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Intermittent high rev condition. First gear feeling. (fixes by resetting car)

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by ceccorp, Sep 17, 2022.

  1. ceccorp

    ceccorp Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2020
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    Location:
    World
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Model:
    II
    The vehicle is a 2008 Prius with 350k+ miles.

    While driving the vehicle will "lose gear". The car has a voltage surge (lights/ fans dim for milisec). As that happens the engine revs up and slows down. (like a sudden downshift to first gear).

    It continues to "stay in lowest gear" until I shut down the vehicle and restart it.

    The car has lots of problems, but this is the most urgent.

    It consumes lots of oil has a bad HV battery ect..

    The current fault codes from Techstream are:

    Hybrid Control
    P0A08
    P3000
    Engine
    P0037
    P0138
    HV Battery
    P0A80
    P3012
    P3013
    ABS/VSC/TRAC
    C1259
    C1300
    C1310
    A/C
    B1421
    Gateway
    B1271

    Please let me know if you have any idea what is this high rev problem.

    Thanks!
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    May 11, 2005
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    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    try monitoring the 12v. maybe there's a wiring or inverter issue
     
  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
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    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    The car is detecting the problems with the traction battery (the P0A80 code from the battery ECU, reflecting the finer detail codes P3012 and P3013 that indicate which blocks of the battery have become weak; and the P3000 code in the hybrid control ECU, simply echoing that it got the P0A80 news from the battery ECU).

    As soon as it realizes the battery is on its way out, it greatly reduces the power demanded from the battery, and revs up the engine to make up the difference. That's the high rev/first gear feeling you notice.

    After being "reset", it may go back to thrashing the dying battery for a while, until it re-detects the problem.

    The engine has some oxygen sensor or wiring issues, but those can be taken care of later.

    There may be an issue involving the DC/DC converter (P0A08) but I might be inclined to get the failing battery situation dealt with first, and then see if that converter code returns.
     
  4. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2020
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    Location:
    Durham NC
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Model:
    Base
    Bike stated above with the traction control battery seeing problems or the ECU seeing problems You're going to have to address that traction control battery My car would rather than to the Oblivion too as its battery was starting to fail I could floor the gas pedal and I could hear the revs go up in the car not move much just like a bad clutch in the old days was kind of funny as soon as that traction control battery was dealt with now I can't really make that revving thing happen anymore because the traction control battery is got the power to keep MG whichever one locked up or close to it that's the way I see it.