I own a 2005 Prius with about 145,000 miles on it. I love it. However, I've noticed that lately, the vent in the back by the window will come on and make a lot of noise. Some research has told me that this is the air vent for the battery that is in the back, and usually comes on when the temps are higher and the battery is starting to get a little overheated.
View 11 RepliesI purchased a brand new 2013 Prius 2 last October and I'm loving it so far.
However, I notice that even if it's slightly warm outside, and I have my cabin temp set at a higher temperature than outside, the vent blows cooler air.
For example, the other day it was 65F outside. Since it was warmer than usual, I turned down the cabin temperature to 65F as well. It was nice and cool, but a little TOO cold. So I turned it up to 70F. It was still blowing cold air. I had to turn it up to 72F before it was warm enough to feel comfortable.
I knew when I bought my car it wouldn't get optimum mpg as no car would with the many short trips I have to make every day but I have 5000 miles on it already and have averaged approx 46 with all the city and highway combined.
I took it into Toyota last week for the tire rotation and ever since it has been horrible. There were 120 miles on the tank and I refilled because I couldn't stand to see it staying around 39 on the computer. I have never seen that before. I checked the tired and they had brought them down to 32psi so I put then back to 40/38 and refilled.
Not noticing much of an improvement, sadly. Hovering at 40 mpg still. Weather has changed a lot. Temps much higher daily mid 80s to low 90s. This is my first summer with the car and yea the ac has been on nonstop with the higher temps.
A few weeks ago I started to notice that the battery vent fan was turning on way more than usual. I've had the car now for five years (34K miles) and I've only heard the fan go on a handful of times, even in the hot Las Vegas summers. Once I really started to pay attention to it I noticed the noise only started once I hit about 30-35 mph and got louder as I went faster. As I slowed down, the noise would get quieter and eventually stop as the car came to a stop.
This week I caved and brought the car in to the dealer to get checked out and they did an inspection of the vent, fan and did a complete diagnostic on the hybrid system and batteries. I was worried about damage to the traction battery if the vent fan was malfunctioning or clogged. I'm out of warranty with no extended coverage so I was pretty shocked that the dealer didn't charge me a dime to do the tests. All the tests came back clean and they said all the systems tested above average and that the fan was operating normally so I shouldn't worry about it.
But the noise still persists and it's starting to drive me a little batty. It has never made this much noise before. Is there something else that could be going on that the dealer missed? Maybe the noise I'm hearing is something else and it only sounds like it's coming from that area?
I decided to install a new Optima yellow top battery because I performed the battery check and found the voltage low and therefore believed my 2008 was still running on the original OEM 12v battery. Much to my surprise I found a non-OEM battery installed and the vent tube elbow missing!
View 10 RepliesSo the problem seems to be the climatronic system is constantly trying to adjust the temperature but the problem is that the motors or servos are making an annoying ticking noise as it adjusts. I already had the blend door assembly replaced but the noise is still there. My Touareg has climatronic and doesn't make any noise, so don't believe I should be getting this noise in my Passat. Service advisor claims its normal to make some noise since his Passat does the same thing, but I don't buy that. So who has had the same issue and got it fixed properly? What did they replace?
View 7 RepliesI had this same problem in my toyota celica recently. I discovered that it was the air vent making the whistling noise. I had closed the vent, or so I thought. Due to age, the vent is a little loose and so when I had it "closed", it was actually open just enough to create the sound. After some fiddling with the vent opener, I managed to make the noise go away.
View 1 RepliesWondering if there is another factor involved here...such as the wrong gauge. I'm routinely seeing battery temps in the mid to low 90s even when it is pretty warm weather and I am in EV. Is this possible? On my old Gen3 even when I use the battery just a little bit on warm days it would go over 110. Does the lithium chemistry just keep it that much cooler? Or does the cooling system keep it that much cooler? Or both? What are other people seeing for battery temps?
View 19 RepliesIt's darn cold in many parts of the east. -4 this morning. Anyway, driving to work today, I had my heater on about halfpower, and about 30 min. into my commute, the air vent began making a bubbling, chirping sort of noise. I turned it off until I got to work. When I parked, I turned it back on, and it was making a very loud, straining noise.
It's a 2009 Pontiac Vibe (Toyota Matrix twin)...
Today was the first day I drove my Elantra on the interstate with the sunroof open. When I was cruising at 65-70mph, I kept hearing a noise that I thought was coming from another car. It sort of sounded like a popping or thumping noise. After a few minutes, I reached my hand up and noticed the sound was coming from the metal bar that rises up a little at the front of the opening when the glass slides back. The wind was vibrating it and making it flap in the wind.
View 2 RepliesRecently I started to hear engine pinging/knocking-like noise when the hybrid battery level becomes low like two bars and the car starts a charge cycle. I also hear it occasionally when I accelerate on uphill. Is this normal or should I take it to a mechanic?
View 2 RepliesI have a 2007 Prius (now has 220K + miles) I bought used about 2 years ago with 150K miles. I finally got used to the car sounds so this is something new, or rather it's becoming louder and enough for me to question it. The car is still quiet at low speeds but this sounds like something related to how fast the car is rolling, not the engine acceleration. It doesn't sound like it's coming from the wheels. It's a low roar like sound, not high pitched and it sounds like it's coming from under the middle to front of the car as if related to perhaps the drive train. If I am up to 40-50 mph and just rolling (foot off the gas) down a long hill, the sound is there. It gets louder the faster I go. Could it be a transmission sound? I've always had manuals so this is my first automatic transmission car.
