Other electrical problem on the 2009 Toyota Prius
1 crash 2 fires 3 of the 31 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Toyota Prius report other electrical problem at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles, from 25 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 165,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 160,560 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
32% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,600 miles | 30,000 miles | 100,000 miles | 132,000 miles | 166,160 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash and 2 a fire are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 105,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 125; the 2009 has 31. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Tl*the contact owns a 2009 toyota prius. The contact was driving approximately 45 MPH on normal road conditions when the "engine" warning light indicator illuminated on the instrument panel. There were numerous failures with various components within the vehicle. The consumption mpg screen on the instrument panel displayed inaccurate information. The engine exhibited a reduction of engine power. When depressing the accelerator pedal an excessive decrease in acceleration occurred. The fm and am radio selector failed to function properly. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer for diagnostic testing on two separate occasions. The technician was unable to duplicate the failures. There were no resolutions. The vehicle has not been repaired for the malfunctions. The failure mileage was 2,000. The VIN was rejected and will be updated upon receipt of the safety complaint form.
Toyota prius yr/mdl 2009/1224 a I have attempted to have the following checked with toyota of hickory where I purchased the prius and was told that I needed to allow the battery to heat up before trying to place it into reverse or drive. My prius will go into n, it will lock all doors and windows and not go into gear or start. I have been locked in the car during this past summer without air and I attempted several times to cut the car on and off before it would go into gear. This is very horrific to say the least. I was at lake norman toyota yesterday and was told this was a common complaint. Yet no one offered to take this car in and check for problems. From the day I drove off the lot until now this hybrid gas/elec sedan has given me nothing but trouble. *tw *tr
Re: 2009 prius > upon arrival at church, engine would not shut off. Returned home, engine would not shut off. Could not remove 'key' from slot. About 2 hours later, car could be shut off. > called dealer and explained. Dealer said 'this has never happened, we will get back to you' which did not happen. Since then, there have been several times that the power switch had to be pressed several times to make the car shut off. > this is a very dangerous situation in the event of a crash or stuck accelerator. Dot should require manufacturers to use a conventional key switch to allow the driver to shut off the engine. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Toyota Prius
Other brake problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Other speed control problem
Other lighting problem
Loss of braking
ABS module or sensor failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 31 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other electrical problem happen on the 2009 Toyota Prius?
Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2009 Toyota Prius?
31 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed