Had my '05 Prius for awhile now, never missed fog lights until now. I have a base model, so no HIDs and no fogs. I now have to occasionally drive 230 miles round trip in essentially total darkness, on mountain roads, often foggy, snowing, or raining.
View 7 RepliesMy '98 Cabrio recently had the headlights both go out while driving at night on a curvy state highway. I pulled onto a side street and tried to figure out a way to be able to continue my drive home safely with lights. I found that by turning the ignition key to the right and jiggling the key I could get it to temporarily stay in a position to allow my lights to remain on.
In time, that solution was no longer an option and I discovered that by pulling the brights lever (it should be noted that it usually clicks into place) and holding it towards me, the lights would work, albeit on bright mode which tends to irritate fellow motorists. Strangely, the heater fan and wipers would only work while in this new found method of illuminated driving by releasing the brights switch and pulling it a second time towards me (remember, it doesn't lock into place as it should). How to repair this problem? It defies all logic as to why things on this car work or don't work.
While driving a mountain road (hwy 17) going downhill this morning I lost power braking and power steering and a got the following error message on the display
TRANSMISSION P LOCK MECHANISM
PARK CAR ON FLAT SURFACE AND APPLY BRAKES
I was able to stop the car on a flat area. I turned the ignition off and then restarted the car and the power steering and brakes came back, but the red triangle remained. I drove to the Toyota dealership and left the car for service.
Lately, when driving at night I have noticed a glare from my dash on my windshield right in my line of sight. Is there anyway to alter that glare? Maybe putting some sort of visor extender over it to reduce the glare? I drive a 08 Prius Touring
View 2 RepliesI have never had a car with automatic transmission that did not also have low gear or others besides overdrive. We are going to the Rockies and I would like to know how to get my car to use lower gears for accent and decent without over revving or constant gear shifts that I expect with the normal drive gear.
View 10 RepliesI have a 2002 Subaru Outback that has started overheating only when I try to go up into the mountains. It starts within a few miles of starting up a steep grade and cools down the instant you start down the mountain. I have had no problems with regular driving conditions. The only pertinent info might be that it did have a coolant leak last summer and overheated then.
View 8 Replies99 F-150 V8 - During mountain driving after a long downhill I get a cloud of smoke when I get back on the gas. Appears to be darker smoke not oil like blue smoke. Only other issue I have with the truck is an occasional cloud of blue smoke when I start it which I believe is just aging valve seals. What is causing the cloud of smoke after a downhill?
View 9 RepliesI have the same problem noted on last weekend's show with another Subaru owner. My car has a burning type smell (burning rubber or burning oil) only when driving uphill on a mountain road. I'm not sure the answer given on the show is correct about the rubber under the carpet smelling because of the catalytic converter. The smell comes through the venting system.
View 2 RepliesI just got a used 2015 with only 1000 miles on it. Everything is great except I notice when going up and over the mountain highway I take everyday to work the car revs kind of loud and feels like there's not a lot of power. I don't know if this is normal or not, but it doesn't sound right to me.
View 4 RepliesI recently bought a 2004 Prius with 104,000 miles on it. When I try to go up into the mountains I only get a few miles or up to 1,000 to 2,000 ft. elevation (from 300 ft. starting) and the battery level gradually drops from 6 bars to 1 bar. The red triangle light and check engine light comes on and the car speed gradually begins to drop even if I continue to press on the gas pedal. I have only gotten down to about 35 MPH from 60-65 mph before stopping and turning around. Within a few miles of turning around the light goes off and the battery goes back up to 6 bars and works good going down hill.
The dealer I bought the car from has been working with me to figure out the problem but so far we have not figured it out. He has replaced the main battery as well as the inverter/converter. The mechanic was with me on a test drive to the mountains and had his car computer plugged in while we drove and experienced the same thing. It gave the code for the catalytic converter so we changed the entire CC/muffler (one long piece) and still got the same code. The battery indicator on this car has never shown more than 6 bars. I personally think it has a bad "Gas Engine" or something wrong with the gas engine.
I go over a mountain pass, to and from work. It is about a two mile up and down incline/decline. On several occasions while going up the pass,the gas motor has rapidly accelerated at a high rpm. I back off the gas pedal and check the 'battery indicator bars' and there are none. I then drive very slowly to the top of the pass and the batteries quickly recharge on the decline to a color of all light green bars, indicating a full charge. Same experience coming home. Once I do normal town driving, the bars settle around 'four or five blue bars.' Local dealer says there is on problem. I am driving at 55 mph when this happens.
