This is the second year I've owned my 2007 Prius, and it seems to be getting worse.
In the summer, the hatch will open with ease! The handle recognizes my hand there and unlocks the hatch and whammo bammo we're in business. In the winter, especially the really really cold weather like we're having now (down to about 10 over night) the hatch refuses to open.
I have a 2007 Level 3 Prius with about 110k miles. I now have a problem that I am not sure how to fix. Perhaps because of the warmer weather the rubber that you press to get the hatch open has gotten kind of sticky. Sometimes your fingers will get some sticky black on them. I was starting to think that I should look into replacing this rubber. The hatch was sometimes getting hard to open.
Well, we just took this big 1300 mile drive from central Florida to western NY. We are now in 9 degree weather. I cannot get the hatch to open at all. The other day it stuck but after a few attempts and carefully pressing down on the hatch without hurting the spoiler I got it to open. I first thought it was just because things were packed tightly, but now nothing is back there and I cannot get the hatch to open.
I think I have resigned myself to the fact that I wont fix this until I'm back in sunny warm weather. Any thoughts on how to get this to open? And if I do get it to open will I be able to close it again? It feels like there is no longer any "give" to where you press the rubber to open the hatch.
The hatchback on my 2005 prius wont open from the outside. It will open from the inside. It will unlock all of the doors when I lift up on the handle. I've tried looking for the actuator. Where it is located? I have the panel off of the inside of the hatchback. Wires look OK.
View 14 RepliesTried to open the rear hatch with the key. No lights flashing. No beep.... Dead.
Tried to open it with the switch under the steering wheel. No lights flashing. No beep.... Dead.
I have an appointment at Lexus but this sounds like warranty stuff to me -- sudden death of rear hatch? Lexus informed me there is no manual way to open the trunk. Can I somehow manually open the trunk?
How to diagnose what I think is a failing alternator?
Here are the symptoms:
- Hard starting in cold weather
- Battery not at full voltage when truck is parked (usually around 11.5-12 volts. I have been putting a charger on it some nights)
- Lights seem to dim when I've got accessories running, like heater fan, heated seats etc. Lights get brighter with engine RPM, like when pulling away from an intersection.
What's my next step to diagnose this? I did a search, and didn't see anything. My battery is probably still under warranty, so if that's the issue, it should be a free fix. How hard is it to install an alternator in a 2005 with 5.4L engine?
I've got a 1.8T 2004 automatic and the problem I'm having is the shifter is harder to move since the weather's been colder. It shifts very well and is responsive, it's just that I have to pull it harder to select P, R, N and D. D is especially hard (no pun intended you sick minds! ) to select, the shifter kind of stays in neutral but shifts after a bit. Is there anything I can do to fix this?
Side question: is the rear defrost supposed to turn off after a certain period of time? My 2002 golf does it but the jetta doesn't.
My 2002 Santa Fe Back Hatch Door will not open. I have removed the inside panel & all the linkage seems to work OK. But the main latch will not let go & I cannot see where to trip it. How I can get it opened, just can't see where to trip it but believe it can be done from inside.
View 4 RepliesI have a rattle coming from the back hatch area. I sat in the back seat while someone else drove and it sounds like it's coming from under the drivers side plastic side molding in the back hatch.
View 1 RepliesWHen i open the back hatch, the light does not come on when the switch is on door but if i flip it to on it works fine...
View 2 RepliesWill it drain the battery to leave the rear hatch open for extended time? i.e. for tailgating or camping (2008 Prius)
View 6 Replies"Vehicle with smart key system: The indicator light flashes after the "POWER" switch has been turned OFF to indicate that the system is operating." I have noticed that my immobilizer light will not blink when it has the no start issue. usually when the key is out the light blinks but when it won't blink.... it won't start.
View 19 RepliesIt has been cold recently (out of the past week, highs in 20's or lower). This hasn't been as much of an issue before, but in the past week I have had the red triangle of death, brake warning light, check engine light, and VSC light all come on at the same time, three separate times. Also, the display screen shows a red outline of a car with "!" through it. Each time this has happened, the lights didn't come on as soon as the car was "Ready" but only after the gas engine was running for a minute or two.
The first time the lights came on, I was driving back from class, but after I got back to my house I did some internet research and saw it may be a low oil indicator. Checked the oil, it was almost at the bottom mark on the dipstick, and it had been over 10,000 miles since the last one (oops! we don't normally do that). After reading some stories online, I took it in to get an oil change, and the lights went off for a couple days. Second time the lights came on, I checked the oil level, it was definitely over-filled, so I took it back to Walmart and had them redo the oil so that it was at the right level. I checked the oil level before leaving the parking lot that time and it was at the top mark on the dipstick. Again, all the lights were off for a couple days.
Today, I drove my car for about an hour in the morning (temperature was around upper teens, wind chill below 10) and had no problems. Then, this evening I turn the car on and start driving out of the parking lot when the car beeps at me and flashes all of the warning lights again. I drove back to my house and it is now sitting in the driveway. I am not planning on driving it until I can have a car mechanic friend take a look at it on Tuesday, but he doesn't know anything about the hybrid system/battery.
