2006 Prius with loss of all acceleration

I purchased my Prius in late September of last year. I never had to run the A/C at the time before winter came along. The car had 102,000 miles on it when I purchased. It has run great and I really can't complain as I've put another 10,000 miles on it. Last week during the hotter part of the day (3:30pm at 93 degrees) I pulled out of a small parking lot and pulled forward 25 yards to a stop sign. The car literally lost all acceleration as I pulled away from the stop sign. My A/C was running at the time. There were no red or orange exclamations on the dash. It just wouldn't go anywhere. I hit the stop button shutting off the car. When I started again there was still no acceleration and the hybrid battery fan was working overtime to move air. I turned off the A/C, parked for a moment to the side, stopped and started the car, it started to move but was sputtering a little. I was only getting power from the gas motor even though I had 4-5 bars on the hybrid battery. The hybrid battery fan was still running high as I went down the road. I didn't turn the A/C back on and instead rolled down my windows. Now we move to yesterday where I drove the 15 or so miles home from work (90 degrees at 3:30pm). My wife hopped into the car and was heading back in town when suddenly on the freeway she lost all acceleration and coasted off the next freeway exit. She shut the car off on the side of the road and waited a short while. It again had some sputtering but she was able to drive back home. Similar scenario today. Left work around 3:30, a/c was on, temp around 87, plenty of charge on the hybrid battery. I make my usual little u-turn before backing into my space in front of the house. When I placed the car in reverse it again lost all acceleration power. The radio doesn't turn off, I still have dash lights, etc. Has anybody had something like this happen? I saw a post earlier on the forum with the loss of acceleration, but he wasn't giving you guys much to work with. I hope I didn't overshare my scenario. Chalk it up to a newb mistake if so. Thanks for taking the time to read my novel.

 

Thanks for the reply kuz. I figured it might be something like that considering it was only happening after getting hot and running a load on the battery with a/c. I'll dig deeper into the Mini-vci and go from there. Thanks again!

 

nh70 I started to dig more on this forum and realize some of my thinking was a little backwards. Realizing that grille in the back next to the seat would be an intake for air makes for running the a/c better than windows down. It's my first summer with the car and Reno really has a moderate climate when it comes to heat. It's high desert and we get our temps into the 90's for sure. But at times the breezes along with 80-90 temps are still nice to have windows down. I've definitely noticed that the a/c on and driving even at highways speeds there is still plenty of pep.

I will take a look at the cooling fan ducts. Whether the prior owner had animals back there or not I couldn't tell ya. The car was in great shape when I bought it from a friend at Toyota. It was a single owner and they basically traded it in at 98,000 miles. Most likely upgrading to a newer one before battery warranty was up. I will check the ducts for sure.

I make sure to have service done on my cars quite often. Air filter, coolant, etc are always checked. I'm sure there is more failed cells and HV packs now that the GenII's are getting old. As I read even more and searched around the forum I started seeing that.

I truly thank you for the info. This forum seems to be filled with solid people who love to help.

 

I do get the hills in Reno here. I live 6 miles North which requires some up and down hills whether I go into town or head back out. More downhill on my way in though. It's rare I have it at full charge and then park. Battery really does pretty good to recharge and/or hold power at a lower level with the a/c on. Good to know about the process and how they are finding the heat effects them. The dry heat here doesn't usually make it to unbearable. But honestly I don't know if this Prius was down in California or just driven around here. Whether it was subjected to a lot of heat I have no clue. I've been running the a/c still and making sure it stays cool in the car. I truly only had this issue crop up when the temps got above 90. Sounds about right with the heating issue.

There are some great incentives for the GenIII's right now and I'm probably going to at least look around this weekend. I know I could change the HV battery myself, but the car is older and I might go for the dependability at this current time in life.

 

I don't mind getting my hands dirty. I generally know how a vehicle works, turn some nuts and bolts, etc. But finding the inverter coolant reservoir would be a new one for me. At the same time, I have no issue finding a diagram or youtube video. I'll take a look.

 

I called my friend and picked up a new 2014 Gen III yesterday. It's a long story, but with my current situation it was easy to grab a new one. 06 still had a small loan because plans changed. Not paid off so we said forget it. Made cash off the trade still and grabbed a new one.

I seriously can't thank you guys enough with the information provided. I'm a member who will enjoy reading this forum even if my car is new now. The overall information and help is absolutely great. Thanks for taking the time to photograph under the hood and show me where to look. Learning more about these vehicles is great.