Low Microphone Volume on Gen III

This is starting to really bug me. Does anyone know how to take apart the map light area to get to the mic. I want to see if it's being obscured by something.

 

I can see thick foam in the mic when I shine a light into it. I'm thinking that is what is muffling my voice when I talk.

 

I tried my wife's cheap Samsung phone and it actually sounded better than my iPhone. I'm now rethinking this as it might be a phone issue. That sure would explain why some are experiencing this and others are not.

 

My wife says my Moto Razr V3 (later model, v3c or v3xxx I believe) sounds great in my Prius, so it very well might be the phone.

 

I know my wife's iPhone 3G sounds she's talking 20 ft away from the mic, and the same issue with either my Blackberry 8300 Curve or 9630 Tour. Having to yell into the mic sucks when I'm used to my BMW, which can pick up my voice just fine if I'm talking softly.

 

I took my car to the dealer for the brake recall and had a few more settings changed. I just bought it in January and did not want to wait until 10k miles service to get things fixed. Like many others, I had a GenII and hacked a lot of changes myself but until someone much smarter than me figures things out I must depend on service technicians to make changes. I too have been having people I call reporting that I sound very far away or the volume was very low. I am paired to the BT with my BB Curve. I asked the technician if there was a way to turn up the microphone volume and his first question was "do you have a BB?" He said the only problems he has encountered with BT were with BB phones. He paired his flip phone and called me in the dealership on a land line and it sounded like he was in the room with me. He then borrowed one his service buddy's phone (another brand of smartphone) and paired it. Once again he called me on the land line and it sounded great. I am trying to get information from RIM to see if there is a known fix but right now I am getting passed back and forth from Verizon and RIM/BB. I will advise if I learn anything from either place. Sorry for the long rant but this has been an exhausting experience.

 

It's not just Blackberry phones that have this problem. iPhones do this also. I really don't think you're going to have any luck with RIM as I haven't with Apple. One of the problems is that it's a combination phone/car issue. My phone works good in other bluetooth cars. Just the fact that Apple (or RIM) can say the phone works fine with other systems lets them say that it's a problem with the Prius. On the other side Toyota says that the Prius works fine with other phones, it must be the phone. Endless runaround.

 

I posted the following complaint to Toyota at their customer service website ( http://toyota.custhelp.com ). They are usually very good at following up. If you are having this issue please do the same.

"I have a 2010 Prius III w/ Nav and get many complaints from people I talk to on the bluetooth handsfree phone that they can't hear me very well. Every call sounds like I'm at the other side of a large room. I am an active member of the Priuschat website and MANY, MANY others are having this same problem. I am using an Apple iPhone 3G and many others are having problems with other model phones also (iPhone 3GS, Blackberry Curve, etc.) We are very frustrated and can't figure a solution to this problem from our end. We spent a lot of money on this Navigation/Blutooth system and would expect it to function normally. Can this be resolved?"

 

It worked for me as well, when I did it the traditional method of using the head lights and holding display it just took me to a diagnostic screen that I couldn't do anything with, just view that everything is working (that it checks). The only way that I could get into a screen to increase the bluetooth volume was the method shown in the You tube video. It was difficult as that I just kept moving my fingers up and down in various locations around where the video shows and eventually it went in. Going to test it this weekend.

 

Start a call with your iPhone (while not moving and iPhone handy), via the handsfree. When everything connects, use the side volume key to raise the volume level. You'll see on the iPhone screen "bluetooth volume".

I did it on mine then left a message on my home answering machine; it sounded pretty good.

 

I tried to access the menu on my Prius a number of times, but the alternate menu never came up. Is there another way to to get to the microphone volume?

 

You can use the light switch method as described here http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...w-bluetooth-microphone-volume.html#post435031 . Can you post a quick video of you trying to do it the way I suggested in post #38 of this thread and we might be able to tell you why your not able to get in.

 

Have you got any updates on this issue...? I have a curve and tried changing mic setting and it's not any better... my dealer is acting like they know nothing... but I have not taken it in at this time... not sure I buy the hole phone type thing... if you adjust mic to 5 and then test mic no change if you move to -5 no change. Test mic output and record play back is to the left of the Mic adjustment once in the figure dance screen... I showed this to my dealer and asked for them to upon a case on this issue. Instead they want me to drop of the car for the day... they said they were busy will all the recall stuff. I have had issue for almost a year. On July 24, 2009 I picked up my P G3 V w/ATP. Please get us some help... I see Toyota put out a fix for blur AC display:rockon:... I spent big bucks for hands free device and not happy with it.

 

I used both methods described here to get into the diagnotic screen on my III, both worked great after a little fiddling and re-reading the instructions in this thread. But I was doing it for fun, because the microphone in my Prius works fine. Callers have actually commented to me that the call clarity using Bluetooth in the Prius, even at highway speeds, is better than when I'm on the phone itself! No complaints here.

 

i have no problems with my bluetooth on my lll ,callers are telling me the clarity is very good my cell is blackberry storm ll

 

Does anyone have a way to adjust the blutooth microphone sensitivity for a non-nav prius with blu-logic. That video for getting into the service menu is nice for people that have nav, but completely useless for me. I have the blutooth volume all the way up on my phone, but people are still have a really hard time hearing me. I have to shout for anyone to hear me.

 

I got a response from Toyota regarding this issue:

"Thank you for contacting Toyota USA. As we indicated previously, due to recent high contact volumes, we are sorry that we were unable to respond to your email in a timely manner. It is never our intention to keep a customer waiting. We can assure you that we are doing everything possible to bring our email response times back to a more acceptable level for our customers. Thank you for waiting and we do appreciate your understanding.

Sorry to hear about your i-Phone Bluetooth concerns. We have had many i-Phone users complain about this situation but when requesting them to use a different phone other than the i-Phone/Blackberry, our customers are stating once paired with a different phone other than the i-Phone/Blackberry, it pairs normally and the voice situation you have described is no longer is an issue.

Suggest you contact i-Phone as it seems to be a problem with the phone and not the overall Bluetooth system."