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1998 Prius - summary of turtle of death light going up hills!

Discussion in 'Generation 1 Prius Discussion' started by haywash, Jun 10, 2009.

  1. haywash

    haywash New Member

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    I post here the summary of my problem with turtle light on hills on Mk 1 1998 prius from the Yahoo Mk 1 discussion group. Buyer beware! Re the turtle of death on hills, I have now removed and cleaned the MAF sensor (suggested as problem), so its clean as a whistle, and then came to my land, and yes you guessed it, I still could only get up the hill at 20 km an hour (walking car from side to side!). Now Debbie has previously said:

    'My advice is not great having owned one, there are very few that are "OK" They are like a poker machine. You'll just keep feeding money into it and it will end up costing you MUCH more than a regular car....sorry :( The MK1 is SO MUCH DIFFERENT TO THE MORE recent models. I wish that people would read up on these little horrors B4 buying one, I did not and had a lemon like MANY MANY others.'

    Now I did my online research and couldnt FIND anything warning about the 1998 prius not being able to go up hills. So buyer beware!
    Julian has said:

    'It's not the size of the hill, it's the steepness. I had to climb a ~500m high hill with quite steep grades and mine in std form used to get a turtle about 2/3rds of the way up. With turbo, it used to stay at full HV battery over the same grades! For anyone reading this, An NHW10 IS NOW NOT A GOOD BUY!!'

    and my experience agrees with this. It can climb fine on a gentle gradient but not on a steep dirt road. How much did it cost to turbocharge your prius and what sort of petrol consumption does it get now? I can only say that I wish I had been warned about this. Could it be a problem with the vehicle drive system? Is it worth taking it into Toyota in Sydney? Otherwise turbocharging or selling it are my only options?
    Cheers Haydn
     
    #1 haywash, Jun 10, 2009
  2. treet007

    treet007 Member

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    I am not familiar with the 1998 Prius, but in the US, the 2001-2003 Prius can climb hills fine. This is considered Generation 1 for us. I have a 2002 Prius, and I have driven to the mountains with no real problems.
     
    #2 treet007, Jun 12, 2009
  3. slaintedone

    slaintedone New Member

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    I have a 2002 Toyota Prius. I have the turtle light and the light of death as well. Also, some times when I start the car, the triangle light will come on, and as i'm driving down the road the car reduces speed and eventually will not go - I have to turn the car off and turn it back on before it'll accelerate. And, sometimes, The car doesn't go very fast when I press the accelerator. I'm moving to Virignia soon and hope that it goes faster then 20KM going over the mountains.
     
    #3 slaintedone, Aug 6, 2010
  4. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    See if you can get the vehicle codes read at an AutoZone. Better still, for about $100, take it to a Toyota Service Center and see if they'll 'read out the codes and subcodes' and possibly 'read the battery module voltages.' If you can bring them here, we can help explain what is going on.

    So how long has this been happening?

    There is a known problem with the accelerator encoder of the NHW11 Prius that can cause the "big hand" syndrome. You're accelerator may have that problem and having the codes can help in the diagnosis.

    Does this problem happen when you are using the cruise control? If it happens with cruise control, then something other than the accelerator may also be involved.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #4 bwilson4web, Aug 6, 2010
  5. That_Prius_Car

    That_Prius_Car Austin Kinser

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    Two
    Oh no...
     
    #5 That_Prius_Car, Sep 23, 2010
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2015
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