Toyota is recalling nearly 31,000 Prius hybrids over a glitch that makes the vehicle stop,Toyota presently is recalling almost 31,000 UK-registered cars because of a computer problem that could make the vehicle to stop.
This recall will be affecting the hybrid ultra-green Prius model and involves 30,970 of the UK-registered ones manufactured between March 2009 and February 2014.
The Toyota company, which has had a number of recalls in recent years including some of the Prius, said there had been 11 incidents in Europe of the computer problem but there had been no accidents or injuries.
The latest incident involved a possible issue with the software “used to control the boost converter in the intelligent power module”.
This boost converter is required when driving with a high system load, for example when accelerating hard from standstill.
The company said today: “Toyota has identified that the software setting could lead to higher thermal stress occurring in certain insulated-gate bipolar transistors in the boost converter which may lead to them deforming or being damaged.
When this happen, warning lights may be illuminated and the car is likely to switch to `failsafe’ operation. It can still be driven, but with reduced power. In limited cases the hybrid system may shut down, causing the vehicle to stop. The driver will not experience any change in the vehicle’s behaviour or performance prior to the problem occurring.”
Toyota added that the issue would not occur in other of the company’s hybrid vehicles as these used different systems.
The UK recall will involve an update of the control software. The UK recall is part of a 1.9 million recall of Prius models worldwide.