View 11 RepliesMy temp gauge (which very seldom deviated form its position) is showing above normal temps. Yeah its over 90 here but this is unusual for my car to run hotter. I put in a new thermostat about 3 years ago. I've also been adding water/anti-freeze because there was a small leak (that I finally found in the hose) that I corrected. Could it be that my mixture isn't a 50/50 mix or is it my thermostat again? They say they don't last long anymore???
View 1 RepliesTook a trip today that was 3 hours there and 3 hours back. Truck ran normal on the way there (eot about 202 and ect about 196-198), but on the way back truck ran a little hotter than normal (ect as high as 214 eot stayed within 2-3* plus or minus ect). Fan did kick on every time I hit ect of 212 and would drop it down to 196-198 and oil temp would drop at the same rate.
Truck is stock 190k miles with a bulletproof egr cooler and coolant filter. Oil cooler probably has about 20k on it. (4th one on this truck- since I like changing them out as much as the rest of us). I checked coolant level when I got home and I might've added a pint to get to bottom of sticker. I'm not sure it wasn't a pint low when I did last flush and cooler replacement.
No puking and I can't find any leaks. I pulled egr valve and no moisture in manifold just a worm out o ring that'll I'll replace. I can't find any leaks. Where to check that I haven't? I don't feel like I'm losing coolant because I wasn't really low. My fan never failed to kick on when I hit 212 or stopped at a red light. No moisture in manifold so I'm not thinking losing coolant due to head gasket. Maybe radiator looks ok but tomorrow I will blow out any bugs to make sure.
My car is making a sort of whining noise; it sounds like some sort of tire noise, but I checked the tires and don't see anything that could be problematic. My husband checked to see if anything was rubbing, and doesn't find anything. The car is quiet when it is not moving, and the noise gets somewhat louder and slightly higher-pitched as I accelerate. It almost seems like the noise changed on a different road surface, but again, I don't see anything different with the tires. The car has about 140-150,000 on it. The noise has only been noticeable for a couple of weeks. No other problems, no change in steering or handling. No incident that I can think of that could have been a catalyst.
View 4 RepliesMy toddler spilled an open bottle of water from her rear facing car seat on the passenger side of my brand new Prius III. From what I can make out, her car seat and the sides of the passenger seat took most of the damage. But there were a few drops of water on the spokes of the battery vent. I cleaned it up and tried peering inside the vent to see if water got in but I couldn't tell much as it was dark out. We had to drive it back home as we were 20 miles away. What should my next steps be? Should I take it to the dealer in the morning to have the battery checked out? Can I remove the vent cover and wet vac it?? What signs should I look for? Am I looking at having to replace the battery!
View 15 RepliesI feel that I press the gas pedal less when the battery is at high level to get to same speed than when the battery is at low level. Is it true? I am operating in Eco mode, but I am staying in ev region with ev indicator on during the comparison. High means 7 bars, low means 3 bars.
View 8 RepliesRecently installed a curt trailer light. I modified the V plug in harness to work with the C.
I noticed the fan was running louder then usual. I took the right rear panel off were the HV exhaust vent it and there is no ducting from the factory.
The battery duct just goes to the back of the seat and vents out in that right corner right behind the 12V.
It makes its way up and over the right rear tire tub then what ever comes out of the rear exhaust, just vents out with momentum from down below. No duct guiding it from what I can see?
I went back and zip tied a wire that was in the path to sides were other factory wiring runs.
This seemed to fix the issue after making everything neat?
Not sure what caused it but it seems to be from wiring that was in the way? When I run the HV fan with my SG and remove the shock tower assess cover on the passenger side. I can feel hot air coming out. This might be an easy way to get more exhaust venting for anyone that wishes to do that.
Second time I've had this problem this winter. 2007 Prius, about 65K miles. When the outside temps go below 20 or so the car locks seem to not want to work. For example this morning temp was about 19, smartkey unlocked the car ok-took a couple of button pushes but it worked. Car started fine. Drove to work and after shut down couldn't lock the car. Smartkey didn't work, pushing the door button didn't work. Lock switch inside the car works, so I locked the doors except driver's then used the manual key to lock the driver's door.
I've checked the battery using the internal maintenance screens, no load voltage about 12.3V, Load voltage 11.7Volts, Charging voltage 14.3 volts. I know I'm due for a 12V battery with it being 5 years old and such, and I'm pretty sure a good cold day will kill it dead. But, other than the battery...
Looks like my mystery growling noise at idle is the WP going bad. Not leaking but making a racket at idle.
View 19 RepliesI've decide to replace the engine in a 2005 Prius. For whatever reason it went bad around 110,000 miles. It was making some noise and then went all at once. I don't know the complete maintenance history of the car, but I know it was pretty regular. I also know the car was driven mainly highway miles and on A LOT of dirt roads. So, the oil may have needed more frequent oil changes.
View 19 Replies