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2002 Prius lacking power with high revs of engine after a few minutes o driving but restart fixes it

Discussion in 'Generation 1 Prius Discussion' started by racerx944, Sep 9, 2014.

  1. racerx944

    racerx944 Junior Member

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    2002 Prius
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    I normally take the strip apart on the side with the sensor wires for no specific reason. After that the worst you can do is touch any of the pairs of modules that are still tied in by the other strip getting 14.4 volts, which is equivalent of touching the positive and negative posts on a normal 12V battery.
     
  2. DRACO

    DRACO Member

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    Outstanding, I think this will benefit all those on the fence after being scared out of their pants from all the horror stories out there :censored:

    BTW, OT, so do you have a 944? Back in the day I had an 87 944S, loved that little 4 banger :cool:
     
  3. racerx944

    racerx944 Junior Member

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    I still have a few 944s sitting around. I try to stay away from the 944S though due to the unobtainium twin cams/head and valves.

    I hope people will read these threads and keep their cars on the road as the gen 1 Prius impressed me, especially as a first offering. It is simple to work on, yet complex. I took out the window glass to tint it (yeah I did it in the tub to avoid bubbles and watery mess) and reinstall it in 15 minutes. For the life of me I still can't figure out how they can make the transmission work so well with so few unconventional parts and low failure rate.

    Both my pairs of gen 1 and gen 2 cars have over 230k miles and original drivetrain. My second gen 2 has a rod knock but I am guessing a previous accident smashed the pan and blocked the oil,pickup. I just bought it last week so I will dig into it further.
     
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  4. racerx944

    racerx944 Junior Member

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    I still have a few 944s sitting around. I try to stay away from the 944S because of the unobtainium cams/head/valves.

    I hope people read these threads and keep their cars on the road. These cars are simple to work on yet complex. It took me 15 minutes to remove the door glass and reinstall it for tinting. You appreciate things like this when you have to do the same for a 1994 Mercedes 500 and scratch your head on why one would have to make anything so needlessly complicated.

    I am seeing many gen 1 and 2 prius with 200k+ miles needing nothing major more than replacement HV modules.

    If I designed the battery pack, I would make it so the modules can be replaced like a printer cartridge where you press a button/tab, slide out, and replace. All of the contacts will be on one side of the battery with no danger of getting zapped. The top cover of the battery pack would have hinges covered by carpet that is held in place by velcro or hinges for easy access.
     
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  5. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    It would not be easy to design battery contacts that can handle 100A peak current flow without being bolted together, considering this performance must be sustained over the vehicle design life of 10 years or 180K miles in a variety of climates and ambient humidity levels. From Toyota's point of view, if the traction battery can last that long, then there is no need to make its replacement particularly user-friendly.
     
  6. Kaliko Trapp

    Kaliko Trapp New Member

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    One
    Thank you so much for being part of this forum, "take-the-bull-by-the-horns" racerx! It's really encouraging to see such a great example of how car mechanics doesn't have to be "alchemy" and if one can just put aside the fear of the unknown and approach things logically and methodically -- with the help of PriusChat Forums of course! -- then it's possible to do so much for oneself to keep these little gems running. If we were to heed the "dire warnings" and sometimes intentionally confusing info of Toyota Dealerships about everything when taking a troubled vehicle in for service or repair, we'd all be looking at dusty pictures of our long-gone Prius cars on the shelf, because they simply charge too much money for what they do. So once again, thanks for your gung-ho attitude and sharing your knowledge with us, along with Patrick W, Bob W, Chapman, Draco, and so many others. Aloha.
     
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