Unknown. There were a multitude of codes that appeared on the diagnostics causing problems with engine. The temperature, brake, tire sensor lights are all on. The cruise control is not working. White smoke emitting from tail pipe and engine. Main engine coolant leaking. Car overheating rapidly.
Engine & cooling
2012 Toyota Prius Engine problems
Owners have filed 73 complaints about the 2012 Toyota Prius's engine & cooling with NHTSA - 11% of all its complaints, most recently on July 6, 2026. They describe 1 crash, 1 fire and 0 injuries. Stalling, loss of power, oil consumption, overheating, head gaskets, timing chains and engine failure.
- Complaints
- 73
- Recalls
- 0
- Crashes
- 1
- Fires
- 1
- Injuries
- 0
- Deaths
- 0
Engine complaints
I am writing to express a complaint regarding the issues I have experienced with the brake system of my Toyota Prius C, 2012 model. For the past several months, I have noticed that the brakes exhibit strange noises, soft pedal sensation, reduced braking efficiency, were driving and the ABS, traction, brake, and that other light turned on and the brakes became slow these issues have been observed on multiple occasions and pose a safety risk to myself, other drivers, and pedestrians. I have taken the vehicle for...
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inspection, but the problems persist or have not been definitively resolved. I believe these faults may be related to defects in the braking system, and therefore I request a thorough inspection and necessary repairs at no cost, considering that the manufacturer could be responsible for manufacturing defects.
The contact owns a 2012 Toyota Prius V. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the temperature gauge and check engine warning lights illuminated. The vehicle then stalled. The vehicle was able to be restarted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 190,000.
The contact owns a 2012 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that when the vehicle was started, there was a rattling sound coming from the vehicle. The contact stated that while depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle started shaking abnormally with a rattling sound. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed with a blown head gasket and that the engine block needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 106,000.
I bought my first used car, 2012 Toyota Prius, from Fowler Toyota back at the end of October 2023, but I was not able to pick it up until September 21, 2023 due to extra time for re-conditioning. I did not haggle about the price nor complained about the 3 week delay. In the last 3 weeks of owning my car, the TPMS sensor light and check engine light infrequently turned on. February 28, 2024 all the fault sensor lights on my instrument panel are on, along with the loss of proper braking function. I was not...
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worried about the other sensor faults, but brake malfunction is a matter of life and death to myself and others on the road. I have had the car for a little over 4 months and less than 10k miles. I brought the car in to diagnose all the error codes. The dealer said it will cost over $2600 to fix the brake malfunction. I chose this particular car because carfax had well documented service records and Fowler Toyota advertised that every used vehicle for sale has surpassed rigorous inspection. I voiced my complaint to the used car director and he offered numerous default excuses for unforeseen problems inherent in buying a used car. I said I did my due diligence by selectively purchasing a used Toyota Prius, from a reputable Toyota dealership that uses a Toyota certified service center to inspect and recondition vehicles for sale. All the cliche nightmare stories of buying a used car from the side of the road car lots came true in my experience at Fowler Toyota. The worst used car story happened to me, despite performing my due diligence: to buy a used Toyota from a Toyota dealership that uses a Toyota certified service center for re-conditioning vehicles. I even paid more to finance my Prius through Toyota Financial services, which did not offer extended warranty. For God sake, I was buying a Toyota with 121k miles. I only bought a prius because I work too hard to throw away all my hard earned money on gasoline. The only recourse the dealership offered
I was driving on the internet doing 60mph and there was a very loud bang and then a shaking of the parts under the hood. I was right next to an exit and coasted off the exit to a hotel parking lot. I had car towed to my mechanic. He said that the piston went thru the engine and the engine is done and needs replaced. I am having a hard time trusting Toyota again to purchase another Prius. I have had Prius for over 10 years and never had anything like this occur. I had no warning signs and no dashboard lights lit up until after all of this occurred and scared the life out of me then the engine light came on.
Had blown gasket repair last year (which was fixed by my local Toyota Dealership and all cost paid for by myself). Dealership acknowledged that there were known issues with failures due to clogged EGR's and out-dated manifolds. Was never recalled and did not know about the issue until after the incident. Wanted to report issues since it appears countless other have been in the same situation with gen 3 Prius. Toyota needs to be offering EGR cleanings and updated manifolds at no cost and reimbursing customer's for previous repairs.
There is no incident occurring to me .but I change some parts like head light.& whisper .engine .
