I’m concerned about stop and go traffic here in Phoenix, where the highway traffic literally stops for minutes at a time. Then we get to move for 50-100 feet and then completely stop again. This process may continue for 30-45 minutes. How is this affecting my Prius, am I slowly killing my new car?
View 19 RepliesWell I drove the wife to work in her Prius this morning. I noticed in heavy stop go traffic, the engine was idling more than normal. Normally the EV light is on when I am stationary ( idle) in traffic, but for some reason today almost more than 70% of the stop go traffic the RPM was felt via the brake pedal and EV light was off, but the battery had at least 3 bars or more I think.
The load on the vehicle was the usual, AC on at 65 in ECO mode and radio. I guess this question might be more a hybrid newbie question than anything else. So, just curious what "drives" the vehicle to be in EV mode when stationary in traffic or in my case earlier this morning what prevented it?
When stopping on traffic light, my Slip Indicator is on and flashing...
The Owner's Manual says: If the vehicle is in danger of slipping or rolling backward when starting on an incline, or if any of the drive wheels spins, the slip indicator light flashes to indicate that the VSC/TRAC systems are operating.
Luckily, it only happened once... otherwise, I'll roll back to the dealership in the very first day I picked up my car...
We decided to take a chance on Hyundai (never owned one before) and get an Elantra. Anyway, the car has 2,000 miles on it. My husband was in stop and go traffic today on the interstate and said the car just randomly turned itself off, out of nowhere. He started it back up and had no problems after that, but I am very concerned. It makes me question the reliability of the car to be honest. We've only had it 6 weeks! I am wondering about whether to take it immediately to the dealership or wait to see if it happens again. I don't want my husband going down a hill or something and the car randomly shuts off, so I guess safety is an issue. What would you do?
View 55 RepliesJust this past weekend my wife got her 2010 Golf Highline with the 6-speed tiptronic transmission. Just a quick question about the gas pedal. when it is on "D" it really feels heavy and sluggish when going from full stop to acceleration. the pedal feels so hard and when you step on it feels like its not going at all. but as soon as it goes on 3rd everything seems ok. and then we tried putting it into "S" (sports) mode and everything was really good and quick. but when on this mode you need to be really hard on the gas pedal for it to run smooth. so i guess my question is...is it really like that when driving in the "D" mode??
View 6 RepliesEver since I became a driving instructor I have paying a lot more attention to traffic and how everyone acts. I have always been told that when driving on the freeway you should never use your brakes. After observing traffic and trying this out for the last year or so, I have noticed that if you look farther ahead on the road and simply notice traffic starting to slow really early you actually can make an entire trip on the freeway (even during rush hour) without ever using your brakes. The idea is that if you lift off the gas early enough you can coast up to the traffic and not have to stop before traffic starts moving again.
I have also noticed that while I am able to just cost up to the stopped traffic, everyone else around me wants to race up and slam on their brakes. Why do so many people do this? Do they think it is faster? Cause I can tell you that it isn't.
I have been driving my new 2011 prius for a week now and have noticed that in stop and go traffic I occasionally get down to three bars before the engine kicks in. Is this normal?
Also today I was in a traffic jam for a half hour and got to 2 bars a few times(lots of stop and go). Is this normal also? When driving on the freeway the bars are always 6-8. There are no colors on the bars, just white.
Turning the engine off and on in stop and go traffic saves gas but what does it do for the life of battery and starter?
View 12 RepliesMy Car: 2007 Infiniti G35X 141,000 miles
My check engine light has been on for quite some time, but I never had problems with the car besides it making a loud roaring sound which diminished once I got new tires. A couple months back, I noticed my car would shut off when I put it in reverse after driving for some time. This only happened maybe three times. Very rarely. Later, all the lights on my car would come on randomly and turn off. This usually happened when I was going over bumps or making sharp turns. However, I did notice it seemed to only occur during the cold weather.
I have had my car parked for almost a month and a half as I was getting it painted. Last week I started back driving it with no problems. However, today, while being in heavy traffic (for over an hour), the car started slightly jerking and then shut off when I came to a complete stop. I turned the car off and turned it back on and it cranked and drove without problem. Every time I came to a complete stop it would shut off again. This was early in the morning (with maybe 40 degree weather). I changed both air filters two months ago.
