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05 Prius seems slow lately

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by chrism07924, Dec 24, 2005.

  1. chrism07924

    chrism07924 New Member

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    Seems like the engine is working harder for normal acceleration.

    Merging on highway traffic or passing at speed seems noticeably tougher than before. I'm tempted to say that it started happening roughly around the same time of the last oil change. It has 22K miles on it.

    I thought it might be a sticky emergency brake, and tried pushing the brake all the way to the floor and releasing a few times, but the performance still seems degraded. The gas mileage doesn't seem any different. Could it be the gas? I'll take it in eventually, but I'm curious if anyone has had this issue. I only get it serviced by toyota, including all oil changes.
     
    #1 chrism07924, Dec 24, 2005
  2. tomdeimos

    tomdeimos New Member

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    You sure it isn't just the cold weather. You get less power from winter fuel. And you get less acceleration power from the battery till it warms up, which can take about half an hour.
     
    #2 tomdeimos, Dec 24, 2005
  3. chrism07924

    chrism07924 New Member

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    I hope that's all it is. Sounds logical. The only thing is that it seemed to start becomming this way back when it wasn't so cold, like October, but maybe I am just not remembering. I drove it today, just now, and didn't notice the effect. It could be that the temp outside here in NJ is relatively mild today (low-mid 40s).
     
    #3 chrism07924, Dec 24, 2005
  4. djasonw

    djasonw Active Member

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    It definitely is the cold weather. I have the same issues. Once it is warmed up its fine. It can take upwards of a half hour for the battery to perform as it does in the summer. Last week when it was 17 degrees here, I decided to warm it up before I left for work. It was much better. Just look forward to spring!
     
    #4 djasonw, Dec 24, 2005
  5. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

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    Check the oil to see whether it's overfilled. If so have the dealer fix his error.

    Check your tires. Part of cold weather MPG loss is tires getting softer. That's easy to fix. (N.B.: tires should be checked "cold", which means the car has not been driven more than one mile in the last hour.)
     
    #5 richard schumacher, Dec 26, 2005
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