there has been a small improvement – but I can still tell the difference. When the motor (the electric motor) revs up, the static is noticeably louder. In between buildings in the bay area, the reception almost disappears. Again, this never happened with my other cars and it didn’t happen when I first bought the vehicle.
But guess what happened tonight (7-31-07) on my way home from work at 6:12 PM PSDT? The static stopped and the reception is great. So what happened? Either Al Gore is ignorant of the sun’s solar flare affect on the planet (which could be true) and those flares stopped at exactly 6:12 PM, or could there be another explanation?
I say they defect stopped.
So what is that defect?
My understanding is that the Prius AM reception moves between the window and the whip antenna, depending on which one has the best reception. I think there is a flaw in the internal switching mechanism in the Prius radios that malfunctions. It doesn’t switch back, when it should. Either that, or there is a wiring flaw in the Prius, which could be because of the electrical nature of this machine.
If there is a Toyota executive reading this blog, please get your act together and fix this problem. Prius owners love your vehicles. But, you have a manufacturer defect that you should fix.
If there is a class action lawyer reading this blog, please start a suit – but only if Toyota doesn’t fix this problem.
Prius owners have faith – this problem will get resolved. Toyota will either run with this very very quickly (and resolve the problem at minimal cost), or they will be sued by a class action attorney and pay many many millions of dollars in damages.
My only hope is that the employee at Toyota who has ignored this problem will get fired and have his pension revoked. This situation should never have happened. Toyota thinks too much of their customers to let this affect their brand.
TSL
Tshermanlewis@gmail.com
I have the same problem in a 2005 Prius. I believe it to be in the AGC (automatic gain control) circuitry. It affects all stations. The dealer can't find it as yet - as it is intermittent - only occuring in the morning. I suspect a bad capacitor or perhaps a cold-sensitive semiconductor. But it will be pain until it goes from "intermittent" to "failure". Car was in the shop Saturday/Sunday/Monday. Lost a day of work while they tryed to reproduce the intermittent problem.
I have a 2005 Prius and have been dissatisfied with the dealer response to my radio problem. On FM stations, I have had intermittent "ghosting" where the radio station shifts up 0.2 for a brief period then moves back down, and then further down 0.2 on the dial. This has happened on three separate days, but is very irregular in occurance. It is the AM radio that is the constant problem. On most stations all I draw is constant static. Of course, when the dealer checks it out, they say there is no problem, they can draw in stations. I am also having trouble with the bluetooth connection-- it doesn't connect for me. Again the dealer claims there is no problem with the bluetooth connection. I'd appreciate any advice available, as my warranty expires in two weeks.
I have 72,000 + miles on my 2004 Prius, and have had problems with the AM radio for at least 40,000 of those miles. Yes, intermittent, seems to correlate with engine/brake activity. Have been to the dealer 3 or 4 times for this problem; they do a little tweaking, but, so far, no fixes. Very frustrating. Has anyone contacted Toyota?
Thank you for this blog, I googled toyota radio problems to see if I was crazy or not and this page reassured me that I was not. I to have the 2 KHz (AM) and .2MHz (FM)skip that just started today. Off i go to other site to see if there is a recall for this defect.
My 2007 Prius AM radio sucks! If I'm very close to the broadcast tower, I can get a station, otherwise the reception is almost non-existant! Today the dealer said the radio checked out fine. Guess what, it still doesn't work! The FM works great.
Has anyone had problems with the bulbs blowing out in the headlights, turn signal lights, brakelights, etc? We've had to change out 4 bulbs of various types on our 2005 Prius. I've never had to change out so many bulbs on a car before! What's going on?
I have had similar and very annoying problems with my 2007 Prius radio. I listen only to FM, and there are many FM stations in my area, but NONE of them come in clearly. I have the premium radio, the stations sound great in my other 2 vehicles, but they are unlistenable in my Prius. The dealer has swapped out the radio, but no improvement. He says all Prius radios are the same. Glad to know I am not hallucinating!