Head gasket failure
the car was serviced regularly and for unknown reason the engine started running rough. I took it the mechanic and after completing a diagnostic test he said i have a blown had gasket in the engine. After reading online about the issue i discovered this year and model of toyota are notorious for having a blown head gasket issue. My mechanic recommended the engine be replaced. This is an expensive repair and toyota is denying any accountability about the issue
In September 2022, my car, a 2012 Toyota Prius V with 79, 056 miles, began making noises in the engine area and the brakes became loose, meaning it took more pressure on the brake pedal to engage the brakes. In November 2022 the following warning lamps on the dashboard came on: Master Warning Light, Brake System Warning Light and Warning Buzzer, Brake System Warning Light, ABS Warning Light and SLIP Indicator. I took it to the Toyota Dealership near me: Lipton Toyota in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and they diagnosed car...
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with the trouble code of C1391-Abnormal Leak of Accumulator, Internal ABS Actuator Failure. To fix this problem, Lipton Toyota will charge $3124.29 for the repair. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. issued a customer support program notification that would cover this repair if the malfunctions happened before coverage ended. Primary Coverage was applicable until December 31, 2021 with no year/mileage limitation. Secondary Coverage was applicable for 10 years from the vehicle's date of first use or 150,000 whichever occurs first. Date of first use on my Prius V was 03/01/2012 and my mileage is 79K. So as you can see, I am just out of the coverage window. My private mechanic and myself have appealed our case to Toyota that this problem should be a recall with no limits on coverage. (Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. - case reference # 230206000678) I believe that if I had driven my car more, (which was not done because of the Pandemic 2020-2021) this issue would have come up before the cut off date for repair coverage. I also believe that this problem with the Brake Booster and Brake Booster Pump Assemblies on certain 2012-2014 model year Prius V vehicles should be a recall.
The engine caught fire while sitting in my garage. I had driven it for a few hours doing deliveries for a store and parked it in my garage around 2:30pm. About 1.5 hours later, my wife was coming home and opened the garage door and saw smoke above the hood of my car and then a few seconds later it burst into flames. I believe that it was smouldering for a while and the gust of wind when the big garage door opened gave it the extra push to ignite. The car was bought used and had a front end accident prior to my...
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purchasing it so the electrical system could have melted and started the fire but the inspector that Toyota sent did not give me any copy of his report. It is a 2012 model. I bought the car in 2014, and had it for about 5 years until this happened and completed burned up the car and all the contents of my garage. I had a T-Mobile Sync-up module in the OBD port and it recorded a drop in voltage from around 12 to 5 volts at the time of the fire which I believe was transferred to my phone when I was near it.
The contact owns a 2012 Toyota Prius V. The contact stated while driving 30 MPH, the vehicle stalled inadvertently. Several unknown warning lights were illuminated. Additionally, the brake pedal was depressed but failed to respond. The contact veered to the side of the road and intentionally struck the curb to stop the vehicle. The vehicle failed to restart. The contact stated that the vehicle later restarted and was driven to the dealer. The dealer diagnosed that the ABS actuator had failed and needed to be...
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replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that they could not assist because an unknown Toyota Courtesy Program issued for the failure had expired. The failure mileage was approximately 160,000.
I am having issues with my Toyota I was never contacted NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID: 18V684000. My car has failed numerous times.
I was driving on the expressway and experienced a sudden loss of power. The internal combustion engine suddenly stopped and did not deliver any power to the wheels. I immediately received a message on the system that said 'Check Hybrid System Stop Vehicle in a Safe Place'. The electric motor still continued to provide some power with the available battery charge. I was able to make it to the shoulder of the road but it was challenging to get to the shoulder with no power or warning and high speed traffic. My wife...
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and I were in the vehicle. The vehicle had no engine or error codes until the failure on the expressway. The vehicle has the code P0A1A and P0A94. This is consistent with the error codes in the NHTSA 19V491000 recall and Toyota Safety Recalls E0E and F0R.
Head gasket blow up at 175000 miles
There has been a safety recall on my vehicle for the years 2004-2009 models of the Toyota Prius, but my model year is 2012 and I have the exact same issue. 1) My check engine light comes on and off and it appears to be the hybrid electric water pump issue related to the coolant. The cap pops off and spills out. 2) When the light comes on, I am assuming the car is starting to overheat and is putting myself and my 3 year old daughter at risk as this is the primary car we use to transport her. We have just stop...
