Advance ignition timing issue on 2nd Gen.

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Please retrieve the codes (DTCs) by using a toyota hybrid compatible OBD2 scanner, then post the results here for further advice.

How many miles on the vehicle?

FYI : your posts are being moderated until you've post five (5) times.

 

The only "mechanical unit" involved with the ignition timing would have to be the crankshaft position sensor or the camshaft position sensor, and there's very little "mechanical" about them. They are electrical coils that never move and never touch the crankshaft or camshaft, and magnetically sense the fixed teeth on the shafts going around.

Pretty much nothing to mechanically "become faulty". Every now and then somebody does have a rodent chew their sensor wiring, the connection gets bad, etc.

 

It's normal to lose engine power gradually while climbing up a hill after the battery depletes. You can improve engine performance with new spark plugs, air filter, throttle body and MAF sensor cleaning, then 12v reset.

You can improve hybrid battery performance / restore capacity via three rounds of charging and discharging with a grid charging system like Maxx Volts hybrid automotive or Prolong. Or you can replace pack with brand new.

Specific to warning lights and error code, easiest way to get that information is with Dr. Prius app and an OBD2 reader to connect the phone to the car. Here's buyer's guide for that device: Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus

 

There is no "solenoid" involved.
Please see post #4 above.
With 165K miles and a failing HV battery, what you describe is to be expected and the only real "fix" is a new engine AND a new battery.

Your proposed trade is a good plan.
Trying to fix the current problem on the cheap is NOT.

It is not a "timing" problem.
The engine is starting to wear out and is losing power as a result.

 

Huh. Was this mechanic, by any chance, a mathematician or physicist in a past career, and now doing auto mechanics for fun?

I ask because, to most people, a 'solenoid' only means a kind of actuator, a tube-shaped wound electromagnet that pulls on something when energized. There isn't anything like that involved in the Prius ignition timing.

But a mathematician can use solenoid in the original Greek sense of something tube-shaped, and a physicist can use it to mean any wire wound into a coil with length ≫ diameter. It may well be true that the crank and cam position sensors are solenoids in that sense, having wire wound into that shape.

It's just funny the mechanic would say that because really, outside of a math or physics lecture, nobody much knows that meaning or uses the word that way. In more 'normal' usage it's always an electromagnetic actuator used to mechanically pull something, and the crank and cam sensors are definitely not that.

Is your mechanic's name Magliozzi, by any chance?

 

The guy in this thread: No power on hills, MPG down, SOC low, PROBLEM FIXED described something similar.

What are the chances you have the DTC P0011?

YMMV.