I've been complaining to my local Toyota dealer for a few years about the AM reception problem, pointing out repeatedly that the problem could ONLY be something that had physically BROKEN because the radio has worked PERFECTLY in the past. I've been dismissed, generally treated as a nuisance, and been offered endless astonishingly nonsensical excuses including the following humdinger: "All AM radios have this problem, but it is seldom noticed because nobody listens to AM radio." (I'm not kidding!)
In the past few months, however, I have obtained the ear of a relatively sympathetic local service manager (Matt). Earlier this week I took my Prius in and he and a service tech drove the car around, verified the fact that the noise is overwhelming and associated with acceleration and braking, did some tests on antenna system continuity, didn't identify any problems, but ended up replacing a lot of the antenna system.
The radio is now behaving absolutely perfectly (as it has in the past) and I just sent Matt the following message:
---
Matt,
First, I want to thank you sincerely for your efforts to address the long time problem with the AM radio reception in my 2004 Prius. On the way home from Claremont Toyota yesterday the radio was indeed working absolutely perfectly without a hint of static, engine noise, high frequency whining, or anything else--just as it had been during the first year or two that I owned the vehicle and as it had during the two or three weeks following the last time the car was in the shop to have its headliner removed and its antenna wires poked at.
So once again we have demonstrated conclusively that this problem--a problem that has infuriated and continues to infuriate a large number of Prius owners--is decidedly NOT a problem with the radio itself, NOT with AM radio reception in general, NOT with the presence of extra electrical components in the Prius, and, in short, NOT with any fundamental design flaw in the Prius OTHER than a very obvious quality control problem that makes the Prius particularly vulnerable to something that physically breaks--probably in the antenna system.
[Again please see http://www.soultek.com/blog/2005/11/toyota-prius-hybrid-car-radio-problems.html where other Prius owners are expressing their mounting frustration not merely at the problem itself, but at the endless and transparent BS that they, like I, have been fed by Toyota people in the apparent attempt to avoid finding and fixing this problem. You can also Google on "prius AM reception" to find more related comments.]
While I remain hopeful that the problem in my case has now been solved, I am still a little skeptical because your service technician (?) Mike reported to me yesterday that you had found no particular fault in examining the continuity of the antenna system and its grounding. Thus, for future reference I'd like to know as much as possible about the following:
1) What specific tests were done?
and
2) What specific components were replaced?
With regard to the latter question, my service sheet indicates that the following parts were used:
1 x 86300-47030 Antenna Assy, AMP
1 x 86101-47090 Cord Sub-Assy, AN
1 x 86101-47110 Cord Sub Assy, AN
4 x 74612-68010-AO Cover, Assist Gri
I'm interested in knowing things like a) whether this is the entire antenna assembly (including the mast, mount, all cables and anything else all the way to the radio or if some parts continue to be original, b) what ground connections might have been refurbished in the process of installation, and c) anything else that was one that could conceivably affect the reception.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
John
So far my 06 radio hasn't the flakiness mentioned by many others. My nagging problem is a dash rattle, plastic on plastic I think, that the dealer hasn't been able to find. It seems to be coming from the area in front of the steering wheel and a bit to the left, as seen from the driver's seat. The rattle is worst around 25-45 MPH in 30-50 deg. F. weather and with anything but smooth roads. If it's near 10 deg. or over 60 deg. it's hardly noticed. But New England weather is often in the temp range I listed. My last car, an 02 Taurus, was noise-free dash-wise. You would think Toyota knew how to build quiet dashboards, I have another appt next Friday and have listed the dash noise as a must-fix. I'll let all know how that works out. I had a 92 Honda Civic with a weatherstrip problem that was only fixed when the dealer put their ace mechanic on it. Time for the ace Prius mechanic to show his stuff.
The radio reception in-out definitely sounds like the antenna circuit. Is there a Toyota trouble site that we mortals can look at?
