Prius (Gen 2) :: Battery Drops Gradually At Mountain
May 5, 2013
I recently bought a 2004 Prius with 104,000 miles on it. When I try to go up into the mountains I only get a few miles or up to 1,000 to 2,000 ft. elevation (from 300 ft. starting) and the battery level gradually drops from 6 bars to 1 bar. The red triangle light and check engine light comes on and the car speed gradually begins to drop even if I continue to press on the gas pedal. I have only gotten down to about 35 MPH from 60-65 mph before stopping and turning around. Within a few miles of turning around the light goes off and the battery goes back up to 6 bars and works good going down hill.
The dealer I bought the car from has been working with me to figure out the problem but so far we have not figured it out. He has replaced the main battery as well as the inverter/converter. The mechanic was with me on a test drive to the mountains and had his car computer plugged in while we drove and experienced the same thing. It gave the code for the catalytic converter so we changed the entire CC/muffler (one long piece) and still got the same code. The battery indicator on this car has never shown more than 6 bars. I personally think it has a bad "Gas Engine" or something wrong with the gas engine.
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I go over a mountain pass, to and from work. It is about a two mile up and down incline/decline. On several occasions while going up the pass,the gas motor has rapidly accelerated at a high rpm. I back off the gas pedal and check the 'battery indicator bars' and there are none. I then drive very slowly to the top of the pass and the batteries quickly recharge on the decline to a color of all light green bars, indicating a full charge. Same experience coming home. Once I do normal town driving, the bars settle around 'four or five blue bars.' Local dealer says there is on problem. I am driving at 55 mph when this happens.
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About to hit 130,000 in 20 miles. For the past 10-15k miles, I have been consistently getting under 40 MPG, about 36/37. Only can I get 40+ for a whole tank when I do mostly highway driving. Before, my tanks would average 42-48 mpg.
My battery is also doing some funky things, sometimes when I turn the car on for the first time on a new day, my battery will go from green or blue (the blue right before it hits green) and will literally drop to one or two slivers of red in 15 seconds. I took it in when it first started doing that and they did a software flash or update, something along those lines.
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Its not my car (its my father in laws). The other day his 05 prius (170k miles) shut off while he was driving. He pushed it home and I sent him a link on how to check the 12v battery. He said it showed it was low so he used his golf cart battery to go and take it for a test drive to see if that fixed the problem. In the drive way at idle his hybrid battery charge went up half way but when he went to drive it he got 1/8th of a mile down the road and it dropped to 0 then the car shut off again. He said the display says something about the battery (I haven't been over to look at the car).
They are sure its the hybrid battery, but if it was me I'd go to the dealer and find out for sure. My husbands aunt had her hybrid battery go out and hers did other things, like go into turtle mode and a/c blew hot. I think her inverter pump went out and she kept driving it till the battery got messed up, but anyway...What does my father in laws symptoms sound like? Is there any extra at home testing that can be done?
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A month ago I bought a 2007 Prius with 140,000 km. I notice that the state of charge drops into the 'red' bars within about 20 minutes of the car switched on, in Park with no accessories running. A mechanic connected his diagnostic computer and saw 2 cells are low. However, the mechanic informs me there is no value in replacing those cells as others are likely to go down, thereafter. Is there anything I can do to avoid having to replace the entire traction battery?
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I just got a used 2015 with only 1000 miles on it. Everything is great except I notice when going up and over the mountain highway I take everyday to work the car revs kind of loud and feels like there's not a lot of power. I don't know if this is normal or not, but it doesn't sound right to me.
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The air conditioner in my 2001 Prius starts out blowing nice COLD air, but after about 45-minutes to an hour, it gradually gets warmer and warmer, until there is practically no cooling effect. This happens every day. Day after day. My evening commute home from work is about an hour, so the air conditioning starts out perfectly, but by the time I get home, it's just recirculating the cabin air.
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Had my '05 Prius for awhile now, never missed fog lights until now. I have a base model, so no HIDs and no fogs. I now have to occasionally drive 230 miles round trip in essentially total darkness, on mountain roads, often foggy, snowing, or raining.
