2006 gen II base w/ about 90k miles. Jump in, big scare triangle with multiple other dash lights. POA80 and PO319 codes. Traction battery fail. Fortunately, I was just under the warranty limit (8yrs).
View 19 RepliesI have a 2008 prius. Usually it gets me around 52-55mpg, I've had it since January. Since a couple of days ago its not giving me anything above 49. I know thats a normal number, but considering the fact that its usually quite a bit higher I'm wondering what the cause of the drop is. Also around the same time, when I pull out of my driveway I notice what appears to be a bit of water leakage. Its under the vehicle in the front center, and it only happens when I start the car for the day and pull out of my driveway (its on an incline).
View 4 RepliesAfter my electric water pump was replaced under the recall my mileage went from 45 mpg to about 30 mpg. Part of this might be due to new tires and cold snowy weather (CT !) but I have never seen such a drastic drop in performance (2005 Prius).
View 12 RepliesHave not purchased a Prius yet as I have a TDI awaiting results of the lawsuit. I am wondering over the last week or so, Vegas has been really hot. Just wondering how the new battery and the MPG is holding up in the Vegas heat.
View 19 RepliesI got prius i-tech Australia (should be IV or V in US). I just noticed this morning that my fuel economy is better when I got 6-7 bars on battery level, and worsen if i only got 2-4 bars. Is it just my imagination or any explanation for it?
View 8 RepliesMy 2001 L.L.Bean Edition H6-3.0 is losing power & MPG on the fwy. Sometimes it will feel like something is holding it back or dragging. I've checked the brake calipers and they're not sticking, changed the air filter, oil & filter, transmission fluid, and still cannot find the problem. I've overfilled the gas tank and read this can damage the charcoal canister. Will a saturated charcoal canister cause a drop in power and MPG? What should I check out next?
View 10 RepliesReceived these warning lights this morning.
Just took it to a local shop and here are the codes it has thrown:
The car is running badly now -- really not wanting to drive t at all. Where I can get this fixed myself? I have no problem single charging / grid charging / balancing these things out and or replacing hopefully only "block 8" as denoted above. And yes, this is the nightmare of having you battery go out -- 160k miles right now so no chance of warranty.
I just replaced two bad modules in my 2006 (125K mile) traction battery. I replaced one other module a year ago successfully. I installed the battery last night and tried to charge it with my Hybrid Automotive charger. The charger would not go into charging mode. So I decided to check the idiot lights on the dash - plug in key and push the power button - every light on the dash lit up and stayed lit. The battery charge indicator in the display on the dash had most of the blue bars filled. I left the power on for several minutes and the engine never started (usually does regardless of state of battery charge for a minute or two when you first power up the Prius).
View 19 RepliesOn a hot sunny day, occasionally I have to be stopped for extended periods with the A/C running which means the engine will come on for a few minutes out of every 10 minutes or so. to charge the traction battery. Engine comes on at 2 bars and goes off at 3 bars.
As engine efficiency at idle is low, would it be better to put it in D with the brake firmly pressed and push the accelerator so that the engine speed is in the high efficiency range so as to produce more charge for the fuel burnt and maybe also I could charge it to a few more bars on the battery indicator?
Every time I turn the car on, the "from start" fuel economy reading resets to 15l/100k. After driving for a while it goes down to 4l/100k but then resets back to 15 once the car is turned off. Is there any way to get it to stay at what it finished at?
View 11 RepliesWhile most of the emphasis I've seen on improving fuel economy seems to focus on warming the car up quickly in cool/cold weather, I seem to be experiencing significant mpg drops at the other end of the spectrum.
View 8 RepliesI am wondering about how fast to accelerate for maximizing fuel economy. I understand with the P&G approach that you don't want to get up to speed too slowly. The question is whether it really is more efficient to go ahead and get up to speed or stay within the ECO guidelines? In particular, I find that getting up to highway speed especially that it can take quite a while to get up to 70 mph without having it going into the power range. It seems like it is better to get up to speed and then back off to go to the high efficiency mode.
View 16 RepliesI have a 2013 Prius V and my mpg averaged about 43. Now after about 13,000 miles it has gone down some to more like 41-42 and even 39. Once on a mostly highway trip it was down to about 34. Last summer it got 51 mpg in Colorado!
How to get better mileage. I once heard about a feathering technique with the accelerator but I don't know if I understand it.
Curious? Looking for if the generation 4 Prius' has less road noise and better acceleration?
