"Jolting" in Prius

My Prius has been jolting when the ICE is on and going from drive to park. It almost seems like the ICE is trying to turn off but does not and it jolts the car as a result.

Is this normal? It also jolts sometimes when the ICE is on and when going from park to drive. The ICE remains on although it almost "jumps" or "jolts." I have not noticed it before, and it only happened intermittently at first, although now it does it most of the time. It does not really have a noise associated although it is mostly a "jump" by the car.

Do you think the dealership could diagnose this problem (if it is one)? When I go to them, they always tell me the car will throw codes if something is wrong. The codes are accurate I am sure when they pop up although do codes always pop up when something is wrong?

 

I also noticed on my last drive that I was having issues accelerating. Almost like the acceleration was hesitating and using a lot of power to accelerate (abnormal amount of power). That and the traction battery fan was running for the whole 10 minute drive. Is it normal for the traction battery fan was running for 10 minutes? Given, it is 115 degrees here.

 

Does the dealership typically clean the traction battery fan? Is it typically done during a certain point? I do not remember seeing anything about that in my maintenance book, although I will have to double check. I am not the first owner, so I have no idea if the first owner would have cleaned the traction battery fan or not.

I definitely put the A/C on Max (Temp: LO, inside circulate air, A/C compressor on, and HI fan setting). It still takes a good 20 minutes to feel comfortably cool in 100+ degree weather.

 

I will have to do that. The jolting generally happens when the ICE is on and changing from drive to park and occasionally from park to drive.

It was weird when the car was having a hard time accelerating. I do realize that the battery meter on the MFD was low, although I would assume the ICE would kick in and not hesitate. I generally drive relatively conservatively (don't accelerate or brake hard), so it was strange that the car was hesitating to accelerate. After a little while, it was ok. It did it on two separate car trips. I do realize it was hot, although I have not had poor acceleration before even in the heat.

The other day I did have other strange symptoms for the car. I had just gotten gas, and I started the car, and when the ICE on, the whole car was shaking. It only stopped when the ICE turned off and electric only kicked in. It did it that one time although that is also an unusual symptom.

I have to figure out how to show this to a dealer. Dealers seem to like the response that the codes always go off when things go wrong, although I definitely do not believe it is true.

 

I agree....it seems to be a completely different issue. The traction battery fan was basically a side note. I am not sure what is causing the jumping/jolting. This has only been happening probably for weeks as far as I know.

 

Do you think there might be any relation between the car jumping when changing into park when the ICE is on and sometimes having trouble accelerating? Or do you think those are two separate issues?

 

Wow, interesting. MG2 is the part of the transaxle that controls the ICE, right?

I just changed my transaxle....it was at 66,100 or so. I asked at the Toyota dealer if the car had ever had a transaxle fluid drain and refill, and she said no, that the Toyota World Class Fluid is good for 100K. I got a second opinion from my mechanic, and he said, it calls for it at 60K in more extreme climates (non extreme being parts of southern CA). I had him change it.

I am not sure as the condition of the old transaxle fluid, although he definitely used Toyota World Class Transaxle fluid to change it. That was important for sure.

The parking pawl motor....do you mean there might be something wrong? I suppose this would make sense because the majority of the issues are in park (other than the intermittent issues accelerating). I was in park today, and for the second time in a week, the car started shaking really badly when the ICE was on and would not stop until the ICE turned off. The other is changing from drive to park (mainly) and a little from park to drive sometimes, when the car jolts/hesitates/bucks.

How would I know if the MG2 was overheating?

I was surprised that neither time when the car started shaking uncontrollably that no lights came on. Not even VSC or any of those.

 

That makes sense. However, I am pretty sure the traction battery fan was not running either time the car started shaking in park. Those instances were really strange and I was shocked no lights came up on the dashboard. Maybe I can ask my car mechanic the state of the transaxle fluid.

A couple of other things I found: The car is rough in idle and in driving at times. It does not matter if the engine is "hot" or "cold." It sometimes has rough start ups and shut downs, although I know that sometimes other Prius owners report that too.

I definitely try to keep the cabin cool when parked somewhere, although it is definitely hard in AZ. I run the A/C on Max trying to keep it cool when the car is on, although even then it still struggles to keep a decent temperature.

 

Also, what is the test exactly? Are you saying to press the brakes in drive and then immediately apply gas? It usually works with the acceleration, although I have noticed on a couple of trips that the car was having a hard time accelerating.

 

I have noticed it some on battery, I believe; although a majority of the time it has been when the ICE is on.

As for bad gas, I am not sure. Ever since I read about that I have been using Chevron, since that is supposed to be good gas. I always use 87 octane as the 2006 manual says. I have thought about having them service the MAF and throttle body as this might be some of the rough idle issues, although I am not really sure. I did have my last service interval at Toyota and they did not recommend any additional services. Although it has been a couple of months, also. More of the roughness and jolting has come about since then.

 

I pulled the oil stick out and checked it. For some reason I did not see an F mark. I saw one dot and then I saw a second dot. The oil level was above that second dot. Where exactly is full on it?

I also happened to notice that I believe my brake fluid level was above the maximum. I was surprised, as Toyota was the last person to have done the maintenance interval. Why would they overfill the levels?

 

I will also have to double check the MAF, throttle, and spark plug too....I am going into my mechanic to check out those things as I am not very knowledgeable on how to check some of the Prius components. However, I tried to look for corrosion on the belts, etc., and I am unsure of that too. I assume Toyota would have checked those in May, however, these issues have arisen since then.

Do independent mechanic shops generally charge less than Toyota? My 65,000 service was between $70 and $75.