Strange Transmission/CVT switch-off

Hi guys, apologies for not introducing myself if that is the normal m.o. of the thread- I guess the lack of having to post goes a long way in saying how please I am with my Prius.

I recently noticed something odd. After a long drive it seemed like the Gas Motor was switching off and on just TOO easily. If i just lightly touched the gas pedal the motor would go on and then immedialy switch off back on to electric if I took my foot off. The second i removed my foot from the gas pedal it did the same thing. I no longer have that "buffer" where at low speed and erratic driving both motors are working to stop this on and off jerking. In parking garages and other low speed driving there is a constant on/off of the gas motor if there isnt sufficient battery.

If my foot is off the gas, the gas motor is immediatly off. If my foot is on the gas just a little bit the gas motor is on. Also there seems to be more of a jerking when the transition takes place. It is no longer seamless and you can actually feel the motors switch over.

This is extremely difficult to explain to a technician and I immediately took the car in. I drove the guy around to show him but he was understandably confused. Ive been driving the car for 110k now and he would not be able to pick up the subtle difference in behaviour that was bothering me.

They ran a system check and it seemed there was an error on the Cylinder 3 ignition coil. They replaced that and the car seemed to be ok again until I did a long trip.

Here comes the weird part. It started after id driven about a mile on a short dirt road. After the car was washed it seemed to be fine again. Then after the ignition coil replacement it was fine. Again I drove on a short section of dirt road and it immediately seemed to start doing it again.

Could it be dust in the CVT? Hybrid battery dying? CVT on the way out?

I love my car and have had absolutely no issues. i planned on driving her until 150k but this is freaking me out as I can feel something is wrong..... Help !

 

Oh yea, The codes that came up were P3000, P0353

 

Hi guys,

Its a 2006, based in Cape Town, South Africa. All maintenance carried out as per the service plan and no issues as yet. It does it through various SOC. Low and Full. That said it still seems to run fine on the battery and this doesnt seem typical behaviour for a hybrid system failure.

Does anyone know when in the maintenance cycle the CVT fluid is changed?

 

Ok we did a full check of the ECU, Hybrid System, Etc using the fault checker at Toyota this morning. The P3000 code is no longer there. We also checked the individual cell voltage on the Hybrid battery. With the car on it was running an even 15.03-15.2 on each cell which is apparently normal.. so its not the battery by the looks of of it

 

If you guys were wondering this is what the coils look like. All self contained and neat