2006 Toyota Prius electrical system problems

“The contact owns a 2006 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to turn off intermittently, requiring that the power button to be pressed continuously until the vehicle turned off. In addition, the instrument cluster was inoperable often. The contact stated that a chime failed to engage while reversing. A triangle warning light was previously illuminated. The message "Tire Pressure Maintenance Needed" was displayed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the failure was primarily associated with the instrument cluster. The dealer determined that the instrument cluster and other unknown components needed to be replaced.”

“The following describes a near total failure of the brake system that accompanies and is triggered by routine aging of the battery. I believe this applies to multiple model years and editions of the Prius, based on reports by other owners on owners' discussion groups. I believe this should have the highest severity level. Here is what happens: An alarm is sounded, several warning lights ABS, VCS appear, and soon after that, the front brakes stop working. The rear brakes then prove ineffective and lock up. The happens with high frequency under any of the following conditions: (a) as the battery approaches 3yrs age, (b) it is excessively cold outside. (c) there is a higher than typical load on the 12V system from any of a variety of reasons. After installing a fresh new 12V battery, the above happens with much less frequency. There no warning on the dashboard to indicate that the condition of the 12V battery is not safe for operation of the vehicle. It seems clear that the route cause is that the brake control unit is configured within inadequate tolerance for the normal aging of the 12V battery, compounded by the absence of warning on the dash. This probably…”

“The light up display for the odometer, fuel gauge, and speedometer does not always light up. When it is not lit, the cruise control and any warning and informative alarms/lights also do not work. This is a well-known issue among owners of these cars, related to the capacitors on the circuit board for the display being defective, and there is extensive documentation of it online. It may also have had a technical service bulletin released for the issue, but I'm not entirely sure. The light goes out intermittently and is not always consistently out. I did mention it to the service personnel when I took it in to get recalls repaired recently, and they didn't seem surprised or unaware of the issue. I did not ask them to diagnose or fix it, as I know I can get it done for a better deal elsewhere.”

“One afternoon, in the Summer of 23, I entered my Toyota Prius to run some errands. Once I proceeded to power on the car, none of the dashboard lights illuminated. This included the gas gauge, speedometer & transmission indicator. Fortunately, I was only driving a few blocks down the road from my residence as I live in a small rural town with little congestion, little traffic and mostly two-lane roads. I can't imagine this occurring in a much larger metropolitan city. When I arrived at my destination, I discovered that my Prius wouldn't shut off. This dashboard malfunction was preventing the Toyota from powering off. I quickly completed my errands with my vehicle running during this entire ordeal. Finally, when I returned home, I frantically researched on YouTube regarding this issue and discovered many others who also were having these no-illuminating-dashboard problems. Some YouTubers offered workarounds but the solutions will be temporary as the problem will eventually worsen until the Prius owners have no working dashboard lights. From the way I understand it, this problem is nothing more than a small computer board that's behind the speedometer and this…”

“I was Driving down the main road at night time in my 2006 prius and the headlights both went out and all most caused a crash. I pulled over turned my car off then back on and the headlights came back on so i started driving home. After driving a couple blocks i was pulled over by the police because my drivers side headlight was off. Luckily he let me go with a warning, but i work at night and am losing money daily because of this problem. I sent toyota a email and no answer. There has been many electrical problems with this car and the speedometer still says i am deiving 34 to 35 mph while i am actually only going 30mph. I think that toyota should fully fix the problems in thos car. Its amazing there can be so much wrong with a vehicle and they not have to replace the vehicle with a vehicle that works or fix all the problems and give me a loaner vehicle. I will upload a picture of what the toyota dealership nearest to me wanted just to replace 1 bulb ans the balast wires going to the light for one loght they want $211.34 and that is just for the bulb and wire. For there time they said each bulb and wire would be around $500 worth of repair time to pay for them…”

“Discovered through failures repeated to dealers that certain items (Brakes, dashboard, et. al.) were recalled by Toyote. Never received recall notices. Contacted Toyota who demanded the vehicle be taken to dealer and now refuses to do anything. Have complete documentation to attach to this communication. Essentially: Dashboard failed, brakes failed when auto in operation. Likely there are UNKNOWN additional recalls, etc. of which we were not noticed”