Decelerates downhill

Today I noticed that my 2005 Prius doesn't get rolling down the steeper hills.

I take my soon to school everyday and I know which hills my Prius loves to roll down. My route is uphill in which the battery drops to 2 bars. The SOC doesn't increase until about mile 6.

I noticed my SOC was going back and forth between 3 and 4 bars uphill. It's never done that before. On the way back down the hills, the car actually decelerated. It's never done that before either. I usually lightly ride the brake to get additional regeneration. The parking brake *seems* to be fine.

On the hills where it's not steep enough (downhill) I use the cruise control. Today it no longer works. Coincidence? Symptom or sign of something bigger?

My tires are nitrogen Nokian WGR2. They're fine. We just got back from a 2,200 mile trip through the desert SW. No issues of any kinds during the trip. My wife did report that she heard clicking noises yesterday when starting up the car, and that the noises went away when she put it into reverse.

We did going through 800 miles of strong wind with tons of blowing dust and sand. I have fine sand in the engine compartment. I did the battery check and I show 14v. What else should I do? WHat else can I check?

 

SOLVED Re: Decelerates downhill

You're very smart. I probably accidentally knocked it into B when messing with the wiper controls.

To confirm I went up and down one of my hills and sure enough, it was B that was causing the problem.

False alarm then. I like having a car that is smarter than me (boy do I look dumb at times, eh?) and I like that this forum has smart contributors.

 

Yep, now I know. I'll try that on Vail Pass for sure. It's a got a few sustained steep sections.

UPDATE:
The B is perfect for snow-covered roads, for braking naturally. I don't ever slow down in the snow so I just drive as usual and then when I need to brake I just tap it into B and don't stress about it - except I do stress about others poor driving habits.