2004 Toyota Prius problems
Owners have filed 737 complaints about the 2004 Toyota Prius with NHTSA. Exterior lighting accounts for 25.1% of them — narrowly the most common, ahead of electrical system at 25%.
Complaints737
Crashes50
Fires2
Injuries38
Deaths0
What owners report breaking
Exterior lighting 25.1% · 185
Electrical system 25.0% · 184
Engine and engine cooling 12.9% · 95
Vehicle speed control 7.1% · 52
Service brakes, hydraulic 5.3% · 39
Power train 4.6% · 34
Service brakes 2.8% · 21
Air bags 2.4% · 18
Severity
Of those complaints, 50 describe a crash, 2 describe a fire and 38 report an injury.
Reading the numbers
Across the 17 model years of the Toyota Prius in this data, 2004 sits 6th by complaint volume. 2010 draws the most.
Filings have fallen off, 12 in the last three years against 48 in the three before. That is normal as a generation leaves the road.
The median odometer reading at the time of complaint was 72,436 miles.
In owners' own words
Our 2004 Prius has intermittent problems with headlights and tail lights failing. One of both headlights will all of a sudden go out. Turning them off and on usually causes them to come back on. My son was driving on a curvy, dark forested road when both lights went out. Could not see a thing. This is an extremely dangerous situation. We have also replaced tail light bulbs. They work, then fail again quickly. Exterior lighting · reported at 260,000 miles
2004 Toyota Prius - headlights go out intermittently for no apparent reason - need to turn headlights off and back on in order to have the headlight come back on. At first, this only happened in the left headlight, lately the right headlight has been having the problem, luckily it has never happened to both headlights at the same time. Would be particularly dangerous if this happened on a dark country road! Exterior lighting · reported at 95,000 miles
The headlights on our 2004 Prius (80,000 miles) have gone on and off intermittently over the past few years. However, it was not until saturday night while we were on the freeway when both lights went out simultaneously. We were told by the dealer that this happens quite often and the a new bulb would fix the problem. At $800.00 To replace a defective part, I think this is excessive and unnecessary. Exterior lighting · reported at 81 miles
Verbatim from NHTSA filings. Complaints are unverified owner reports.
Safety recalls
Checking NHTSA for open recalls…