I just got a 2005 Prius, it is getting about 40-43MPG in 50F weather. This is my first time with a hybrid, much less a Prius. Is this normal for this car in this weather, or does something seem wrong.
The 12V seems to be getting about 11.7-11.8 under load.
Tire pressure is about 33PSI, going to increase it most likely from the sounds of other people having it higher.
just got the car drove over 1000 miles without issue. Then it rained a few days, could be unrelated. Drove a quarter mile and it all went to ... Finished the 3 miles and it wouldn't start. During said trip red triangle engine and exclamation mark yellow haunted to screen. Turned off the AC to listen. No strange noise. I believe only the ice was running, no hybrid. Regen was working. Current lights red triangle, yellow exclamation, brake, engine, abs, red car with exclaim, anti skid, will go into neutral. Power button will not turn green just amber. Battery 12.4. Hybrid almost full, inverter pump working. No thrown codes under info 3 seconds slash lights on off 3 times. Emv says ok. Brake lights working.
View 19 RepliesMy 2005 Prius shifts into Neutral, "N", when I put it either into Drive, "D", or Reverse, "R", during Cold weather, mid 20's and below. It will only stay in "B" to drive, and I have to hold the shifter in "R" to back up or "D" to drive. After the car warms up while driving 15-20 minutes in "B", I can shift it into "D" and it will stay there. I normally start the car and let it warm up in the morning for 10-15 minutes on cold days, below 25F but still I'm only able to drive it in "B" until it's ready. I just moved to Montana after driving this car in normal Southern California driving conditions. It happened while vacationing in Montana during the winter of 2007 a few times but it didn't bother me since I wasn't living there. I reported to Toyota but they couldn't do anything since the weather wouldn't co-operate. This car is still under 70,000 miles.
View 9 RepliesI have a 2005 Prius that I purchased in 2010 as the second owner. When I first got it, I would average 50-65 MPG depending on city vs. interstate (per trip computer). After about a year, I was usually in the 40's. However, in the past 6 months or so, the MPG has dipped drastically. Based on the trip computer, I average about 30 MPG on the interstate and 15-20 MPG in the city. I have read that often times, a dip in MPG signals a need to change the 12V. I tested the 12V, and it's usually around 12.4V after sitting unused for 12+ hours.
More info: -The poor MPG is consistent whether it's 95, 65, or 35 degrees outside.
-Flat terrain (Washington, DC)
-Usually shorter trips of about 20-25 minutes.
-75% city, 25% highway. Highway driving is pretty smooth, little traffic, average of 55 MPH. City driving is incredibly stop and go due to traffic, constant stop signs and red lights, etc., with probably an average of 15 MPH when I'm actually driving.
-No overfilled oil.
-Had an alignment maybe 8 months ago - nothing unusual about the drive or tire wear.
-Goodyear Viva 2 Tire P185/65R15, maybe 15k miles put on them. Tire pressure unknown at the moment.
-I drive like a grandma in D mode.
-I don't warm up the ICE.
-HVAC is off.
-In terms of whether any significant changes occurred around time I noticed the drop: none. I was living in Florida at the time, doing a highway commute of about 2 hours roundtrip every day with a small bit of city driving when the mileage drop occurred. I have since relocated to DC, and the problem is the same.
I bought a 2005 Prius with 128k miles on it a month back. I have driven around 900 miles on it and the average shows as 49 mpg. Is it okay or am i getting less? I normally drive 40 miles a day(20 miles either way) to office and back home, total of 50 minutes with 25 minutes either way, including both Uphill and Downhill both ways. Driving includes 10 minutes on city with frequent stops and 15 minutes on highway either way.
View 7 RepliesI have noticed that due to warmer weather and more Prius C owners that the MPG's are going up. No many in the 40's mpg anymore. I enjoy people posting and obtaining over the EPA of 50 mpg, the 60 mpg figure appears to be fairly easy
to obtain with the Prius C.
On our Prius the last mpg was 52.3 calculated this is real world driving with my wife driving 75% of the time and she does not drive strictly for MPG's.
I believe we should all take a minute and pat ourselves on the back as all the countless gallons of gas we our saving and will be saving for our friends and neighbors who have no choice but perhaps to drive large cars and pickup trucks...
Here in the northwest the weather has been dry and temps in the 40's to over 60 degrees. The mpg's have increased about 5-7 mpg over just a month ago.
View 5 RepliesWell, for the past few weeks the weather in Los Angeles had been a little on the cool side. I didn't notice the cooler weather, but I noticed that the computer says I was getting around 51 MPG for almost the entire tank (the warning was blinking so I think I used about 10 gallons).
