Prius (2010-12) :: No Power While Driving
Jul 10, 2010
I was driving through the Appalachian range in WV last weekend. During an upslope, I could hear the car dragging, the noise that we hear when we go on a steep slope. But even after I reached a plateau, I had a hard time going above 65. The more gas I pressed, the car never went above 65. The noise was still evident. After a few times, I switched to Normal mode (from ECO), and it marginally seemed to improve but not completely ok. For about 120 miles of Appalachia, I had this thing happen. Is this normal? I thought newer cars, especially on a plateau should not have this much loss of power.
I am going to get my 5000 mile service today, and anything obvious I could bring it to the dealer.
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Up until this morning I thought I had almost a perfect car with a potential of lasting for 10 years but this morning, while I was driving on a local road with 35-40mph, so suddenly my car stopped moving and I couldn't even pull over as it completely stopped with no error or any warning/alerts! So, I turned it off and on again, it started working but I was still nervous if it would happen to me again while driving on a freeway but it didn't and I have made to work safely.
Now a question is should I bring it to the dealer today and have them run their diagnostics on their computer to see if anything is wrong with the car engine/ battery/ or anything else or should I just reboot it like we do for computers and go on everytime it happens? It's just little scary to think of its happening during a busy highway driving! I have driven it since July and has about 14K and I have had a good MPG of anywhere between 50 to 60.
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Gen 3 .... Driving in Power Mode to obtain the best mileage? I find I am getting better mileage in Power Mode.
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I bought a new 2010 (Gen III) Prius IV one week ago. I have driven it less than 200 miles. Last night, I experienced a few seconds of steering wheel shaking while driving at highways speeds. I assumed I had hit uneven pavement. At no point was it difficult to turn the wheel. But after the shaking, the car seemed to sometimes drift to one or the other edge of the lane. I chalked that up to unfamiliarity with the car and to rain and darkness. Today, I read Forum posts that described the lighter touch that usually works and the importance of wheel alignment.
After the shaking, another 45 minutes of driving, and a half hour parked, I headed home on a slower road. That is when my wife noticed that the Electric Power Steering warning light was on. We are both pretty sure it was off before that. This morning, I pulled out of the garage and back in, and turned the wheel both ways as it moved. The light did not come on.
I called the dealer to discuss what had occurred. I made a service appointment for Monday so they can check it out. Someone in a Gen II forum (where I mistakenly posted this at first) advised me to pull over and take an evidence photo of the light if it comes on again.
The PS warning light wouldn't be too surprising to see in a Prius driven tens of thousands of miles. If yours ever came on when your Prius had low mileage, I'd be curious to know the outcome. I misidentified a benign icon as the EPS warning light.
The mechanic became suspicious when he couldn't find any code or any trouble. We sketched the icon we remembered seeing for the service supervisor. He explained that it was the cruise control light. I either forgot I had turned cc on or I had pushed it accidentally when I operated the wipers.
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Still getting used to my 'new to me' 2011 Prius II. I am loving the car it's a joy to drive, very smooth and quiet.
When I pull the car out of the garage it's obvious when the ICE starts. But after that I never am aware of the starter being used at all.
Is it just road noise that prevents me from hearing it? Or is it like a manual transmission car that you restart by letting out the clutch once it's rolling?
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2 months ago while driving both headlights (low) went out. Had to drive with my high beams on to get back to the house. Next day they worked again. 2 days ago both low lights went out again. My son checked and the bulbs are fine, the fuses are fine but the voltage meter says very low voltage with high resistance. What does that mean? I know there was a class action suit for the same reason for up to the 2009 model.
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I was driving 71-72 on an interstate with a 70 mph limit. In the distance, on a bridge I saw a bunch of police cars. Suddenly the Prius started beeping. No alarms went off on the MFD.
Within seconds of the Prius beeping, I saw a cop crouched on the side of the highway pointing his radar gun right at the car. As soon as I passed the cop, the beeping stopped.
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2010 Prius III. Purchased at 75,000 miles now at 135,000 miles.
At all different speeds I'm getting a vibration. It used to be much more slight. But in the the past few months it has gotten progressively worse. I have read many other threads about it happening at near idle speeds but haven't found any previous topics concerning my dilemma.
But it happens when I'm trying to accelerate. Not hard acceleration but rather moderate or less. If I take my foot off the accelerator and reapply it it stops. I don't know what to think considering how different the problem is compared to descriptions of the mr2 acting funny.
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When I first got my generation III, I had it on Eco. I found this hard to adjust to after being in a Camry. So I got the car out of Eco mode, but didn't put it in either EV or Power mode. I've been assuming this is OK for over 35,000 miles now. Is there something wrong in what I'm doing?
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After buying my Prius III, the dealer installed a Karr alarm system which has a blue LED light underneath the steering wheel which blinks when it's armed and, if the alarm goes off, blinks once to three times to tell you what set off the alarm.
Tonight I was at dinner and afterward entered my car using the SKS. When I started driving the car I noticed that the LED was blinking making me think my alarm had gone off. After the alarm was first installed, the installer showed me how to reset the LED by holding or clicking the button behind it (I didn't remember how exactly) so I tried pushing and holding the button but nothing worked and it kept blinking.
