Prius (Gen 4) :: Engine Idling More Than Normal In Heavy Stop And Go Traffic
May 26, 2016
Well I drove the wife to work in her Prius this morning. I noticed in heavy stop go traffic, the engine was idling more than normal. Normally the EV light is on when I am stationary ( idle) in traffic, but for some reason today almost more than 70% of the stop go traffic the RPM was felt via the brake pedal and EV light was off, but the battery had at least 3 bars or more I think.
The load on the vehicle was the usual, AC on at 65 in ECO mode and radio. I guess this question might be more a hybrid newbie question than anything else. So, just curious what "drives" the vehicle to be in EV mode when stationary in traffic or in my case earlier this morning what prevented it?
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I’m concerned about stop and go traffic here in Phoenix, where the highway traffic literally stops for minutes at a time. Then we get to move for 50-100 feet and then completely stop again. This process may continue for 30-45 minutes. How is this affecting my Prius, am I slowly killing my new car?
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I have a Elantra GT 2014 with about 7000 miles on it. It has been running great, pretty good gas mileage, about 28.5mpg combined. However, I do have a small irratation with it. Sometimes, during my drives, if I stop at a Red light and put my car in neutral gear, I felt the engines does a strong vibration for a few seconds sometimes. It's kinda annoying. Is that a sign of a problem for the engine in the future? or am I just being too picky?
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1995 dodge neon... When I turn the car off, it burps, or bubbles air into the overfill tank. Car now also overheats when idling or in stop and go traffic. Temperature goes down when running heater.Not sure if it is the water pump or an issue with the radiator.
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I recently got an oil change at EZ Lube and since then my engine seems to be running a little harder. You can feel it vibrating more than normal while idling and when stopped at a light when it turns off, it REALY turns off like it's choking out and sort of kicks the whole car a bit when it shuts off.
I just switched the air filter just in case as it seem similar to my old car that would die if the carburetor wasn't bringing in enough air, but I'm not as familiar with fuel injected engines. Could it be the fuel filter or other engine issue?
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Turning the engine off and on in stop and go traffic saves gas but what does it do for the life of battery and starter?
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Every once in a while in heavy traffic the engine overheats. I can't get out to check on the highway bit I suspect a an isn't on. I can drop the temp in the usual way of blasting the heat but I can also drop it precipitously by turning on the AC! It seems to stay down even if I turn the AC off - at least for a while. The radiator is new and it has plenty of fluid.
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I was driving my trusty 2002 152K miles, and came into a very long and very slow traffic jam on the side of a mountain. After about two hours of mostly stop and very little go, my CEL light came on. I am also seeing the "general fault" symbol, but it should be noted that my PS symbol has been showing for about a year because my PS died and I just didn't fix it.
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I have a 99 4.2L 5 speed reg. cab swb. It recently started idling high (which returns to normal at a stop after 3-5 seconds). While in neutral and in motion (coasting) the idle is around 1500-2k (idle=no throttle input from me). The first time it did this it took a while to start (7-10 seconds) and smoked like you wouldnt believe for about ten seconds. Smoke cleared, eyes returned to normal size, heart rate returned to "normal", but the high idle remains. Drives me nuts. No CEL, no codes, just a fat bald man scratching his head and a little nervousness.
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I had a previous post regarding this when it started, but it seems to have now changed. Twice this morning, both while idling still in traffic, my engine stalled. Turning the key it starts right back up and runs fine. I'm hoping that it doesn't morf into stalling at speed.
Originally this happened 2-3 times a couple of months ago. It would die and then catch itself and keep running. Again, each time while idling in traffic. Once or twice it also seemed as though it was ignoring the throttle request for just a second, then took right off.
Two things come to mind, and OBTW, no codes thrown ever. What do you think about throttle position sensor or gas pedal issues! I'm wondering if it's losing track of throttle position and taking it to a low level and a stall?
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Just picked up my 2004 Prius from the Toyota dealer body shop. The driver's side was scraped by someone who wanted to be in my lane. Fortunately, we were only going 35 mph. The rear door skin had to be replaced, and most of the side had to be prepped and painted. There are a few silly mistakes: they forgot to replace the driver's door plug, forgot to replace a lower clip, and smudged a tiny area new paint on the bumper. I brought that to their attention and they are going to take care of it... they have to order the plug and clip.
However, as soon as that conversation was complete, it was time for them to close shop. I sat in my Prius, started it, and the check engine light was on. Wasn't on when I dropped it off for the repairs. Also, on the way home, I noticed the engine wasn't turning off when I came to a complete stop (even though the animation says it was off). At idle, the engine is also rough. Looked at the charge bars, and well, there were only two bars showing.
I thought perhaps, though it's not done this before without the animation screen showing it, the engine was on merely to recharge the traction battery. On the way home, the traction battery returned to full charge (green), but the engine still was not turning off when the vehicle was at a complete stop... not was it turning off when coasting... and when arriving home, even with the car in park... and still idling rough. All the while, the animation on the screen is indicating the engine should be off.