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While driving a mountain road (hwy 17) going downhill this morning I lost power braking and power steering and a got the following error message on the display
TRANSMISSION P LOCK MECHANISM
PARK CAR ON FLAT SURFACE AND APPLY BRAKES
I was able to stop the car on a flat area. I turned the ignition off and then restarted the car and the power steering and brakes came back, but the red triangle remained. I drove to the Toyota dealership and left the car for service.
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Up until my last oil change at 105,000 miles, I didn't notice any oil usage. When draining my oil, it didn't look like it was quite 4 quarts. After the oil change, I ensured that I had the engine exactly topped off to the upper mark on the dipstick. Around 600 miles later, I parked in the same location and have noticed that the oil level has dropped enough to notice. I am guessing that I will lose well over a quart between oil changes. Before I resign to the normal mechanical reasons (rings, cylinder wear, etc.)
The loss doesn't seem to be gradual which has me looking for other explanations. I also had a Toyota mechanic go over the car and replace the other fluids and filters at 100,000 miles (coincidence I think ).
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I have an 05 trailblazer with 99k 4.2 4wd. The headlights flicker sometimes at night when I let of the gas. Tonight was by far the worst. It looked like I had pulsating headlights. The dashboard lights do it as well. When it occurs the battery gauge drops several amps as well but returns to 14ish amps after things level out.
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1999 Ford E350 Triton V8 ... I'm having an issue with battery voltage, and it only happens once in a while.
Sometimes, while on the highway, my voltage will drop suddenly, the battery light flickers then after a couple seconds... ding! The voltmeter jumps back up to it's normal operating voltage.
It may only happen once, or maybe 3 times in a row, or never. I cannot get it to reproduce.
I had the battery checked, that's fine. I'm doubting the alternator is the issue. What other factors could I consider?
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I have never had a car with automatic transmission that did not also have low gear or others besides overdrive. We are going to the Rockies and I would like to know how to get my car to use lower gears for accent and decent without over revving or constant gear shifts that I expect with the normal drive gear.
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Own a 5-speed SX4 and live in a mountain state like Colorado? I've test driven all the models (Sport, Rally & Convenience) and one thing I've noticed is that it's quite sluggish going up and down mountain sides, which kind of defeats the object of buying one for me. Is this normal or do I just need to downshift a lot sooner than I'm used to? Also, find that wider bar around the windshield where the triangular window is really distracting?
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This has happened twice with my car - first time was end of Feb 2014 and just a few weeks ago.
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I've noticed that my 2012 Passat TDI heats up a bit when going over a steep hill or mountain pass. When driving up steep hills I notice that the temp gauge climbs from the dummy position 190* to about 200*. Once I crest the hill the temp will go down and it won't go up again unless I go up another hill. Is this normal? I had assumed that the temp gauge was a dummy gauge like in most cars so seeing the temp actually climb has me concerned.
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I have a 2002 Subaru Outback that has started overheating only when I try to go up into the mountains. It starts within a few miles of starting up a steep grade and cools down the instant you start down the mountain. I have had no problems with regular driving conditions. The only pertinent info might be that it did have a coolant leak last summer and overheated then.
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2007 Honda CRV EX80k MilesAC goes from cold to blowing out warm air
Starting up the car and driving the air is nice and cold for 15 minutes or so.It then slowly goes to warmer air over the next few minutes while driving. Pulling over and checking the AC line with my hand under the hood it is going from ice cold to warm.When it is in this mode of warm air, turning the ac on and off with the dash button you can hear the cooling fan kick in but not the click you usually hear which I think is the compressor clutch engaging. If you turn on and off enough while driving it can sometimes go back to good cold air again very quickly.
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2013 Ford Fusion ... My cars thermostat runs normal all the time unless I go up hill. I drive into the mountains to work every day. It runs about 80% hot until I crest the mountain and then immediately cools back down to normal. Since its winter no air conditioning running but heat is on at times. Only 37000 miles on car. Automatic transmission.....
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99 F-150 V8 - During mountain driving after a long downhill I get a cloud of smoke when I get back on the gas. Appears to be darker smoke not oil like blue smoke. Only other issue I have with the truck is an occasional cloud of blue smoke when I start it which I believe is just aging valve seals. What is causing the cloud of smoke after a downhill?
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