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Acceleration- no response

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by lhsu, Jan 1, 2013.

  1. lhsu

    lhsu Junior Member

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    Last week I drove my 6 months old Prius for about 70 miles (my longest journey so far). Everything went fine and I enjoyed driving it very much.

    However, there was one incident that worried me. I was following a slow moving truck (around 20 mph) and decided to overtake it but my car refused to respond. Although it was a pedal to metal acceleration, I didn't feel any acceleration at all, probably after about 3 seconds, the car accelerated as normal. That was the only time I experienced it and it does not again happen till today. Oh yes, my car was on "normal mode".

    Anyone has the same experience? Any idea on this please?

    (I don't know whether this has been asked before. If yes, kindly provide me a the link and have this thread closed. Thank you.)
     
  2. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    Try to repeat it on a empty stretch of road (no need to try and pass something) and literally count off "one thousand one, one thousand two, one..... ) or a passenger with a stop watch and see if it truly is three seconds.
     
  3. ursle

    ursle Gas miser

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    No mention of location, were you possibly on an icy snow covered or bumpy road?
     
  4. lhsu

    lhsu Junior Member

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    It was an ordinary summer day on an ordinary asphalt road. Not at all bumpy.
     
  5. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    My guess... is you depleated the HV battery while following slowly and didn't have the power to pass. Did the engine rev loudly?
     
  6. lhsu

    lhsu Junior Member

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    Thank you for your reply.

    Hm... Your guessing make sense. But the strange thing was, there was no rev sound. It was like driving a car with faulty spark plugs or at the moment we run out of gas.

    Have been driving it for nearly 5,000 miles and it only happened once. Hope it won't cause any problem....
     
  7. john1701a

    john1701a Prius Guru

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    What did the speedometer indicate?

    How often do you dropped the pedal to the floor prior to this?

    The system is not supposed to respond with a "shift down, high rev" type feel. The initial power boost comes from the electric motor, which will basically be undetectable. The engine will then join in, but smooth from the CVT. Redline itself is lower than with traditional vehicles too.
     
  8. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    Interestingly I had something similar happen tonight. Was waiting outside the store for my son to drop off a video (10min) and the SOC dropped to 3-4 bars. As I was going up a slight hill to get out of the parking lot, I laid into the accelerator and pretty much nothing happened. The engine started but did not rev up. I slowly proceeded up the hill. I didn't have enough room to floor it to see what would happen, unfortunately. It did seem odd.
     
  9. lhsu

    lhsu Junior Member

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    I did not notice what the speedometer indicates.

    Not very often. Only when there is a necessity to do so.

    I do understand that "feel" you're referring to. It would be ok if there was only a slow response but the vehicle was not responding (for even one second) is absolutely unacceptable especially when you need the power most.

    I told my friend who is driving a Prius C and he said it's impossible. He used to drive his car roughly but never see this happened.
     
  10. lhsu

    lhsu Junior Member

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    Yours happened in what "mode"?

    I presumed you have driven your Prius for years, was that the first time you noticed it?
     
  11. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    ECO mode. Got the car 7/09. First time I really noticed it.
     
  12. Former Member 68813

    Former Member 68813 Senior Member

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    I like to stomp on gas from time to time. Usually there is no delay. Rarely, 0.5s delay happens. This is nothing compared to Audi double clutch tranny that can sit and doing nothing for 1-2 seconds when one trying to move very fast. I would say 3 seconds sounds life threatening if really that long.
     
  13. Air_Boss

    Air_Boss Senior Member

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    Seriously? 1, 2 or 3 seconds delay? That can't be as-designed, can it?
     
  14. ElectronFlux

    ElectronFlux Junior Member

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    I had a similar incident last week. In my case, I had started the car a minute or two prior so the ICE was warming up. I took it slow (under 20 mph) through my neighborhood and had to turn onto a main road with a 35 mph speed limit. The car acted sluggishly for 1-2 seconds by my guess but then the car accelerated as normal. Temperature was about 25 F, night time, clear roads with little or no incline. I chalked it up to the battery and ICE being cold, pun intended.
     
  15. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    This is normal during the warm-up stages.

    In my case last night, and the OP situation I would imagine, the engine was completely warmed up. But in my case, I was sitting for 10 min and that might have caused it to fall back in the stages?
     
  16. lhsu

    lhsu Junior Member

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    I never see any serious delay prior to and after that incident except the "0.5s delay" as described by you.

    I have to admit that I MIGHT have unintentionally exaggerated the non-responding time. BUT from what I can recall, I guess it was really around 3 seconds.

    Maybe what john1701a said in his post is right. BUT, not responding for 2~3 seconds is really life threatening...
     
  17. lhsu

    lhsu Junior Member

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    Yes, in my case, the engine was fully warmed up. I had driven for about 30 miles at that time.
     
  18. john1701a

    john1701a Prius Guru

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    The speedometer reveals the true situation, not what is felt by foot, back, or bottom. Having 2 sources of power and a transmission without gears provides feedback different from traditional expectations. Watch the numbers.
     
  19. lhsu

    lhsu Junior Member

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    Thanks for your input.
    I'll bear all these in mind in case (touch wood) it happens again.
    But then, I have been driving it for 6 months. I should have used to the different feedback I guess...
     
  20. Sergio-PL

    Sergio-PL Member

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    I have one more idea for what happened to you.
    Above you cleared that it was not a problem with depleted battery, cold battery, eco mode and warm up stage. But I have one more idea, that come from other threads. If you drive quite slow and push gas pedal to the metal (in normal and pwr modes) it will give all available power to the wheels. If there is something slippery under them (sand, ice, mud) electric engine may run out of sync. If it happens car losts all the power, resyncs engine and then revvs up like normal.
    Meanwhile TRC icon should blink. If I do it on snow my car needs about 2-3 seconds to recover. Maybe that happened to you?
     
    lhsu, Chazz8 and bwilson4web like this.