Then today, the temperature rose to around 90 degrees. I noticed the heat. All of a sudden, my computer MPG rose to slightly above 52. I think that would be difficult to do as it must average out the entire tank an extra 1 MPG. And correct me if I'm wrong, but if I got 51 MPG over 10 gallons of gas, in order to raise the gas mileage by 1 MPG in the next gallon, I must get around 62 MPG for that last gallon.
I don't have a lot of data yet, but the last couple of times we had temps over 80F, my mileage took a significant hit - about as bad as when temps are below 20F (more than 10%)... Shutting off the A/C doesn't change things much...
View 19 RepliesI think I'm getting the hang of this car after 3 months. My mileage has been steadily increasing as the weather has gotten warmer and as I've adjusted my driving a bit. If I drive fairly normally i get about 55 mpg (HSI, ~52 mpg actual). If I'm more careful I get closer to 60 mpg HSI. If I'm really careful I get over 60. My last tank was 61.8 (HSI), and 59.6 mpg from the fillup (see attached). I put 10.13 gallons in the car for 604 miles. I call that 60 mpg, and I'm pretty pleased. This is for a week of normal commuting which includes lots of hills, about 1/3 surface streets, 1/3 state highway, and 1/3 interstates with occasional stop-and-go. It is pretty hot here these days so the AC runs constantly. I have only seen my mileage get better with time so I haven't seen it roll over as the weather has gotten really hot, but that may be that any affect is counteracted by my learning to drive this car.
View 19 RepliesTook my 2005 Prius for an oil change. Dealer called and recommended fuel injection service because of carbon buildup and mileage (50,000). On my way home on a mild day with heat and AC off it didn't shut off at stop lights all the way home. Battery was charged. Never had this happen before and it's demoralizing because I really love my car!
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?
How to diagnose what I think is a failing alternator?
Here are the symptoms:
- Hard starting in cold weather
- Battery not at full voltage when truck is parked (usually around 11.5-12 volts. I have been putting a charger on it some nights)
- Lights seem to dim when I've got accessories running, like heater fan, heated seats etc. Lights get brighter with engine RPM, like when pulling away from an intersection.
What's my next step to diagnose this? I did a search, and didn't see anything. My battery is probably still under warranty, so if that's the issue, it should be a free fix. How hard is it to install an alternator in a 2005 with 5.4L engine?
So, my 2005 Gen II Prius went for a scheduled service on Wednesday, 70k miles, Toyota main dealer. They called and said it needed new front brake pads and disks, I was surprised but gave the go ahead. There would occasionally have been a mild squealing sound from the brakes at very low speed so I accepted the pads might need replacing, I was surprised the disks needed replacing but it hard to argue about brakes, especially as I only have the car a year (I'm the second owner and it has a full Toyota service history). It had a "major" service, new spark plugs, new front brake pads and disks.
Since collecting it I've noticed that the engine seems to kick in more often and needs higher revs. The fuel consumption seems higher, normally mid 50's MPG (imperial gallon) now 35MPG. However it hasn't been driven many miles since its been serviced so its a low distance for calculating MPG. I've also noticed that the car seems to slow more quickly without applying the brakes, a regularly driven hill that I coast down at 48kph now only gives 35kph. Also, if I drive on a flat road for a mile or 2 and coast to a stop the front brake disks feel VERY hot, way too hot to touch, drivers side more so that passenger side.
So, I noticed after the week long heatwave (using Priidash and the Prius display) that during normal driving (under 65mph and slow accel) that my prius is NOT keeping the battery at 60% SOC....It is staying in the low 50's or as low as 39.5%....If I go above 70mph, I see the battery being drained and not recharged at all....I reset the battery (twice) the first time it made no difference but the second time the car turned on and said I had 60% SOC when in reality before the ECU reset I was at 49.5%. I know my battery is good because I have stress tested it many times. Its in great shape. The only thing I've done differently these past few weeks is I left the car in Park with the AC on 75 auto for about 5hrs on 4 different days....Its a 2004 Prius.
View 7 Replies"Vehicle with smart key system: The indicator light flashes after the "POWER" switch has been turned OFF to indicate that the system is operating." I have noticed that my immobilizer light will not blink when it has the no start issue. usually when the key is out the light blinks but when it won't blink.... it won't start.
View 19 RepliesIt has been cold recently (out of the past week, highs in 20's or lower). This hasn't been as much of an issue before, but in the past week I have had the red triangle of death, brake warning light, check engine light, and VSC light all come on at the same time, three separate times. Also, the display screen shows a red outline of a car with "!" through it. Each time this has happened, the lights didn't come on as soon as the car was "Ready" but only after the gas engine was running for a minute or two.
