I understand that the ICE comes on to warm up the coolant and recharge the battery if low. However, in the middle of summer and with a full battery, my ICE still comes on even if I have just parked for a short while. Is that normal? I have heard that it doesn't come on for some people if the battery is not lower than 2 bars and the coolant should stay warm for a couple of days.
View 19 RepliesIt doesn't happen every time we start the car, but sometimes, we start the car (foot on the break, e-brake on -- I think) and it honks twice quickly.
View 7 RepliesHave squeaky brakes upon first startup, when I back out of my driveway and shift to "D", sometimes the brakes squeal or whine. Is that normal for a 2011 Prius?
View 11 RepliesI am experiencing a fan noise that precedes the ICE during morning startup. It sounds like a model airplane with a cheap, buzzy propeller. It is not the cabin blower and it comes from the front of the car. It goes for about 10sec and then the ICE fires up, drowning out the fan noise, which I presume fades out. And then I don't hear it again when the ICE shuts off. I also don't hear it at a stop light or subsequent restarts. Seemingly, it only does it after it has sat overnight.
It wasn't always like this. Nothing has changed in my routine. Build date Sep 09. 10000km.
This morning I had an unusual problem after starting up the car. When the gas engine kicked in, the car started shaking a great deal as if the engine mounts had come loose and the engine was moving around. I quickly turned it off and waited a few minutes. When I tried it again, everything was normal.
Thinking back, I'm not sure if I put it in gear before the problem occurred. Wonder if putting it in gear just as the engine is starting up could trigger something like this.
I have recently noticed that my Prius C ICE engine kicks in at every start regardless of temp or battery.
View 7 RepliesMy second gen prius has slight miss/knock at startup. Done 35000 km. Doing around 19Km/Ltr. No other problem.
Any need for tuning, plug checking, needed at this stage?
My PIP makes a moderately loud buzzing noise, apparently from the compressor upon pressing the start button, in EV mode, and pressing the climate control "auto" button. It goes away, but seems unusual. AC works fine? I don't remember it being so apparent before.
View 4 RepliesI've recently noticed that every time I start up the car and drive, no matter how slow I go the car's engine running... and loudly. It seems to be revving high and low for at least 5-7 minutes into the drive even though it should be in EV mode at the speed I'm going and even when I stop. The battery is always juiced up too btw.
That issue seems to have only been for older cars that have driven quite a few KMs but mine has no more than 2000 KMs and is a brand new Prius C 2012.
A little background on my Prius, I have an 08 that has around 179k miles on it and have never had any major mechanical problem. I have always kept up with routine maintenance. I use Synthetic oil and change it about every 6500 miles.
So, two weeks ago, it was time to change the spark plugs again. Carefully, I took out the old spark plugs and installed the new spark plugs. On the second spark plug wire and spark plug, I noticed a little bit of oil, so I wiped it off with a shop towel, installed the new plug, and kept going.
Interestingly enough, now I have a problem where when I first start my car (and only when I first start it) and I just have the interior fan running (not with the A/C on) I get some serious extreme exhaust fumes through my A/C vents and that wasn't happening before I changed the spark plugs.
Now my first thought was, "Shoot, what the hell did I do to my car?!"
Here's the weird part, once the ICE has warmed up and shut off for regular "ready" mode, I don't smell it ever again even if the ICE activates as I'm driving. Note that at this point, I haven't made any changes to what fan speed or setting the climate is on.
As soon as I turn my car back off, then back on again by pushing the power button, out comes the awful exhaust fumes again.
So, here's where the testing stage comes into play. I have tried everything I can think of. Yesterday, my father take the air box off and we made sure all of the hoses were attached and the recirculation hose didn't have a clamp. We replaced the clamp and resecured all of the hoses in the engine thinking that there might of been a loose hose with the exhaust recirculation.
2002 Prius, ~165k miles. When I first start the car, the first 30 seconds or 1 minute the "Consumption" display will show no outside temp and the mpg gauge stuck at 100mpg. After warming up (I use that term loosely as its still 70s/80s here), it will operate like normal. Shutting the car off and turning it back on will not bring the issue back - the car will need to sit for a few hours or overnight for the problem to come back. What is going on here?
View 2 RepliesMy Prius has been sitting in the fridged weather in my driveway. It's Tuesday and the temperature is currently 18F. The last time I drove this car was two days ago on Sunday.
I started it up a few minute ago and heard a HORRIBLE knock or slap from the engine bay. It alarmed me to the point where I wanted to run in and grab my camera but I tried listening to understand what it could be. At first I thought it might be a belt came loose and was whipping around hitting the components but it went away after about 30-40 seconds. It was so loud that I thought the neighbor two doors down who was shoveling snow could hear it.
