Prius (Gen 3) :: Engine Revving Up In Cold Weather
Jan 4, 2012
I was heading home last night from work and noticed something odd. It was the first pretty cold night that we have had around 20-25 deg. and I took off from the parking lot like normal.
When I got to the first stop light about a mile down the road I heard what sounded like the engine revving up right when I took my foot off the gas pedal. It did this as I coasted to the stop light. It also did it again at the next stop light just up the street. I thought maybe it was the heater blower, but It really sounded and felt like the engine revving. The car did not accelerate or anything, is this part of the warm up or normal? I also have the lower grill blocked but I don't see how that would make any difference.
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My 09 Sonata LTD V6 was sometimes idling erratically (revving and slowing) after starting a cold engine. It never happened in the previous 3 winters I have owned it. I took it to the dealer for service and they said an ECM update was just released, described on the invoice as "TSB 10FL002 FOR COLD START ROUGH IDLE".
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Went on a trip up to MI in cold and snow, and the engine light comes on. Great, I'm thinking, figuring me, the wife and our two babies stranded in another quality VW product. We pull over and call the closest dealer on the cell, and they say to just ignore it unless its flashing. When I got home, I vagged it and it says the cats were below their operational limit - I'm guessing too cold?
Whats the deal here? Can I look forward to engine lights everytime I go out in the cold? (this car is slowly driving me nuts. How can it be so bad and my Audi so good?)
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"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.
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When I turn off the car I can smell some paraffin-like fume and sometimes also even see a white-blue smoke coming from under the engine. This only happens now when the outer temperatures have fallen here to Zero Celsius. I didn't see anything similar earlier when it was warmer!
I also can hear some weird buzzing sound for about 2 minutes coming from the areas of the left and right front wheels. I've put on winter tires yesterday and found nothing wrong there in wheels area. I am thinking about a fuel pump/pipe or perhaps something with AC/heating, or oil burning... Or is that OK?
Or is this something releated to the diesel particulate filter? I was driving just some short city distances last days....
Where exactly is located the particulate filter?
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So I have a weird situation. My Sonata GS with the 2.4 engine has trouble starting ONLY during cold weather (-2 or colder) if it's been sitting for a few hours. If the weather is warm, then it starts fine most of the time. The car tries to 'fire' for about 45 seconds before it does; and 'fires' with no hesitation at that point. The car runs fine, no hesitation or rough idle. I've cleaned the intake system to make sure it's not clogged or dirty, replaced the air filter, cleaned the MAP and throttle body. My battery died a few weeks ago, so I've even replaced that. What this could be? Everything I've researched or looked into would throw a code, or have symptoms while driving...yet it runs fine once it's started, and no codes/lights are showing. Don't want to just start swapping parts hoping to find the problem...
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1999.5 Jetta 2.0 Lit, engine 186000 miles, bough it few months ago and this issue is driving me crazy.
Engine Light "ON" and "OFF" depending on weather conditions.
On my , No Engine Light in Cold and humid weather. When weather is hot the light goes ON.
I was thinking on changing the O2 sensor(the one after the catalytic) I do not know if this will solve my problem,
I will like to change the oil, it is using regular 10/30 SAE what grade and kind will be suggested?.
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I got a new Prius Plug-in 2012 and when the cold weather came this winter, which isn't that cold at 40F, the 12v battery seems to get discharged very often. This week, I must have jumpstarted the car twice already. The 12v battery seems to get drained when I park outside in the (not so) cold, or when I park underground for hours. I also notice that the traction battery gets filled up; it's as if the 12v battery drains into the traction battery.
(I leased a Prius 2010, not plug-in, for 3 years and this never happened even if I parked it for days in even colder weather.)
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It 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?
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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.
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I 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.
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the car 07 passat wagon fsi auto value edition.. This is my first winter in Maine and I've noticed by 35 degrees F and colder when vehicle is at operating temp and then I use the cabin blower say 72 degrees or hotter on fan speed 2; causes engine temp to drop maybe 10-15 degrees. Car reaches operating temp quickly! And coolant concentration seems right!
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I have a 2001 Ford Escape, and since the colder weather set in it is tacking below 1 and 'jumping' when idle. When accelerating and/or once the heat gauge has reach midway, the car is fine. I added a bottle of gas additive to the tank 3 weeks back, but the problem persists. The engine light is on but no code is registering.
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I've got a 2008 Prius which I bought used last summer. It works quite well except for one behavior: In cold weather, sometimes, the car either does not start at all, or starts without the dashboard gauges lighting up.
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Uneven throttle response during cold weather engine warm-up? When sub freezing weather arrived a few weeks ago my 2010 Prius developed uneven acceleration during engine warm-up. The car was purchased in October and it ha less than 3,000 miles.
Gradual depression of the accelerator results in a very small, tiny in fact, amount of increasing power to the wheels, not in proportion to the usual smooth and responsive amount of cold starts above freezing temperatures.
Continued depression leads to a point about halfway to the floor when the engine, which of course has been running all along, suddenly surges and the car takes off with a jolt of power. Not smooth, impossible to control well and unacceptable. Many would say this is unsafe.
My 2005 Prius never had, and my wife's 2007 does not have this issue. Could be a cold weather related accelerator defect as with the Camrys, but this is not mechanical sticking as was the case with the Camrys, its an electronics error like a faulty sensor or cold start injector.
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My 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.
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On some cold winter mornings, my dashboard stays dark. Later, sometimes hours later, it lights up normally.
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In our recent -20 F cold spell in Chicago, I noticed the ride got very stiff, have others experienced this in very cold weather? My theory is that the oil in the shocks or dampers become extra viscous at these temps and the cold shocks causes the ride to becomes like that of a Honda Civic with a dropped suspension. (It's so amusing to watch those Civic "low riders" going over railroad crossings, but it's all image right????)
Anyway I would think the colder temps would lower the air pressure in the tires, softening the tires a bit, but perhaps the rubber hardens counteracting that benefit. I have Michelin Primacy BTW. Since temps went back up above about +10 F ride seem to be OK again.
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I read about the white smoke and I found that is normal in cold weather!! Is that true and what do you think ?
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My wife's 2007 Prius Dash lights stop working in extreme cold weather. We have asked the dealer 3 times about it but to no avail! I don't even know where to start with this one?
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So I noticed that there is a type of whining sound coming from the ICE side whenever the temperature is below ~55F. This only happens from a cold start and only when I'm accelerating (pressing the gas pedal) and always go away after the engine warms up.
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