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taking her out at all due to this issue. When the car overheats, I pull over and it can be risky as sometimes, I am on the highway or local streets. I do not want this issue to cause problems for other other drivers as well while I am trying to pull over where ever I am. 3) The problem as I stated above has been acknowledge by you and Toyota but just for 2004-2009 models. 4) The problem has not been inspected by Toyota, the police, or third party. I have been the only person checking the car and I am using a diagnostic check engine light tool to read the code and looking under the hood to find the coolant pump leaking and popped out just as indicated in the recall for other models. 5) Yes, the check engine light and high temperature light goes on and off. The issue first appeared around November of 2020.
My toyota prius v only has 121,153 miles on it and during a short drive to work where we never reached speeds over 50mphs our prius v overheated causing a blown head gasket and all sorts of combustion issues. The repairs were $3000. This is a 2nd family car which has always been maintained by expert, license auto mechanics. This should never happen on a car with such low milage! I have learned that this is a common issues with this toyota prius model and toyota should file a recall and fix the overheating issues.
Engine -engine have broken head gasket. Coolant reservoir started to drain. Coolant slowly leaks in internal combustion engine due to broken head gasket. Causing shaking engine because coolant cannot combust inside the engine. -Also egr cooler was fully clogged by carbon that caused failure of carbon air circulation. Brake slowly failing brake actuator in the process. When pressing brakes, whining sound is present and brakes slowly fails to hold pressure in the system when brakes are applied. -Brake system was fully inspected and no leaks were found and brake fluid holds in full level.
This vehicle has been burning oil for the past 10,000 miles. Vehicle has had all services and synthetic oil changes done from day 1 at the dealership. Oil changes every 5,000 miles since day 1. At 90,000 miles the car started burning oil excessively. Complaints and diagnostics were attempted at toyota franchise dealerships but they failed to find the issue. Finally at 100,000 miles the engine failed due to head gasket failure. This vehicle is classified as a partial zero emission vehicle and it is registered in a...
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state that follows california air resource board regulations and is being serviced in a state that follows as well. Under the pzev regulations, toyota warranties emission related components for 15 years or 150,000 miles. Under toyotas warranty guide it states seals and gaskets are covered. The manual does not clarify any further leaving the coverage level vague and questionable. Upon trying to get toyota to replace the engine, they gave us a week of no responses and finally declining the claim even when the manual states it should be covered. The oil burning issue with this motor is a big problem that toyota has been trying to cover up. Toyota is quoting $13,000 for engine replacement. They have a service bulleting regarding the oil burning because it's a known issue, but they only honor claims under the 5 year 60,000 miles power train warranty.
When idling there is a loud rattle and multiple random misfires in the engine. Appears to be a head gasket leak problem from reading forums. I have been to multiple repair shops they cannot determine the problem.
Abs , traction control,brake lights on. No power assist brake, no abs, no traction control
The abs brake pump experienced an "internal failure" at mileage of 113k. There is a customer service notice that covers 2012 toyota prius and prius plug in for the same issue regardless of mileage until 2019, and then up to 150k miles after that. However, my 2012 prius v was not covered. This abs brake pump just suddenly failed, there weren't any leading indicators. Toyota knows it supplied defective parts for the abs brake pump. There is already a lawsuit of other 2012 prius v owners complaining of the same. ...
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However, toyota has not corrected their service notice. They won't release the details of how they can justify coverage to all other 2012 prius, and prius plug-in, but not prius v. The repair is significant ~ $3,500. Also, last year my engine block was cracked and needed to be replaced. Thankfully, this happened ~ 80k miles, so it was still under extended warranty. But this failure was surprising for a toyota. I had wondered why I had to change the oil more quickly than the recommended 10k, I would change it every 5-7k, or at least have it checked. It seems they have the same issues with their 2020 rav 4s. I'm surprised they haven't fixed an issue from a 2012 vehicle yet by 2020.
It is having heavy miss fire which make the enging shaking too much many times
At about 100,000 miles the engine began using (burning) oil at the rate of about 1 quart every 1000 miles. Now at 150,000 miles the oil usage is 1 quart per 500 miles. The oil has been changed using the recommended lubricant more often than required since the car was new. Toyota is aware of the problem and has redesigned the pistons and rings but but offers no financial help for cars off warranty. The dealer estimated repair cost is over $5000.
Toyota Prius engine complaints by year
Prius engine problems, every yearSource: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaints and recalls, checked . Complaints are owners' own reports and are not verified. How we use the data