I will let it sit overnight and will definitely capture this on video in the morning. I have a feeling the noise will be back.
I once experienced the noisy engine start up.. It sounded like the engine was trying to run backwards or severe pre-ignition.
View 2 RepliesDetails: 2009 Prius with Nav, no touring, cold battery voltage reading (via display) is 12.1v and 14.2v running
I'm noticing something odd and I figured I'd ask and see if this is normal or something else. Sometimes on startup I see the red triangle then it goes away and sometimes it doesn't show up at all. I've had a few occasions where the car doesn't start. I usually shut the lights off and then it's OK.
I have a new-to-me (2 weeks) 2004 Prius, and my wife has noticed a weird behavior on start up which I have not been able to reproduce.
Occasionally when she starts up the car the brake light comes on as if the parking brake were set. The ready light will not be on. No other warning or error lights come on. If she turns off the car, and then turns it on again the light will be off and not return. Tapping or setting and releasing the parking brake has no effect.
She swears it has nothing to do with her pushing the parking brake or not pushing the pedal brake. This seems to have started after I set the parking brake one afternoon, but that could also be coincidental.
I have 2004 Toyota Prius 110k miles on it. New auxilary battery on it. VSC, Brake and Red triangle lights are on. The car wont start. System comes on, but ready light doesn't not appear.
If I discoonect the battery for a minute and connect it back, I am able to start and drive it. After a minute VSC, brake light comes on. I still can drive the car and it drives perfect. As soon as I shut it off, I won't be able to restart it again. I have to disconnect the battery for a minute to get it started. Inverter pump seems to be working fine.
I got the codes with the paper clip VSC 43, Brake 36. After resetting the codes, I drove the car and now it throws VSC 51 code.
Check engine light is not on. When I checked with OBD scanner, it does not show any codes. When we checked with shop's scanner, there was a code smth "LOST COMMUNICATION WITH HYBRID..."
Yesterday morning, my 2010 had a very strange noise happen at startup. I'll preface this by saying that it was very early in the morning and I wasn't quite 100% awake, so the exact chain of events are a little foggy to me.
It was about 65 degrees when I went to start the vehicle in the morning. I noticed it was pretty humid out and the first humid morning of the year (I live in central PA). When I hit the power button, a very loud noise came from the engine area. It sounded like metal grinding and the motor having difficulty idling. I depressed the brake to attempt to put the vehicle in drive and the yellow "!" indicator light came on with a message on the on board display (i cant remember what it said). I shut the vehicle down and after a few seconds hit the button again..... same thing. This time, the idling and "grinding-like" noise went away and then the car seemed 100% normal. I noticed there was a little bit of blue smoke coming out of the exhaust while it was idling/grinding roughly.
Perhaps not the smartest thing to do, but I left for work and the vehicle has worked 100% fine since the mishap yesterday morning. In total, I have driven about 150 miles since the issue with no problems.
I read a sticky post concerning a service bulletin for engine knocking at start-up but what i heard seemed to be more than knocking and it was well above 40 degrees.
I've dreaded the day I would receive the Red Triangle. It occurred upon initial start up this morning.Could this be brake system related as 3 weeks ago I got my front brakepads/ rotors replaced. Since then the front brakes have been grabbing to the point that my wife will ask me about the noise when she's in my car.
The hybrid battery indicator is always many blue bars and green with no wild flucuations. I'm getting between 48-51 mpg's. For general maintenance I installed the Optima Yellow top about 4 weeks ago. Oil is full, coolant inverter reservoir is full with tuburlant motion and was replaced under recall 2 years ago. The transaxle fluid was changed 20k miles ago.
So back to the brakes. I have the Red Triangle with !, VSC.
2008 Prius, 184K. Well maintained, 85% highway miles
I have a 2006/2007 prius that on cold start up works its self up to a rattle/ vibration in p mode on charge.
View 4 RepliesInitially thought that this was related to some water in the tank, since it started when the gas dropped to 1 bar (already put some stuff HEET when put the whole tank, did 60miles so far). ODB throws out multiple cylinder misfire (codes 300, 301, 302, 303 etc). It lasts up to 3 seconds. Sometimes the check engine pops up sometimes it doesn't. there was absolutely no problem under load. does it seem like a fairly common problem ? Intake manifold clogged ?
View 14 RepliesI have a 2002 Prius that is running fine except for a loud noise when I started it up---like the one the exha fan in my bathroom makes, but the car runs well and there are no lights or any other indicator that anything is wrong. I am taking it to a local mechanic today, since I don't trust my local dealer. My car has about 95, 000 miles on it.
View 7 Replies