I continued to drive home and all of a sudden my alarm started going off while I was driving. I pulled over, turned off the engine, and with the key fob locked and unlocked the car. I started driving again and would hear intermittent honks before the alarm went off again for 20 seconds before it stopped on its own.
Finally when I got home I again turned off the engine, locked and unlocked the car, and the blinking LED finally went away. As I was walking around the car inspecting it to see if it had been hit to start all of this in the first place, the car beeped and locked itself automatically as if I held the door handle for the SKS or pushed the lock button on the key fob. I unlocked the car, tried to recreate it, and everything went back to normal.
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A few nights ago while driving my 2010 Prius III on the highway I suddenly heard a whistling sound, as if my window was cracked open. It was not, and I guessed that there was some other piece of the car that had come loose (similar to a previous incident with my splash guard under the bumper and I just popped it back into place and re-secured the pin).
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During a recent vacation, while driving at night, the MPH display went black. I completed the drive to the hotel, resolving to change the fuse in the morning. When I started the car in the morning, the display was still black. I checked the fuse I thought should be involved (#22), but it was good. The MPG / MPG screen was still bad. Not wanting to drive an additional 400 miles back home without a speedometer, I called the closest dealership to get an appointment. The 2010 has 33K miles on it .
When we packed up and started the car for the trip to the dealer, everything was working. One week later and all is good. I plan on getting this anomaly recorded with Toyota just in case it happens again after the warrantee runs out.
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I've never had a car before where rolling the window down put in so much gale force wind into the car. I used to be able to drive with windows down (not on freeway and sometimes even on freeways) quite comfortably but now it is just too much wind blowing into the car.
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2012 Prius V w/24k miles. Have experienced a noise while driving. (best I can describe it is like when moving a straw up and down through the lid on a styrofoam cup). It is intermittent. Have discussed this with the dealer service department at least three times. One tech drove with me said he found a bad front strut which was replaced. It took some time but noise returned. I can hear it when others can't and can feel it through the floor board. It may be muted but also so loud my wife says it sounds like something is going to fall off. Does it at slow speeds across parking lots on smooth surfaces or on road on smooth and rough surfaces in any kind of weather conditions. Will be taking it in for 25k service soon but what to look for.
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I almost feel like when I release the gas, the Prius is doing some engine braking. Decelerates too quickly (1 mph per second) when driving at around 65 mph.
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I'm a very new Prius 2010 owner (as of December 2010) and I very stupidly drove my car in B for about 70 miles down the interstate. I wasn't paying attention, and had only had the car for a week, and I shifted into B instead of Drive and didn't realize it until about 70 miles down the interstate. I had been driving up to 75 mph during that time.
My dealer has the oil change sticker listed as needing changed at the next 5K miles, but my oil service display is already showing service needed, some 3K miles before their estimated 5K mark. Is this related to the horrible B driving that I did in December? I would love to just reset the oil change display and keep driving, but I did some sort of damage or extreme wear and tear with the B driving.
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Since a couple of weeks my GEN III feels 'slow' ...
Let's explain... when I'm driving in normal mode (without the use of any 3 buttons) it feels like the car is driving in eco-mode. Been to the dealer but they can't find it and they say it's just fine...
So now I'm driving constant in power mode, it's killing my consumption but without power mode it's just not the same as before in normal mode.
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I drive about 25 miles each way to and from work. Almost since the day I've purchased the vehicle (6 months), I've learned and used the Pulse and Glide technique daily and I've become very good and comfortable with it. I usually get 65mpg on my way to work and 70+ on my way home.
However in the last couple of days, I've notice a significant drop down to low 50's with no change in my driving habits, route, or tire pressure. Also no work or maintenance has been done to the vehicle. Upon closer investigation, I've noticed that sometimes, well after the warmup stages, when I glide, the ICE stays on and the instant MPG meter only reads 50mpg instead of the infinity mpg it usually does.
It doesn't happen every time I glide, just sometimes. For example this morning after driving the entire 25 miles to work, the ICE stayed on during my last glide of the commute. At first I thought that maybe I didn't let my foot off the accelerated long enough, but further attempts with longer delays resulted the same result of the ICE not shutting off. Should I have the dealer look at the car? Am I missing something?
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It appears as though my car is charging just slightly when I'm driving and my foot is neither on the accelerator or the brake. Is this normal?
Also, this light is on. I'm not sure what this is....
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Noticed a burning smell while driving in 2010 prius?
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First time Hyundai owner. Just bought a new Elantra 2013 for my soon to be 16 year old daughter. We picked up the car from the dealer last Sunday and the car has about 40 miles on the odometer. Tonight my daughter and I we took it out for a drive and I was driving at a speed of 30 mph and the car suddenly went dead, no power , no lights, simply nothing just complete darkness. I called Hyundai roadside assistance and they towed the car to the dealer. The tow truck driver tried to see if it was battery related and he brought a portable battery and hooked it up to the car's battery but that did nothing to power up or restart the car. This was very scary as it was like an invisible hand just pulled the plug off and switched off the car. I am very worried now as this car is for my daughter and I would hate to think what could happen driving alone or on busy roads, or at night. What could it be?
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