When I replaced the traction battery three years ago, I also replaced the 12v with an yellow top Optima. I wouldn't think the Optima is already going bad. I also do not believe in coincidence. I wonder if perhaps some bad fumes have tainted the MAF, or who knows.
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I have a 2012 Prius. It has twice shut down spontaneously when idling while in traffic. I have explained this, the Service Advisor said he had never heard of it. My question is: why is this happening? The car has been properly serviced. It never happened with my 2006 Prius.
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My 4 cylinder Tacoma vibrates a lot when it is idling, especially sitting in "drive" at traffic lights. My regular mechanic has tried various things to remedy it but none has really worked. He suggested the valves may need to be adjusted. Is this plausible? Or is he off-base? And is it really expensive?
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When I rev the engine it momentarily goes down to below normal idling speed (sometimes it completely shuts off)then goes up to normal idle. I have found that if I press the throttle too hard before it recovers it always shuts off.
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Ever since I became a driving instructor I have paying a lot more attention to traffic and how everyone acts. I have always been told that when driving on the freeway you should never use your brakes. After observing traffic and trying this out for the last year or so, I have noticed that if you look farther ahead on the road and simply notice traffic starting to slow really early you actually can make an entire trip on the freeway (even during rush hour) without ever using your brakes. The idea is that if you lift off the gas early enough you can coast up to the traffic and not have to stop before traffic starts moving again.
I have also noticed that while I am able to just cost up to the stopped traffic, everyone else around me wants to race up and slam on their brakes. Why do so many people do this? Do they think it is faster? Cause I can tell you that it isn't.
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I have been driving my new 2011 prius for a week now and have noticed that in stop and go traffic I occasionally get down to three bars before the engine kicks in. Is this normal?
Also today I was in a traffic jam for a half hour and got to 2 bars a few times(lots of stop and go). Is this normal also? When driving on the freeway the bars are always 6-8. There are no colors on the bars, just white.
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My daughter has a 1996 Saturn SL with something over 100K miles on it. It runs generally well, although using a quart of oil every thousand miles or so. It passes the smog check required for her registration. It's had new spark plugs within the recommended period.
Recently she went on a road trip, and hit stop-and-go traffic for a couple of hours in one large city; it being January in a warm climate, the weather that day was presumably neither very hot nor cold. The Check Engine light came on. Fortunately she had the time to take it to a mechanic recommended by a friend local to the area, who pronounced the engine OK. She proceeded without incident for the rest of her thousand mile trip.
Sounds to me like the emissions crossed some threshold beyond "marginal" during the lengthy idling and running at low speed. Question: if we wanted to avoid such a condition, what kind of repair would be recommended.
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My Car: 2007 Infiniti G35X 141,000 miles
My check engine light has been on for quite some time, but I never had problems with the car besides it making a loud roaring sound which diminished once I got new tires. A couple months back, I noticed my car would shut off when I put it in reverse after driving for some time. This only happened maybe three times. Very rarely. Later, all the lights on my car would come on randomly and turn off. This usually happened when I was going over bumps or making sharp turns. However, I did notice it seemed to only occur during the cold weather.
I have had my car parked for almost a month and a half as I was getting it painted. Last week I started back driving it with no problems. However, today, while being in heavy traffic (for over an hour), the car started slightly jerking and then shut off when I came to a complete stop. I turned the car off and turned it back on and it cranked and drove without problem. Every time I came to a complete stop it would shut off again. This was early in the morning (with maybe 40 degree weather). I changed both air filters two months ago.
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I have a 2002 1.8t with 90,000 miles on it. I have it serviced for new Timing belt and water pump (metal impeller, according to the shop) 3 months ago at this shop. The overheating problems never went away. The problem is that it overheating at heavy traffic or idle after a while or after heavily drive, but it cools off quickly when I rev up the engine a little bit, or after getting out of traffic again.
I have another shop diagnosed, they first told me the cooling system is leaking and may trapped air inside so they did replace thermostat, coolant housing assembly, flange seal, pipe sealing o-ring. they re-test and turn out there is no coolant flow and suggest that is it the water pump that fail and ask me to go back to the original shop for the Water Pump warranty. Additionally, they flow test radiator and its fine.
I did return the car back to the original shop and they tested and said the heater core is clogged with debris and that would cause the overheating. They asked me to replace the whole heater core that would cost $1500. But I know for the fact that I have heating in the car and it is hot!
Is there any other reason than what have been replaced or tested (thermostat, radiator, air trap, new coolant)? I think it could be the aux cooling fan since its never turn on when overheating, only when AC is turn on, is it supposed to work this way? Spent too much on this car and hopelessly the problems went away but it's not.
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I found that it is nearly impossible to accelerate from a stop in normal mode without hitting the red bar zone without getting shot.
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So I was driving along at about 50 MPH and came to a normal stop for a red light. Sitting at the light for approximately 10 seconds and feel the engine stumble or possibly misfire.
I immediately look for any idiot lights and see none, however above the mileage range instead of the pages that are normally shown I see:
LIMIT --- MPH
I drove for about a mile and everything seemed fine, I pulled off into a lot and rebooted the car and now everything is back to normal.
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