I have a 2002 1.8t with 90,000 miles on it. I have it serviced for new Timing belt and water pump (metal impeller, according to the shop) 3 months ago at this shop. The overheating problems never went away. The problem is that it overheating at heavy traffic or idle after a while or after heavily drive, but it cools off quickly when I rev up the engine a little bit, or after getting out of traffic again.
I have another shop diagnosed, they first told me the cooling system is leaking and may trapped air inside so they did replace thermostat, coolant housing assembly, flange seal, pipe sealing o-ring. they re-test and turn out there is no coolant flow and suggest that is it the water pump that fail and ask me to go back to the original shop for the Water Pump warranty. Additionally, they flow test radiator and its fine.
I did return the car back to the original shop and they tested and said the heater core is clogged with debris and that would cause the overheating. They asked me to replace the whole heater core that would cost $1500. But I know for the fact that I have heating in the car and it is hot!
Is there any other reason than what have been replaced or tested (thermostat, radiator, air trap, new coolant)? I think it could be the aux cooling fan since its never turn on when overheating, only when AC is turn on, is it supposed to work this way? Spent too much on this car and hopelessly the problems went away but it's not.
Every once in a while in heavy traffic the engine overheats. I can't get out to check on the highway bit I suspect a an isn't on. I can drop the temp in the usual way of blasting the heat but I can also drop it precipitously by turning on the AC! It seems to stay down even if I turn the AC off - at least for a while. The radiator is new and it has plenty of fluid.
View 2 RepliesI was driving my trusty 2002 152K miles, and came into a very long and very slow traffic jam on the side of a mountain. After about two hours of mostly stop and very little go, my CEL light came on. I am also seeing the "general fault" symbol, but it should be noted that my PS symbol has been showing for about a year because my PS died and I just didn't fix it.
View 11 RepliesIt has been there for about 6 months....i own a 3rd gen and i feel the steering bit heavy (actually not soft) to steer compared to other toyota models...the tire is 215 45 r17...can the steering tightness be adjusted technically at some point....
View 8 RepliesI have a 2012 Prius. It has twice shut down spontaneously when idling while in traffic. I have explained this, the Service Advisor said he had never heard of it. My question is: why is this happening? The car has been properly serviced. It never happened with my 2006 Prius.
View 12 RepliesWhen its heavy snow; which mode I should drive; I have 2012-Prius 3rd Gen - 26K Miles; I am driving in Mountain area every day ? The tires are still in good condition.
View 19 RepliesI know the owners manual says 87 octane or higher. I'm only on my third tank of gas but yesterday I think I heard some "pinging" when I needed to catch up with the traffic flow. So far I have been using 87 octane from Raleys Aisle One. (Sacramento area) I think it's a generic gas but not sure where it comes from.....
View 19 RepliesMy traction control light comes on sporadically when I am stopped at a light. Roads are dry and I have not hit anything. What is going on?
View 8 RepliesSo for reason irrelevant, at about 500 miles on the odometer, I drove the Prius quite hard the past couple of days. In retrospect, a poor decision as I am now all kinds of concerned as to what kind of damage I may have done. I know break-in is said to be 600 miles so I was below that. I'll describe my 'hard' driving as heavy acceleration, often pedal to the floor, a few hard stops and umm excessive speed (we'll leave that up to interpretation). So I'm just stressing about it now.
View 15 RepliesIs there a hack to add interactive graphics (shown below) to the backup camera if
[1] you don't have Intelligent Parking Assist, or
[2] you don't want to install an aftermarket kit that changes your dash interface? What's the least invasive way to add this feature?
Well I believe my small fan has stopped working because if I run my ac in stop and go traffic my big fan runs harder than I've ever heard and when examining under hood small fan doesn't move. I have been told by local vw dealer and local euro tech and both say big fan could be bad if small one is and I may have to replace both. Vw quoted 800 for both and local eurotech is around 650. I was considering just purchasing the aftermarket one from ecs tuning for 190 and try to swap it out myself w some ramps. Just checked eBay and found this. Should it be comparable? Just checking before I order.
[URL].........................
Had a problem with squealing brakes? My brakes squeal awfully when I am in stop and go traffic (in dry weather). Taken it to the dealer 2x and they've told me it will just do due to the pad having metal in it. I just have a hard time believing that my just over 1 year old car squeals like a dump truck..
View 9 Replies