I just received a phone call from my wife stating her prius automatically goes to neutral.
She mentioned there were not any odd noises. Just that once in drive it automatically goes to neutral.
The car is now parked in a lot until I go and take a look.
I just bought a 2006 Prius about a month ago (57K). I love the car and have been educating myself on all things Prius, This car has also made me change my driving style quite a bit. I am getting around 50 MPG (combined) and very happy about it.
I have been using some of the hypermiling techniques to get the mileage, one of the things I do is to put the car in Neutral (to emulate the Glide portion of the Pulse and Glide) especially when coming down a gradient. I was bit concerned about using the Neutral gear and called Toyota Corporation to get a clarification, The answer I got from Toyota was - there is no technical issue, however they do not recommend this be done for safety reasons.
I've searched & still haven't resolved my problem.
View 19 RepliesVehicle was repaired after front end collision and I get no codes found on scanner, had some bad connectors which I replaced and codes went away. I don't get ready light and the dash lights do not cycle off (ABS, SRS, Check engine, Etc. Etc.) The car will shift into neutral but not drive or reverse. Has new Aux battery and Hybrid battery is showing two bars. What to check ?
View 6 RepliesI have an 06 Lincoln MK LT with 147K miles. Just recently when it went into overdrive it was like I shifted into neutral. Pushed the overdrive off button and it drove just fine although no 3rd gear (overdrive). what do I need to do here other than paying for new tranny.
View 2 RepliesTransmission trouble on an 2006 F150 5.4 triton ... The problem I am having is when you are driving down the road once you hit 30 mph and it goes to shift into the its like it goes into neutral. It does that rill you slow back down to a lower speed then it shifts back down the transmission picks right back up till you get up to speed again, then it like it goes into neutral again. When I turn overdrive off it won't shift out of second gear. I have changed the valve body to the transmission to no success.
View 3 RepliesI wonder what's the difference between Stealth (no arrow on display at all) and Neutral Gear? The reason I ask is, Neutral Gear is much easier to maintain than Stealth.
Also, when I break moderately hard, it seems like the CVT gear is put to low, so for every yard I travel, more rotation on charging motor. Since Toyota did a great job on transition between regeneration and brake pads, I can't tell when brake pads start to work. Any indications?
After getting on the highway, the red triangle of death, the amber ABS and the VSC lights came on, and little exclamation point came on on millage/audio screen, while battery power went down from high blue to one blue bar. Pulled car over to parking lot, and put in park. After putting it in park, the car would not go out of neutral, but the power still worked.
View 15 RepliesWe love our 04 Prius (190K, still original brakes, etc.). Today we encountered a strange problem. My wife was driving and pulled into a parking lot. She could not turn the car off , remove the box key, or shift out of neutral. No warning lights.
After about 10 min. the car would drive again. We've now cycled about 5 times (i.e. driven somewhere) and it seems OK. We replaced the 12V battery a couple of years ago and haven't seen any problems in that area.
I'm very puzzled by how prius (2008) decides whether to use gas when I coast with neutral (I only do that if there is a long stretch of the road that is going down the hill). Same roads, same driving style, but sometimes, the gas usage goes to 0 but sometime it continue to use gas. Sometimes if you just let it in the gear a little longer or just press the gas pedal, it would go 0 after switching to neutral. There is no consistency that I can come up with the best method to get it to not to use gas and just slide using the gravity and momentum.
I can understand if it has to fill up the battery but when it uses gas at neutral, no transfer of energy among all parts. The diagram (wheel, engines, battery) shows standstill but it still uses gas. I don't have air on and turn the fan to the lowest and it doesn't make any difference.
A few conclusions I had:
It will always use a little gas at highway speed (55 to 70mph).
It appears to use gas at higher humidity (not sure but the MPG is higher when it's humid).
I have a Gen II 2009 Prius with 31K miles on it. I love my Prius and until now had no issues with it. Last Saturday when I was driving on the highway, the following lights came on the dashboard.
1) Master Caution Light
2) VSC
3) ((!)) 'electronic brake malfunction'
4) Check engine light
The car seemed to be handling fine, and I kept on driving. However, after a few miles the car would go in neutral, I would need to stop before it will let me drive. I got to where I needed to go and then had the car towed to the dealer service shop.
The dealer came back and said that the water pump for the inverter needed changing (it was under warranty) plus the 12V utility battery also needed changing. They saw the DTS codes when the connected their computer to the car. I have my car back and other than the price of the battery had a really good experience with the dealer service center. They were prompt and efficient. Also it seems to me that car is driving more in the electric mode with the engine coming on less. Just my impression.
My fiancee has a 2005 base model and is out shopping today. She just called me and said that she is stuck in a parking lot.