My generation 3 is quite noisy inside.
When using the active cruise control, the acceleration is heavily influenced by the driving mode, with as you could expect eco being more relaxed and power going full steam ahead whenever possible.
View 4 RepliesIf my traction battery has plenty of 'juice' in it, and my 12v battery is dead....is there any way to 'jump' the 12 volt battery with the traction battery to get the car started?
View 19 RepliesMy 2012 Prius v has a traction battery gauge beside the fuel gauge. The gauge has never shown that the battery is full. It appears as if the indicator is 2 bars below full at all times. Is this by design or should the gauge look full with bars to the very top after charging on a long trip?
View 5 RepliesOur 2010 Prius just had the brake booster recall done and I also installed new pads and rotors. The car now has issues with the front brakes dragging excessively causing lack of power and poor fuel economy. There are no codes and everything else checks out okay, the brakes function fine. Is there anything on these cars that would cause brake drag after a new brake install? I just want to ensure there isn't something I can do before I bring it to the Toyota dealer.
View 10 RepliesThis is my first year driving my prius during a hot season, and for past 3 weeks my mpg has dropped from 49 to 41-43 mpg, and the reason is my traction battery keeps getting HOT! I can hear the battery cooling fan turning on constantly at max when i reach 20 mph, my car doesn't want to start in EV mode the engine just kicks in no matter how light you press the throttle, the EV motor is not assisting with the engine, the infamous slow rpm drop keep occurring and I when to touch the traction battery case and it its HOT, Ive open up the case to check for any dust on the fan and ducts but so far its spotless. I really wished they place an AC vent for the battery because the back passenger area with full A/C doesn't t get as cold as the front dose which doesn't cool off the battery.
View 19 RepliesI don't own a Prius, but my parents own two identical 2002 models (each with 120k miles).
My mother's car wasn't driven for nearly a month (hip replacement), and when they tried to start it last week, the ready light would blink 3 times - but no cranking.
After taking it to the dealer, they were quoted $4600 to replace the traction battery and ECU. We did the mandatory research on rebuilt batteries, but with only a vague diagnosis from the dealer, we were not convinced that this was the (only) problem.
So, my brother and I decided to swap the ECU, then the battery from my father's working Prius to my mother's - thereby proving the issue. Upon removing the 'dead' battery from mother's car, I decided to open the module, and check each battery. We measured anywhere from 3.0 to 6.4V on the individual cells - and 7.0V to 11V on the paired cells. It was clear that the batteries had discharged unevenly. The total charge remaining was about 151V - still above the 40% SOC minimum I'd read about.
We then bought 5 x 10A chargers from Walmart, and connected each to a pair of modules. Set the charge to rapid (10A) and waited 30 minutes (or until the charger indicated full). After 2 hours, all 19 pair were charged fully - with each reporting 15.7V +/- 0.5V. The total power was about 295V.
We reassembled the battery, re-installed it, and the car started immediately. We let it sit running, until it cycled off on its own. About 5 min later, the ICE fired again to charge the 12V battery - but it threw a P3006 error code. It showed a PS + MAIN + battery icon on the MFD. Using an OBDII scan tool, we cleared the error, and drove the car for a few miles. The error code did not return during that drive - but did one more time after letting it cycle off/on automatically. After clearing the code a second time, it never repeated again.
My assumption is that the 300V HV charge was above the 80% SOC and it didn't like that. But after a few cranking cycles, and the tendency for the battery to discharge back to it's rated output, the error no longer repeated.
Over the last few weeks I have noted the following when I first start the car in the morning : I turn on the car, and turn on the A/C (this is Arkansas, remember, and the sun has already heated the car up pretty good). The Traction Battery is usually at 6 bar+/-
Over the next few minutes (driving uphill, maybe stopping for a minute to put trash in our trash cans, A/C on all the time), the Traction Battery goes down to 2 or 3 bars quickly. Then over the next few minutes it pretty quickly comes back up as I start driving faster (40-45) on a main road.
I am guessing this is happening now because of my A/C use. But I don't remember this happening so much in previous summers, which were at least as hot.
BTW, I start driving as quickly as possible after turning the car on (little or no warm up). So maybe some of this has to do with the car using battery energy while the engine is warming itself. But again, I never noticed this before.
Is it possible that a cell or something in the battery is going bad? Or is it just completely normal and I just never noticed it before and I'm having Traction Battery Paranoia?