Toyota Prius Limited Service Campaign for Cooling Systems

by Jordan Yerman | November 30, 2010 at 03:45 pm

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Toyota Prius Hybrid Limited Service Campaign: Not a Recall

Toyota is running a "limited service campaign" (don't call it a recall) to address issues with the cooling systems in the electric engines which help power the 2004-2007 Prius hybrids. This LSC affects 378,000 vehicles in North America, which are prone to overheating should the water pumps fail.

If you own a 2004-2007 Prius, contact your dealer; you have until November 2013 to get the water pump replaced for free.

Toyota is addressing the Prius cooling system problem as a warranty/customer satisfaction issue, and is not calling it a recall.

Car makers often use this type of service campaign to correct problems they don’t regard as safety risks. They work in a way similar to recalls but aren’t filed with federal regulators and don’t pop up on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.

The overheating condition might cause a warning light to illuminate. If the driver takes no action the car could go into a fail-safe mode that reduces engine power — sometimes called a “limp home mode.”