Other fuel system problem on the 2009 Toyota Prius
1 crash 1 fire 2 of the 11 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 fuel system problem gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Toyota Prius report other fuel system problem at a median of 10,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,500 miles and a quarter after 35,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 14th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 300 miles at the tenth percentile to 55,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 55,684 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
67% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 316 miles | 1,500 miles | 9,000 miles | 36,000 miles | 56,000 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 1 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 $300–$2,200 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 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 43; the 2009 has 11. 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. During the winter months, the vehicle became difficult to add fuel. The dealer has provided the contact with several options to avoid this problem which included turning the nozzle sideways and taking the nozzle out from time to time while adding fuel. The contact found that these techniques are difficult to perform. She also stated that the safety risk is higher since the limited amount of gas could cause the engine to shut off without warning. The current mileage was 9000 and the failure mileage was 320. Updated 09/08/09 *bf updated 09/29/09.*jb
I was sitting on a road in traffic with my car running but in park because I was waiting for a train to pass before proceeding. The car jumped forward when the vehicle changed fuel modes from the electric engine to the gas engine. I almost hit the person in front of me. When I contacted the dealership service department and had them check the car they told me this was normal. No one ever informed me of this when I bought the car. This is a hazard in the above situation as well as if people have their cars in their garage and running or in a number of other situations. *tr
Collapse of fuel bladder cause the prius to run out of fuel with 2 gallons of gas in the vehicle while on freeway. Caused towing to dealership. When fuel was added to car only 8.9 gallons could be added to a reported 10.9 gallon tank capacity. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Toyota Prius
Other brake problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Other speed control problem
Other lighting problem
Other electrical problem
Loss of braking
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 11 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 fuel system problem happen on the 2009 Toyota Prius?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,500 miles and a quarter after 35,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other fuel system problem on the 2009 Toyota Prius?
11 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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