I've had my Prius for one year (It's an '07) and I've had the following problems:
1. alarm was going off while I was driving. (had alarm replaced-they said it was defective)
2. red alarm light is sometimes on and sometimes off (They don't think this is a problem)
3. radio volume control wouldn't adjust up or down (so they replaced the radio 2 months ago)
4. unable to turn the radio off(on new radio)and radio dash lights wouldn't go off. I took it in and they said it needed to be replaced again, but gave it a "quick fix" until the new radio could be ordered. During that time period the radio would turn on and off o.k. but the presets would be erased on occasion. Then it finally died.
5. During the same time period the glove box light sometimes would be on and sometimes off even when closed
6. radio is being replaced again today, but it strikes me this is not a radio problem.
Anyone else experiencing this?
I have a 2006 Prius with 180,000 kilometers. At about 170, 000 kilometers the yellow brake indicator and the yellow ABS indicator came on and stayed on. The dealership told me there was no problem with the brakes. These lights sometimes went off when the gas tank had been filled. I do have a sense that the brakes aren't functioning properly and I believe I have lost some gas mileage. Other strange things have been happening on the dash display --- air conditioning light came on and stayed on for no reason (now has gone off); the speedometer showed 1 km per hour when the car was stopped (this now has also stopped). Service at the dealership is recommending a new computer - a $500 bill plus 2 hours of shop time. ANYONE WITH SIMILAR PROBLEMS AND/OR SOLUTIONS?
I am writing to express my concern over my 2008 Toyota Prius that I purchased new in January of 2008. I recently returned from a 2300 mile road trip that began in Woodland Washington (20 miles north of Portland Oregon).
During this trip, we stopped in Ashland Oregon to fill up the gas tank on our way to Reno Nevada. The attendant filled the tank (Oregon requires that an attendant do this) and off we went ... next gas fill up was to have been Reno! We headed east, turned off Interstate 5 and onto Highway 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 certainly were not getting over 60mpg! Understanding this, we pulled 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. We can have to add between 3 - 6 gallons of gas after the pump shuts off ... no matter how slowly the gas is automatically pumped in. 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. There are at least two safety issues noted here ... a gas tank you cannot fill up with taking EXTROADINARY measures ... nearly removing the nozzle and having gas spill out as the air and gas fumes escape out of the tank.
Another issue is the fuel gauge. The car would travel 200 miles before even one guage indicator would click off. There are 10 indicators and the tank suposedly holds nealy 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!
I currently has a love/frightened of relationship with my Prius. I could have only seven gallons of gas, the tank shows full ... so I think I can drive further than I really would be able to. I cannot rely on my gas tank, I have to take unsafe steps to fill it up completely, I have a gas guage that is basically useless and need to guess when I have to fill up!
I have been unable to find anybody who knows why CB radios are not recommended for hybrid vehicles. Does anybody know why?
I have a 2005 Prius with 52,000 miles. My transaxel failed, rendering the car useless. It would not go into drive. Is this a common problem?
I had noise/static problem as well but "fixed" the problem as folows.
1. Disconnected the extrenal antena-gently "sanded" the metal contact.
2. Started the Prius. Turned on the AM radio. Got static.
3. Turned off the radio and the car.
4. Reinstalled the external antena.
5. Turned on the car and AM
It worked!!!
OK, here is the REAL deal. The Prius, due to all of the computerized functionality and voltage converters involved in the hybrid drive, generates TONS of RF interference that covers up the broadcast stations signals. These "signals" change as the state of the car changes, acceleration, break application etc. Older non-hybrid cars also created noise (especially the ignition system and alternator), but not to the same degree. Also, these RF noise sources were not "moving targets" as much and standard noise reduction techniques were developed to deal with this, especially for CB and Ham radio operators.
There has been some attempt to quiet down the Prius, but it is a daunting task as shielding all the wires, computer boxes and inverters is not for the faint hearted. So it's just a fact of life that radio reception (AM, FM, CB and Amateur radio alike) will not be as good in current technology Hybrids like the Prius. The dealers weren't (for once, smile) BS'ing, Prius' just do this! BTW, as non-hybids became more computerized thay have become more difficult from a radio reception standpoint as a general rule...
I have a 2005 Prius now with a little over 72k miles. At 70k miles I brought the Prius in for a scheduled Oil change, after this, the AM reception was noticable noisey when either using the breaks (regeneration) or accelerating. Some 50K watt stations that were previously very good reception are now barely understandable. Interestingly about 2k miles later my Hybrid battery failed. While I waited 3 weeks for a replacement Hybrid battery to arrive I was thinking that the poor AM may have been due to noise of the battery charging circuitry straining to charge a failing hybrid battery. Unfortunately, after the Hybrid battery was replaced the noisey AM receiption still exists. At this point I think it is probably due to something not being properly grounded anymore or maybe the antenna connection (coax) not being grounded. It is also possible that a Toyota Mechanic may have mistakenly removed a clamp on ferrite bead from an electric wire somewhere. I suspect auto mechanics may not be up on the electrical/electronic features of the Prius. Poor grounding and RF filtering I think are prime candidates for causing this problem.
My 2005 Prius may be listed as having an AM and FM radio..BUT I get only FM broadcasts. AM is nothing but static. I get AM only at the bingo hall. I still love my prius.
I took my car to get smogged today. Afterwards my AM reception was non-existent. The FM, however, works fine. This could be an antennae problem. Is the FM antennae separate from the AM?
I have had similar problems with the gas tank with my '09. There are times when I can only add roughly 5-6 gallons. I've heard all kinds of weird stories none of which I accept. I believe the tank is a really bad design and poses several risks to a driver. This problem needs to be addressed ASAP by Toyota.
Dec. 21,2008 I started my 2008 Prius and noticed that none of my dash lights were on. I tried to turn off the car and nothing happened. I also could not remove the key. It would go in drive and reverse, but still would not turn off. Everything else worked - radio, inside lights, etc. I called the dealer but the service dept. was closed. I then called Toyota and they had no idea what could be wrong. After about 20 minutes, the dash lights came on and I could turn the car off and on.
Having the same dash display failures on my 2008 Prius at 5,800 mi. The same exact issue as Ken's post on December 21. Odometer, speedometer and fuel guage all fail periodically and unable to turn car off. When this happens only shifting car into drive and then reverse changes something and allows me to turn the car off. I've reported this problem to Toyota. So far no solution.
2004 Prius, purchased summer of 08 used. Great mileage--50+ on the highway, 45+ in town. October/November the mileage dropped to 35/39. More than the 10% drop that some have said is due to cold weather formulation of the fuel. Have had everything checked. Got a new battery. New tires. Proper inflation. Dealer cannot figure out what is wrong. At this point we are checking the mileage manually to see if maybe the computer screen is making a mistake. Very frustrating. Any solutions? Ideas? Is there maybe a problem with the controls that make the engine switch from gas to electric?
I have a 2008 Prius. It is only 7 months old and the dash display intermittently shuts off as well as the display console. I am going to get it fixed and flog it.
Had to replace entire console due to inability to control climate, use navigation device, CD, etc. My CD still does not work.
My experience is EXACTLY the same as YATEL at 4:36. AM reception was fine when the car was new. After 2 years, the AM degraded to the point where it was nothing but static and engine noise. Dealer replaced radio to no avail. Finally, I tried removing the external antenna, cleaning the contact area, and screwing it back in. Voila! It worked.
I have a 2008 Prius with 6850 mi. On three separate occasions I've had my volume control become inoperable. It will nether go up or down in volume. I'm thinking that when I stop or go over a bump it returns to normal. I haven't taken it to the dealer yet - figured they'd tell me it was working fine when I take it in. I headed to the dealer when it happened but starting working before I got there. Anyone else have this problem and if so, what did they do about it?
I have an '07 Prius with 45K miles on it. I just got the car back last week from it's service and thought it was possesed. Headlight has gone out, power button on dash and CD eject work at random and now the volume jumps up and down even with the speed adjuster control turned off and radio station message information now stuck. Anyone else having these problems?
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