Does your Prius get stupid on wet snow and ice?

My experience reflects Jayman's (minus snow tires) and Ken Coopers. Pretty much same thing, as soon as it feels the wheels are going to spin, that f'in traction control stops spinning the wheels.

I commute through a variety of country roads and crowded highway, and it made for some pretty hair-raising situations. For example, being on a slushy incline at a Stop sign, and having to turn left while a rig, in the distance, has the right of way, no Stop sign for him. You have plenty of time to make the turn, halfway through, the wheels lose traction and stop. Now I'm sitting in my Prius, half way into the road with the rig coming, and people behind me such that I can't back up.

And that was only one of maybe 3 similar situations this winter.

My rear wheel drive Mustang with summer tires performs better than my '04 in snowy/slushy conditions.

 

This thread is really interesting. I started a poll (and discussion) a while back about this for the very reason that this thread was started: I've heard about this problem, but I never have personally experienced it, despite driving in modestly snowy/icy conditions. It seems to me that everyone who has this problem has an '04 (anyone care to contradict me?).

To add another data point, I have an '05 Pkg 3 (i.e. without VSC), and have never had any of the problems with the snow and ice that people here have had.

 

Wow, this is just weird. I have an '04 Prius and have driven it 30,000 miles over 2 Denver winters. I still have the original tires on it. Earlier this year I drove it during an amazing blizzard, 18 inches of snow in 12 hours, unplowed roads, cars pulled off and stuck all over the place, up steep hills, stop and go, you name it. The car performs great. Never felt like I was close to being stuck. On one occasion, I had to stop in the middle of a very steep hill behind a semi that was just spinning its tires. Had to wait until the coast was clear to accelerate from a dead stop around him on a two lane road. No problem. My all-wheel drive Volvo Cross Country would have done no better. I don't get it. Maybe there is something wrong with your traction control system?

 

Hmm Interesting. so at no point did the wheels loose tractions and gradually lose speed till you couldn't go any further ?

It does seem like only 04 (maybe some of 04's) are effected by this.

 

Hey, I don't get it either... No matter how I adjusted my driving style in such conditions, there were plenty of situations I could not get out of no matter how much I anticipated, not matter what tactic I tried.

Hmmm, maybe we should check out and report what our build dates were? I'll get mine the next time I run out, it should be on the inside of where the door shuts... I THINK...

Edit: Build date: 3/04

 

All of the above problems with TC happen to my car and I have a Prius 05. It's possible that TC is not exactly "tuned" the same way in each car and some have this problem and others do not. Is there any way to find out? Could the moderator or somebody ask Toyota about this?

 

I wonder if you put the car on a lift and have someone in the car put it in drive and someone simulating some traction on one wheel if you could replicate it as if you're slipping on snow or ice

 

06 Prius #4 (has stability).

Teton Pass, WY, Feb. Sustained 8% grade, snow, and some glare ice. Nasty

OEM tires. I was well aware of all of the tire discussions here, but unable to feel comfortable with paying for better tires until these wear out. I did buy radial "chains" in case the chain law was in effect. It wasn't, but probably should have been. Anyway, I didn't chain up.

Again, it was a sustained 8% grade. Speed limit is 35 as I recall. Even the SUVs were clearly driving cautiously below the limit in those conditions.

Traction control kicked in three or four times. I had to ease off the accelerator and lost a few mph when I didn't want to and, truthfully, I was really uncomfortable pushing the engine as hard as I had to late in the break-in period. Something smelled a little (engine/motor? Still un-burned-in surfaces?).

All-in-all I'm sure I'd have valued other tires if they really are better, and I would rather not climb that pass often in the winter. Still, the "little engine that could" did a very respectable job under what I consider REALLY extreme conditions. There have obviously been several other snowy days driving around home in central Wyoming this winter. I've no other marginal experiences with the OEM tires and I've yet to see the stability control kick in. Admittedly, I drive more cautiously than many/most.

 

I think you are missing the point.

Problem has nothing do to with driving cautiously or not.

if you get a 30% incline it may or may not happen according to what we read here.

The problem is not the motor, it has plenty of power.

 

Well, I had a pretty exciting weekend. I drove out to the hobby farm to get away from things for the weekend, expecting flurries as The Weather Network promised.

Instead it turned into a howling blizzard with 35 cm of snow. I knew I should have turned back and gone a different weekend, but with the winter tires the car seemed to be handling the poor roads and snow ok.

The 4.5 km gravel sideroad to the hobby farm is only used by 2 other homes, and my home is right at the end, almost 1 km from the nearest neighbor. By the time I passed the last neighbor driveway, the snow was flying up onto the hood and windshield.

"Hey, I better stop right here, turn around in my neighbors yard, and get the hell out of here." But no, I thought I'd make it.

I made it another 400m and ground to a stop. "So I'll just rock it." Not. As I found out last winter when I purposely got the car stuck, once you're buried you can NOT rock a Prius. At least not mine.