She told me on the way off the highway today the "big and little" triangles came on, but the car drove fine. When she got back to her car to leave, the car would turn on presumably, but all the warning lights were on. She then said that the car would not go into drive and only into neutral.
2008 prius won't stay in gear, goes to neutral when hot...
View 12 RepliesA little back story my hybrid battery went out about 4 months ago ago and I've been saving money to get it fixed. I've been trying to remember to start it and get it moving every so often. Well I guess I didn't do it enough because go to drive the Prius yesterday to get it started and moved since it's been awhile and the main battery is dead. The way the Prius is parked I can't even get to it to jump it. I'm wondering is there a way to put it in neutral with a dead battery? Or is there a way to charge the battery, since it's actually inside the car? And I'm assuming since the 12V is drained, I'll have to replace that as well correct?
I'm about over this car, while it done great the first 7 years I had it, past two have been a royal pain. Ready to go back to a normal engine and car.
Have read threads on car wash issues but have only had the dreaded red triangle flash with no problems as a result. Tuesday, however, got ALL the lights on and now car will not go past warm up phase and only goes in neutral or park. Lights come on, clock reads correct time, and radio works. Tried a jump to aux battery, a reset of the main hybrid battery and finally had my baby towed to the local dealer. 2 days later they are telling me the transmission needs to be replaced. They say I have an irreparable short in the transmission and the replacement is $5000. With no issues with transmission and only two bars magenta in color on the battery level showing is this a transmission issue or a battery issue. Can't say I have had great luck with the local dealer on previous maintenance so my confidence is not high. Love my girl but unsure whether the car is worth this repair at 8 years old and 183,000 on the odometer.
View 11 RepliesI read a couple posts on Gear Shift switching back to neutral. Here is my situation. Got in the car to return some movies and realized I left them on the table. Went back to the house, and right before I turned into the driveway, noticed a metal coffee cup had come out of the holder and the edge was up under the accelerator. I had been applying my brakes to slow for the turn into the driveway, then when I went to accelerate, nothing, then noticed the cup.
Removed the cup and stepped on the gas to go into the driveway. Nothing. Turned the car off, then back on and tried to put into drive, goes a tiny bit then slips back into neutral. Tried it in reverse, same thing, pops back into neutral.
I can hold the shift lever in position and the car moves. It's in the driveway now and will get towed to the Toyota dealer tomorrow. Obviously a problem with the shifter as a result of the "coffee cup" under the edge of the accelerator. And yes, I know it's dangerous, hubby used the car last on his visit home this weekend and apparently the coffee cup either got put down on the floorboard or was knocked out. I bring it in the home when I'm done.....anyway.
So, the most likely cause was the spring talked about in other posts breaking, or a switch sticking or what. Seems like something got knocked or shifted out of adjustment. Does the accelerator have some type of cut off switch if something gets lodged under it?
I took my 2005 Prius to dealer and was told both battery computer and battery CPU were bad (easy $4,000.00 fix). So, I pulled big battery, located bad cell and replaced with similar voltage (7.9 VDC used cell). After re installing, the car will only go to neutral and will not start. Note, before tear down, car would start and run (I drove home from dealer). Before pulling big battery I could reset trouble lights for short time by removing ground to AUX 12V battery. Now, lights don't change and are always on. Car will not start or run and will only go in "Park" and "Neutral" and "B" does not show on dash like usual.
View 19 RepliesThe car is a 2005 Prius II hatchback @ 70,000 miles. I like my local garage and they have a good reputation but bad things keep happening. I'm ready to lose my temper but I don't want to. Here's the summary:
3 weeks ago - Started getting the red triangle of death. Had trouble starting. Finally, the car would start, but only go into park or neutral. Towed to garage. Garage put in a new 12 V battery. The car drove away from the garage nicely.
I've had my 2006 Prius since Jan. Today it started giving me a warning when I put it into drive. The warning was the battery couldn't charge while it was in neutral. It told me to place it in park. I did. I repeatedly tried and even drove out of my parking but it continued to say this with the ! in the triangle appearing. I've never even put it in neutral before.
View 4 RepliesI have a 2008 Prius with about 95,000 miles. It is bloody cold here. About 4 degrees F when I got up. On the way to work, on the parkway, suddenly the car lost power entirely. Just started to slow down. No reaction when I pressed on the gas pedal. I didn't notice any warning lights. I flipped the gear shift to Drive, and the car accelerated again. About five minutes later, this repeated. For the rest of the trip it was fine, and there were no problems coming home. (Temperatures were still way below freezing in the afternoon when I left work though the car had been sitting in the sun. I don't know if this could be cold-related, but it's never happened before and it hasn't been this cold here for days on end before._
View 2 RepliesWhen sitting at redlight, engine off, vibration seen and felt when electric motor is active.
View 6 Replies