My wife and I have also noticed that since the weather has been colder, the hybrid battery (shown on the "Energy" screen when driving) seems to be charging and discharging much faster than normal. I haven't seen it at only 1 bar or full of green bars more than a couple times in the 2.5ish years we have owned the car, but in the past two weeks it has happened 5-10 times (estimated). I am not sure if this is due to the weather, or if it could indicate a problem with the (hybrid?) battery. For obvious reasons, this makes us nervous :/
As a side note, I changed the transmission fluid sometime in December, so I was wondering if possibly I didn't put enough fluid back in. I have checked the diagnostic screen and found some codes, but most of them seem to relate to the audio, which doesn't concern me as much as the code that seems to indicate the transmission, which is why I mention the change I did a while back. I just don't know why it wouldn't have shown up until now. I'll attach some pictures I took tonight of the codes and lights.
Also, the battery is a couple years old, but after sitting for a couple hours the battery was reading 12.1 V according to the diagnostic screen, so I don't think that is the issue. We haven't had any trouble getting the car to start, and once it is running it still seems to drive normally with the warning lights on. What these codes mean, and a possible cause for the warning lights?
I think this happened last year. Whenever it happened, I know it's happened before. It only happens when it's cold outside. Yesterday, it was 18ºF which, Priapus was happy to show me, equates to -6ºC.
View 14 RepliesI have an 05 Prius with 108k miles I bought about 2 months ago. My commute to work each morning is 1.5 miles with speeds of 25mph or less.
Usually the car has acted the same way each day. The ice spins consistently as I creep along to work. But last night the temps dropped to -10f and this morning when I left for work it was about 3 above. I turned on the car and instead of the few seconds after ready it takes for the ice to turn on it turned on right away today. I let it warm for about 3 minutes then set off. Right away I noticed the ice start to Rev up.
And as I slowly approached 25 MPH it was revving abnormally high. It was showing energy from the ice to the wheels and to the mg and charging the battery which was at the normal state of charge. All blue, right before green. When I stopped at a light about 1 mile in the ice turned off as normal, and started right away as normal. But it seemed the ice was still revving as if it was working very hard to pick up a slow increase in speed.
I pulled into my parking spot, battery showing green state of charge now, and the motor stopped as usual. I do not run the heat on this trip and it takes usually 5 minutes, so I just tough it out.
I've got a 2008 Prius which I bought used last summer. It works quite well except for one behavior: In cold weather, sometimes, the car either does not start at all, or starts without the dashboard gauges lighting up.
View 13 RepliesMy 2005 Prius shifts into Neutral, "N", when I put it either into Drive, "D", or Reverse, "R", during Cold weather, mid 20's and below. It will only stay in "B" to drive, and I have to hold the shifter in "R" to back up or "D" to drive. After the car warms up while driving 15-20 minutes in "B", I can shift it into "D" and it will stay there. I normally start the car and let it warm up in the morning for 10-15 minutes on cold days, below 25F but still I'm only able to drive it in "B" until it's ready. I just moved to Montana after driving this car in normal Southern California driving conditions. It happened while vacationing in Montana during the winter of 2007 a few times but it didn't bother me since I wasn't living there. I reported to Toyota but they couldn't do anything since the weather wouldn't co-operate. This car is still under 70,000 miles.
View 9 RepliesOn some cold winter mornings, my dashboard stays dark. Later, sometimes hours later, it lights up normally.
View 4 RepliesMy wife's 2007 Prius Dash lights stop working in extreme cold weather. We have asked the dealer 3 times about it but to no avail! I don't even know where to start with this one?
View 2 RepliesWe had light snow here in Boston tonight, and its a little chilly, nothing crazy. I get into my car after finishing work, start the car as normal and clear the snow off the windows.
Get back in the car, select 'R' and the car doesn't roll back like usual... I apply some gas and... nothing. I try 'D' and again the engine just revs - its just totally failing to get any gears. Engine oil levels are good.
I've got a 2003 Xterra, RWD, manual transmission, with around 110k. It's been giving me a little trouble shifting into gears 1-3 when the weather's below 30F. It started doing this when I got the transmission fluid changed last, about 2 years ago. I took it back to the mechanic who fixed it immediately, and he changed the fluid a second time for free, but when the problem persisted, he said he had no idea. Needless to say, I haven't gone back to him. Since then, I've tried to ignore it (not too hard in sunny NC), but it's getting worse and I'm about to move to Chicago, so I think I should fix it before I move to the land of harsh winters. My first guess would be the tranny fluid weight might be a little low and I should try a heavier weight.
View 13 RepliesMy 2006 Ford Fusion SE V6 has trouble starting in cold weather. Once it starts, it's fine throughout the day, but once it sits a long time, like overnight, it has trouble starting in the morning. If it had a carburetor, I'd say the choke wasn't working. The dealership couldn't figure it out a few years back. I even tried a new battery and that didn't work. Is there a sensor that detects cold weather and increases fuel flow or chokes off air flow for richer starting mixture that could be failing?
View 12 Replies