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Phantom EV mode cutting in

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by pollocks, Jun 13, 2007.

  1. pollocks

    pollocks New Member

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    I was just driving along, and my Prius just randomly switched to EV mode - the petrol engine cut out!! I had just left a car park, and started going up a small hill, so put the accelerator down a bit more, and the car did not respond - it just cut out completely and went electric. I have an EV switch, but there's no way I could have even accidentally knocked it - I was just driving...

    So I sped up a little, since if it is in EV mode, it switches back to the petrol engine once you hit a certain speed. It didn't though - it stayed in electric mode.

    I was dropping my husband at his work, and was almost there, so just drove very conservatively there, and when I dropped him off, I turned the car off and on again, and it went back to the petrol engine. So weird.

    I had one bar left on the petrol gauge, so was wondering if maybe that was playing up and I'd managed to run out of petrol, so I filled up at the nearest petrol station, and only got a little under 9 gallons in, so I definitely wasn't anywhere near running out.

    Anyone else had this?? It's getting its 20,000 mile service tomorrow, so will mention it then as well. I believe having an EV switch voids my warranty - is it better not to mention it? Is that true? Will I get in "trouble" for having one installed???

    Thanks in advance :)
     
    #1 pollocks, Jun 13, 2007
  2. JimboK

    JimboK One owner, low mileage

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    What was the battery's state of charge? When green bars are showing you can give a little more pedal than usual without the ICE cutting on, assuming you're at >42 MPH. That's the only thing that comes to mind, other than a problem of some sort.
     
    #2 JimboK, Jun 13, 2007
  3. Allannde

    Allannde Just a Senior

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pollocks @ Jun 13 2007, 09:44 AM) [snapback]460977[/snapback]</div>

    There is no need to mention the EV switch. The car is programed to use the Steath Mode regularly which is all electric. Since you did not touch the EV switch, how do you know that the car was not in the Steath Mode rather than the EV Mode?

    Just describe what happened to the shop. Emphasise what seemed unusual to you.

    Allan
     
    #3 Allannde, Jun 13, 2007
  4. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    What you're describing sounds a bit like the "Limp Home Mode"...it's a default where the car will turn off the ICE if it thinks there's a problem. You don't say what year your car is, but this was an issue with some '04s and there was a recall to fix it. But there are other conditions that can trigger Limp Home. Were there no lights on the Dash? Did you try to deactivate EV mode with your button? Any chance you have/had bad gas or another ICE issue?
     
    #4 efusco, Jun 13, 2007
  5. pollocks

    pollocks New Member

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    Thanks for the help! When it switches to EV mode, the screen changes to the Energy screen rather than the Consumption screen, and when the petrol engine cut out - it switched over to the Energy screen. And when it did that, I could see that the battery was mostly charged - I think it was one bar from full.

    And yes, all the lights on the dash were still on - I was expecting the red triangle of doom to be on or something crazy, but it wasn't. I tried switching out of EV mode using the "lever", but it did nothing.

    So weird.
     
    #5 pollocks, Jun 13, 2007
  6. justifyd

    justifyd New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pollocks @ Jun 13 2007, 01:44 PM) [snapback]460977[/snapback]</div>
    How much fuel can you normally add at that point? Since the bladder dictates actual capacity, I suppose it's possible you were very close to running out of fuel.

    Just postulating here: If you were almost out of fuel and driving up a small hill, the supply of fuel might have been interrupted. I don't know how the Prius reacts to those situations -- it's never happened to me -- but it just might explain what happened.

    Were you on level ground when you restarted?

    Hope it doesn't happen again!

    - Justifyd
     
    #6 justifyd, Jun 17, 2007
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