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Hybrid Vehicles Toyota Highlander Hybrid New Toyota Highlander Hybrid Owners - Give Us Your Report
143 messages, Last post on Nov 19, 2009 at 10:23 AM
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| We purchased our new HH Limited, fully loaded on 21 Nov 06. Since then it has quit running twice, once on the interstate at 70mph, and again in our residential area. The first time the service department stated it was a Fuse High Voltage that overloaded and blew. The second time they replaced the inverter, which is a computer motherboard and hardware that controls converting AC to DC and vice versus. The car had about 273 and 473 miles respectfully. We brought the car home from the dealership and have not, out of fear, drove it since. We are trying to work with Toyota and the dealer to replace ours with a non-hybrid Highlander. This was enough with new technology. | |
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Our family went on vacation for a week and left our Highlander Hybrid in multi-level covered parking at the airport for 7 days. We returned last night close to midnight and the Highlander was completely dead. The remote door locks wouldn't even function. When I turned the key in the ignition, no dash lights, nothing. Fortunately we were able to call a friend to take us home and today I spend time reading the manual. I figured the first thing I would try is to run jumper cables. As soon as I hooked up the cables, the alarm sounded. Once I turned that off and turned on the ignition everything was fine. I can't believe that it can't sit for a week without the battery going dead. That is crazy. I did not leave a dome light on or anything like that. I will be taking it to the dealership next week to have it checked out. Has anyone else had a similar experience? I am quite sure that the battery was not dead. It was like the Highlander just went to sleep. Needless to say, this is concerning if it were to ever happen in a situation where help was not close. Wes
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Replying to: nsxwes (Dec 23, 2006 2:09 pm) The Hybrid uses a small motorcycle type 12 volt battery to maintain low voltage operations such as the radio, alarm, computer etc. The 288 volt system turns over the gas engine, runs the A/C pump and the power steering. That is why all that would be needed is just a minor charge to start the car, provided that the 288 volt battery was not dead as well. I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Many people, including myself, have left their Hybrid parked over vacation with no problems. Off the top of my head, I would guess one of three things as the cause 1) The alarm was triggered 2) The Auto headlights stayed on. The drivers door must be opened with the car off in order to shut the lights off when in auto. I had, more than once, my passenger aka wife remove the key while I was getting stuff out of the back, only to return to the car to shut the lights off. 3) You could have a faulty connection on the 12 volt battery. BTW you may have to replace the 12 volt "motorcycle" battery. Car batteries don't do so well after a complete discharge.
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Replying to: nomorebenz (Dec 26, 2006 1:50 pm)
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Replying to: nsxwes (Dec 27, 2006 11:20 am) How many miles do you have on the car? Just wondering if it is the newer models having these troubles or the earlier models. We also have had our HH stored for a week at a time without problems, so not sure what is happening. Try the "Customer Experience" center line in the link below. It is unclear that they can assist you but at least they may be able to point you to other contacts. http://www.toyota.com/about/contact/index.html Please let us know how it turns out. GOod luck!
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Replying to: cdptrap (Dec 27, 2006 7:42 pm)
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Replying to: nsxwes (Dec 28, 2006 12:12 pm)
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Replying to: katzjamr (Dec 29, 2006 1:29 am) Katz is right, if the 12V is disconnected or "dies", the Idle Speed Control must be reset else the car will run the ICE more than normal. This is beginning to sound like the 12V is indeed the culprit and not the rest of the system. Good news if it is proven so. We have 24K miles on ours and I notice the 12V gauge is tending very light blue rather than a deep blue (when it was new). I think we will do a pre-emptive maintenance and have it replaced at the next service. Have a safe New Year all! Cal
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Replying to: cdptrap (Dec 29, 2006 9:15 am) Is resetting the idle speed control after a dead or disconnected battery something that is clearly indicated in the tech manual and something that a hybrid mechanic should know without a doubt or is something that can be easily missed? I will be speaking to the Service Manager about this next week and I was wondering if he would immediately know what I was talking about or would his response be that I am misinformed?
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Replying to: nsxwes (Dec 29, 2006 6:48 pm) Sure hope we are not all misinformed. You asked a very good question. I did ask a local Toyota mechanic about this earlier this year (5000 mi service) when I first read about this "Idle Speed Control" issue on-line. He gave a fairly detailed explanation then and it made sense at the time. I will tell you only what I can remember. It has been 11 months now. There is an "Idle Air Control System" in the HH. This system controls several valves that regulate air intake which in turn influences idle speed. The car comes with preset data for controlling the valves but it is capable of learning and adapting to actual use. It then keeps the new information in memory somewhere for subsequent use. The computer will keep adjusting this information as the car is being used. This "learned" data is lost whenever the 12V is disconnected or when it dies. He said that there is really no switch that resets this system. Left alone, the engine computer will relearn all such information after sometime. During this relearning period, the car may get poorer gas mileage depending on engine conditions and driving habits. He told me that as a courtesy to loyal customers, he will run a Toyota (not just HH) through its paces at various RPM to do a diagnostic. Then he takes it for a test drive at various speed. This is equivalent to a "reset". Even then, it will take actual usage conditions for the engine computer to relearn everything. I do not know if this matches what other owners have been experiencing. Hopefully someone else can post what they have learnt. As our HH still has the original 12V, we have not had to do any "reset" of the ISC. |
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