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Engine racing with no acceleration

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by DH2, Jun 2, 2016.

  1. DH2

    DH2 New Member

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    2009 Prius
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    Four Touring
    Howdy all,

    I'm having a bit of a problem with my 09 Prius. I've got 120K miles on it, and I have multiple codes on the hybrid battery. I don't know exactly which codes they are, I will see if they are on the paperwork that I have and post them if I can find them. Either way, the battery will be replaced.

    But it's the problems I'm having in the meantime that have me concerned. While I am driving, and seemingly under any condition, my engine will suddenly start to race with no effect on acceleration. In fact, when it has happened on the interstate, the car will decelerate. When I pull the car off the side of the road and power cycle the car, it temporarily clears up the problem. The frequency of this occurrence is increasing. The first time I experienced the problem, last week, it happened twice during a 3 hour drive. 2 days ago it occurred 12 times during another 3 hour drive.

    With the understanding that I know that the hybrid battery requires replacement, does anyone have any idea what might be happening?

    Thanks!
     
    #1 DH2, Jun 2, 2016
  2. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Yes we know exactly whats wrong. The Hybrid battery is faulty. No hybrid battery participation means your on the anemic little motor only. You can see this in the mfd by the hybrid battery being uncharged.
    One pink line. Or wide swings between fully charged and one pink line.
    No acceleration. No power at all. You can unplug the 12 volt battery and it will reset the codes and drive for a bit but the codes will quickly return.
     
    #2 edthefox5, Jun 2, 2016
  3. DH2

    DH2 New Member

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    Okiedokie,

    That's what I thought, and was hoping, was 'all' that was wrong. I was worried that someone was going to say that my transmission was about to die too or something.

    Thanks much!
     
    #3 DH2, Jun 2, 2016
  4. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    Yeah, Hybrid SYNERGY drive is a connected system. Hence the Synergy part.
    If your Hybrid Battery is dying, and you've got a dash full of codes because of that, then I would suspect any peripheral problems first are related to that failure.

    Out of curiosity however,- how have you diagnosed that your hybrid battery is failing?

    I would certainly guess that IS the problem, but if you don't really know what the codes are?
    In any case, my order of operation would be confirmation that it IS the hybrid battery failing, followed be resolving that issue.

    Then hopefully your peripheral symptoms will be gone.
     
    #4 The Electric Me, Jun 2, 2016
  5. DH2

    DH2 New Member

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    2009 Prius
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    Four Touring
    I took it to the dealer when the idiot lights came on and they said that a whole crop of codes popped up that indicated battery failure. I think I have the list of codes written down somewhere, but I can't recall them off the top of my head.
     
    #5 DH2, Jun 2, 2016
  6. DonDNH

    DonDNH Senior Member

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    Did they set up an appointment for them to fix the problem?
     
    #6 DonDNH, Jun 2, 2016
  7. DH2

    DH2 New Member

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    I told them to hold off on it as I didn't have the funding at hand to take care of it just then. I am very tempted to attempt to replace the battery on my own (with a few pairs of helping hands who have experience with heavy duty electrical systems.)
     
    #7 DH2, Jun 2, 2016
    edthefox5 likes this.
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