Prius C :: Eliminating Stop And Go Traffic
Mar 8, 2014
Ever 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.
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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.
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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?
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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?
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Well 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?
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I 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.
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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.
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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..
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I have a 2001 f250 sd 4x4. For the past year it will blow cold air unless I'm in stop and go traffic then it blows warm air. Engin temp thermostat and water pump are fine. Yesterday it quit blowing all together and it really wouldn't bother me but where I live the morning temps and rainy days are causing the windshield to fog up and my defroster not even working. Where can I start to get this fixed.
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I have a 09 150 FX4, the traction control that ford put in the 150's is terrible. Even with it shut of, it still cuts power to the drivetrain. I saw a thread on here a while back about a Ford tech who changed a few parts from his 150 to Raptor parts to eliminate the traction control and keep the electronic locking rear end to stay engaged at any speed. i have the part numbers that he listed. I can not find the thread to get the rest of the information and how he made out. Disengage the traction control on F150?
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I have a 2008 ISF at 41k miles. In stop and go traffic, or starting from a stop and driving causally ( not WOT or even medium throttle) the car will rev up before going into 2nd. It is like the feeling of rolling over a speed bump.
Also in normal or sport mode in D ( not M ) if I WOT , you can feel it jerk before taking off. I don't know if this is normal or not...
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Hesitation while driving mostly in city traffic.....
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So I've got a 2000 1.8T with an automatic trans that doesn't seem to want to stay on. The car was initially stalling out after getting up to temperature in stop and go traffic but now it's having problems all the time. It doesn't want to start and the only time it wants to run is if I'm on the highway. If I slow down below 20mph the car will stall out, if I go to start it the rpms will drop and it will stutter and stall out if I can get it started.
I've already replaced the diverter valve along with dropping in a K&N filter. I'm not sure what else it could be. I'd like to change out the N75 valve but I'm not sure where its located on this car.
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I went to a holiday light show event with friends, where you drive through about a mile of light displays at a few MPH, but there were long lines to wait to even get in, so the car went from freeway driving to being stopped and occasionally creeping forward a bit, then stop and go slow once in the exhibit, all told probably 1-1/2 hours like this. The air temperature was in the mid-20's F. To my great surprise, my heat gauge went to the top of the scale and I got a red dash light. I did not see any coolant steam from under the hood but I found I needed to add to the tank today, it was on the add line.
It certainly looks like the low speed fan never came on. I was looking through the forums and someone said the low speed fan is supposed to be made to run by the engine temperature reaching a certain point, is this a computer function or a mechanical switch? I also understand that A/C operation makes the fan run at high speed. I will probably let the dealer diagnose this, what happened here? Was it a mistake to keep going and allow the engine to stay hot even at idle? One more thing, as soon as I got back on the road, the temperature went right back to normal.
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Last week I noticed an erratic temperature gauge while I was in stop-and-go traffic. It would go from just below halfway to nearly the red in about 7 seconds, bob around, go down a bit, then up, back down to halfway and sit for a while, etc. etc. etc. I stopped, added a little water to the reservoir and car was fine for about 20 minutes but then it started up again.
Went I got home I checked oil and it was low. I added a quart. After this the car has been fine.
Until today. It did go into the red a couple of times and sat there for a few seconds. I was surprised there were no lights or warnings of overheating! I opened the hood when I got home and didn't get the impression that the engine was particularly hot (though the upper radiator hose was hot).
I read this might be caused by air pockets in the cooling system and I need to "burp" it by taking off the radiator cap, starting the car, running the heater, and then topping up the radiator when I see the coolant level go down.
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I have a 2000 Subaru Outback with a little over 162,000 miles. About 3 years ago I had the head gaskets replaced. This past March the car started over heating while on the highway driving back to Boston from New Jersey. It has been doing this intermittently since then, and I have had two mechanics look at it.
The first mechanic, who is my beloved mechanic in Maine (where I am originally from), checked the sensors and relays. He even replaced the relays for free, and it still overheated on the way back from Maine to Boston. Needless to say I did not give him enough time to really look at my car to figure out the problem.
I then went to my back up mechanic in Boston, who kept the car for about 4 days. He said there are no leaks and the car did not actually over heat while with him. He had one of his guys drive the car home at night and back to the shop in traffic in the AM, and had it run for hours while on a lift, and on the ground. Still no overheating. However, he did say that the car was eating up coolant, which indicated to him that there might be a head gasket problem.
I was a little upset by this diagnosis because I had them replaced already, and also because I am getting married this summer so this obviously is not the right time to be buying a new car. I should mention that both mechanics looked at my car at the end of August. I have still been driving and watching the coolant.
The car is still randomly overheating but i tend to notice it happen more while in stop and go traffic and when I accelerate. The needle will go all the way up to red, stay there for a few seconds and then slowly creep down. This happened this morning, and I had checked the coolant yesterday and it was full! I checked it again at lunch time to see if it had used all the coolant during rush hour and it was still full. This chain of events seems to keep happening and I constantly check the coolant. Since August I have only had to fill it once. I have also noticed that when I open the radiator cap the coolant is not sitting level like I've been told it should. I've put a decent amount of work into the car and everything else runs perfectly.
Is it possible that this is a pumping or air bubble problem, and not a head gasket?
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so, I'm driving home the other day in stop and go 102 degree traffic, and my A/C cuts out. I thought maybe my compressor took a dump, because I've noticed a little noise from that side of the engine. Then I look down, and notice my water temp is like 240-250ish. As soon as traffic starts up again, temp goes down to normal, and A/C comes back.
I have a 2 mile commute to work, so it hasn't happened since then.
no DTC's, no rad fan. A/C fan works. Put 12V to fan - no worky. fuse block on top of battery not melted.
Obviously I need a fan, but I was wondering about something else. since this started, my car gets to normal operating temp (NOT), in literally under 2-3 minutes. I know its Texas and a billion million degrees, but I think that's too fast.
Green top coolant temp sensor, and metal impeller water pump already installed.
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I have a 99 Mazda 626 (automatic) and in the past year it has stalled out on 3 separate occasions after coming to a stop at a stoplight. The car sputters off, the wheel locks and it just dies. After this happens the car won't click over to start. However, after letting it sit for several hours, the car will start up again without any problem like nothing was wrong.
I even had the car towed to a mechanic after one of these instances. The car was towed to the shop on a Saturday and on Monday when the mechanic went to see what was wrong, the car started up fine and showed no signs of an issue. I have always been able to start it up without a problem on a day to day basis. (The car also just recently got a lot louder -- I found a sizable hole in the B pipe--so I don't think the noise is related. Anyway, I just don't want to stall out in traffic again so is it time to buy a new fuel pump or could a smaller fix take care of the problem?
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My 2000 Ford Ranger over heats when I stop at traffic lights. I took it to Tire Kingdom and hey suggested a new thermostat and a radiator flush. I did both and it continues. What is the issue?
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Recently when I drive for a while in traffic (stop and go) and then park my car for a quick errand and try to restart it won't start. This has only happened on extremely hot days ( over 90 degrees). I replaced the battery after the first time which was in April. It is now June and its happened 2 times in 2 weeks again. I have been able to start it after letting it sit for over an hour or with a jump. I'm getting nervous to run errands and the weather isn't getting any cooler.
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I have a 1996 Chevy Cavalier, which I purchased used Two years ago, and lately I've been having a problem with it. I live in the area where Temps rub pretty high here. Recently, with three digit weather, my car stalls when I'm in stop and go traffic. I would have to turn off the car and restart it. The car temp gauge in car doesn't show the car overheating. What is the possible cause of the car stalling?
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