It doesn't matter if you gently press the gas pedal or floor it: The Traction/VSC icon on the dash flashes, and the wheels do NOT turn at all. I have a collapsable shovel in my car, but that would have taken forever. So I trudged to the neighbor, and luckily they were both home.

He fired up his tractor and used the blower to clear all around my Prius. Then he gave a few pushes and I was able to get going. He drove ahead in the tractor to my place, so I'd have a path to follow and not get buried again. Yes I'll do something nice for my neighbors in appreciation. I made it and hunkered down to stew about things.

On Sunday I used my tractor to clear out my yard and the road as far as my neighbor. As of this morning, the grader still hadn't arrived. With most of the neighbors clearing the road themselves, I didn't have any trouble getting to the highway.

I know most cars would have had trouble with conditions like that. Still, it's disturbing you can't even rock the damn thing once it get buried. I'm probably going to just go ahead and get a small SUV with AWD, to at least no longer have to worry about this.

BTW my Prius was assembled July of 2004.

 

One way to restart the proccess is to restart the car (i.e. Reboot button )

 

Tried that. Doesn't make any difference. I had powered down the car when I went to fetch the neighbor and his tractor. Doesn't matter if you gently press the gas pedal or floor it, the Trac/VSC icon on the dash flashes and nothing happens.

Neighbor pushed the front bumper a few times and then I got going in reverse.

Same thing if one wheel is on glare ice and the other is on dry pavement: nothing.

 

Everyone who's reported in may want to find out if they have the
full-blown VSC or not, and re-report with that and the year. I have
a base '04 *without* VSC but nonetheless some degree of traction
control [i.e. the ability to grab a spinning wheel with the brake
and thus make the other one spin], and the front wheels always at
least *try* to turn even if they don't do it very fast in slippery
stuff. It is sounding like full VSC doesn't even try for some odd
reason, which sounds like a bug.
.
I'm not recalling offhand what an easy way to tell if you have VSC
or not is, so someone who knows needs to pipe up and give a
definitive way to find out without, say, taking the center console
apart to see if you have a yaw sensor or not.
.
I found it very easy to rock, in fact, with very light pressure
on the accelerator and simply moving the shifter between D and R.
There's a slight delay between shifting and moving, so if you're
trying to do that approximately 2-Hz back and forth thing to jump
out of a rut, your motion will wind up interestingly out of phase
with your shift selection -- but with persistence, it works. At
least in mine.
.
_H*

 

i had an 04 with no VSC with the same issue... so i guess it doesnt matter if you had VSC or not.

 

H:

A very thorough post. Thanks.

My 2004 Prius is Canadian market, and it has the "Premium" package. That year it was the only option, the '05's added Navigation which is the Premium package with navigation added on.

The Premium package states that it includes, among other things: thoracic and head curtain airbags (What I really wanted most of all), VSC, anti-theft alarm, JBL, SKS, etc.

I could dismiss the performance of my Prius in drifted wet snow so deep the car bogs down. Any car would bog down in such a situation, right? But the same thing happens on clear icy roads.

The worst possible thing for my Prius is when one wheel is on dry pavement and the other is on ice. I’m sure you’ve driven a rear wheel drive car or pickup with an open differential under such situations, and you know that they are completely helpless: they just sit there and spin without moving.

In my case, with one wheel on dry pavement and the other wheel on ice, the car is almost completely helpless. The wheels don’t even turn at all, the Trac/VSC icon on the dash flashes.

We had very early snows in 2004, including a surprise blizzard in June. Broke all sort of undesirable weather records for cold and snow that year. I tried driving on the stock Integrity tires under such conditions and my Prius was completely helpless at green lights. I mean cars behind me were honking and finally driving around me.

When it warmed up and we got the record-setting rain, I swapped to Michelin Harmony after a scary incident on the Trans Canada with standing water. I tried to pre-order winter tires but they were backordered already. The Harmony was slightly better on snow and ice than the Integrity, but the car was still helpless.

The Dunlop Graspic DS-2’s *finally* arrived in December, and not a moment too soon. Another surprise blizzard and I put the winter wheels on at my condo, then went for a drive. A literal day and night difference. This winter, with my Yokohama Ice Guard tires, I have better snow and much better ice traction, at the expense of highway stability.

My Dad’s 2003 Buick LeSabre is a much different car on snow and ice. First of all, for winter I put steel wheels with Cooper WeatherMaster ST/2 studded tires on his car. The Traction control in that Buick actually appears to work: it allows slight wheelspin to dig down a bit, but limits too much wheelspin.

There is also a Trac disable button on the column shift, which AFAIK he has never used. If one wheel is on ice and the other is on dry pavement, the car can accelerate almost normally.

Look, I would have run winter tires anyway, I always have in every car, truck, and SUV I have owned. It’s just that IMHO the Prius actually *needs* them or it can be downright dangerous in winter driving.

The Trac is just far too sensitive in my Prius.

J