View 4 RepliesWas driving today on the highway at about 50mph and suddenly noted jerky motion. Kept the right foot steady, but it seemed like extra power was being delivered and then cut off every few seconds. The MPH monitor was jumping all over the place with the jerking motions, as was the HSI power scale indicator. The jerking was not terrible, but noticeable.
Got home safe, no issues otherwise. Only noted while cruising on the highway. No issues driving in the city.
I am in the midwest and the temp yesterday was -11F and today about 0F. Did not a problem yesterday, but then again was not able to drive at 50mph on the highway due to snow until today.
I really like that my headlights are always on but I can't figure out how to turn them off at night, for those rare occasions at the drive-in theater.
View 5 RepliesI just changed my inverter coolant pump which is running perfectly well. However in recent times, whenever I'm on the highway with ac on or there is a sudden brake, the red triangle light pops up. Checks on the inverter pump show that as far that is concerned everything is working. I'm really getting worried over this.
View 6 RepliesI was driving on the highway when everything on the car went dark-the wipers (it was raining) stopped-and I was left just coasting. The hazards worked. I managed to coast through the exit and off the access road which is where the car is now, the next morning.
Once again: Car running fine, with no problems when an instantaneous shutdown occurred.
The key fob's battery had gotten to the point that the Smart System wasn't working so I assumed that the fob battery had gone totally dead and wasn't communicating with the car while inserted in the fob slot. I replaced the fob battery and it activates the Smart System now.
The 12v battery was replaced less than 6 months ago. The headlights still work....I think that would only happen when the key was available normally and this might be related to the below description:
The car makes the warning sound when I open the driver door as if the fob is still in the ignition (it's the warning that the keys are about to be locked in the car) so it seems to not realize the key has been removed.
The suddenness of the shut down makes me think that it's a blown fuse or, a horrible thought, that the immobilization feature is activated.
2005 Prius transmission starting to slip after hard mountain road climb? Just started to do this. Is there a transmission dip or check capability?
View 12 RepliesLost all acceleration yesterday while driving at highway speed. Tire pressure light came on also large warning sigh and check engine . Had been stuck in bumper to bumper traffic before this with AC on.Gas pedal to the floor but no acceleration. I pulled over and shut off car. When I tried to restart the lights mentioned above went out Except the check engine, NOW all the brake warning lights are on in a yellow color including the emergency brake.Brakes do stop the car (had to push it onto the tow truck) Car comes on but does not display the READY sign.
View 7 RepliesI picked up my wife's Prius yesterday and drove it 200 miles back home. Most of the driving was motorway (highway) but the battery never went over 3/4 charge. How do I fully charge them?
View 7 Replies16 K miles- the noise level when highway driving is beyond belief-- difficult to hear the radio and conversation is a strain. Tires are beginning to cup. Close a front door with a window open produces cheap noise, not a solid thump. Toyota agrees there is noise, but will do nothing about it. " that is the way they are".
View 2 RepliesI was on the highway yesterday when the red triangle went off and the screen said Problem. I babied my 2008 Prius to the dealer. They said the 12v battery was bad. I should have just gotten the yellow top in last week like I wanted but oh well. Here is the problem, today it did it again. It first happened at 70 mph but today it did it first at 15 mph then pretty much stayed on until I did not accelerate for a while. No noticeable performance issues, just the warning indicator. I did notice the noises after shutdown are sounding different than before last week. I also put a code reader on it both without running and on a test drive and no codes showed. What is going on?
More info: Just hit 100,250 miles. Purchased on March 17, 2008. Went in last week before the 100,000 miles for a check up and ended up with $1,000 for a coolant pump (both now, other coolant pump was replaced within the last 6 months). Also got: break fluid, belt, break alignment, oil change, tires (this I was expecting hardly passed state inspection in March), possibly something else.
I have been doing the oil changes since 15,000 miles, filters, pcv (or pvc whichever), all normal items. Problem free until I have them do a check now issues. So to recap non normal items done: blower motor in 2009, radio replacement in 2008, coolant pump in Mayish, other coolant pump and 12 v battery last week. Read more : [URL] ....
While driving at night time the headlights will go out at random. The marker lights will stay on and the lights will still not turn on if I switch the light switch from "automatic" to "on". When the lights are out I can use the high beams while in "automatic" or "on".
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