The first time the lights came on, I was driving back from class, but after I got back to my house I did some internet research and saw it may be a low oil indicator. Checked the oil, it was almost at the bottom mark on the dipstick, and it had been over 10,000 miles since the last one (oops! we don't normally do that). After reading some stories online, I took it in to get an oil change, and the lights went off for a couple days. Second time the lights came on, I checked the oil level, it was definitely over-filled, so I took it back to Walmart and had them redo the oil so that it was at the right level. I checked the oil level before leaving the parking lot that time and it was at the top mark on the dipstick. Again, all the lights were off for a couple days.
Today, I drove my car for about an hour in the morning (temperature was around upper teens, wind chill below 10) and had no problems. Then, this evening I turn the car on and start driving out of the parking lot when the car beeps at me and flashes all of the warning lights again. I drove back to my house and it is now sitting in the driveway. I am not planning on driving it until I can have a car mechanic friend take a look at it on Tuesday, but he doesn't know anything about the hybrid system/battery.
My wife and I have also noticed that since the weather has been colder, the hybrid battery (shown on the "Energy" screen when driving) seems to be charging and discharging much faster than normal. I haven't seen it at only 1 bar or full of green bars more than a couple times in the 2.5ish years we have owned the car, but in the past two weeks it has happened 5-10 times (estimated). I am not sure if this is due to the weather, or if it could indicate a problem with the (hybrid?) battery. For obvious reasons, this makes us nervous :/
As a side note, I changed the transmission fluid sometime in December, so I was wondering if possibly I didn't put enough fluid back in. I have checked the diagnostic screen and found some codes, but most of them seem to relate to the audio, which doesn't concern me as much as the code that seems to indicate the transmission, which is why I mention the change I did a while back. I just don't know why it wouldn't have shown up until now. I'll attach some pictures I took tonight of the codes and lights.
Also, the battery is a couple years old, but after sitting for a couple hours the battery was reading 12.1 V according to the diagnostic screen, so I don't think that is the issue. We haven't had any trouble getting the car to start, and once it is running it still seems to drive normally with the warning lights on. What these codes mean, and a possible cause for the warning lights?
I think this happened last year. Whenever it happened, I know it's happened before. It only happens when it's cold outside. Yesterday, it was 18ºF which, Priapus was happy to show me, equates to -6ºC.
View 14 RepliesI noticed that if I turn on the car and just drive with the AC on, depending on the outside temperature, the battery goes down to 2-3 bars from 6 bars within a mile a so. As it has been discussed in this forum extensively, the higher the battery charge swing, the lower the battery life. I noticed something yesterday, I warmed up the car till the engine stops with the AC on, and then the drive off. The battery stayed at 6 bars for all my commute and I believe this is healthy for the battery. Suggest/observe similar behavior or am I just burning gas for nothing. I have a scan gauge and definitely you get worse fuel economy for the first few miles if you warm up the car.
View 10 RepliesI have an 05 Prius with 108k miles I bought about 2 months ago. My commute to work each morning is 1.5 miles with speeds of 25mph or less.
Usually the car has acted the same way each day. The ice spins consistently as I creep along to work. But last night the temps dropped to -10f and this morning when I left for work it was about 3 above. I turned on the car and instead of the few seconds after ready it takes for the ice to turn on it turned on right away today. I let it warm for about 3 minutes then set off. Right away I noticed the ice start to Rev up.
And as I slowly approached 25 MPH it was revving abnormally high. It was showing energy from the ice to the wheels and to the mg and charging the battery which was at the normal state of charge. All blue, right before green. When I stopped at a light about 1 mile in the ice turned off as normal, and started right away as normal. But it seemed the ice was still revving as if it was working very hard to pick up a slow increase in speed.
I pulled into my parking spot, battery showing green state of charge now, and the motor stopped as usual. I do not run the heat on this trip and it takes usually 5 minutes, so I just tough it out.
It has been very cold and snowy recently. This morning when I left for work it was about -6 degrees F. After about 15 miles into a 55 mile trip down a snow free road with a 70 mph speed limit I had an unusual experience. Cruise is set at 75 (based on GPS), had to slow down to negotiate around a couple of triple trailer trucks. When I selected resume with the cruise, the engine revved and then cut in and out as it tried to accelerate to 70 mph.
No trouble lights or dashboard warnings. I turned off the cruise, and feathered the throttle and edged back to 75 mph, and then reset cruise. I rolled down the road for another 10 without issue. I again tried to duplicate the problem and I was unable to reproduce the engine cut out. When it malfunctioned, it felt as if the ignition was switched on and off. What might cause this erratic engine behavior?