New owner: brakes, locks, and radio

I have asked the dealer about these issues but haven't heard back from them. I really liked my previous car (96 Nissan Altima, 220K, 30 mpg) and am having a hard time adjusting to the Prius.

About a week after I bought it, it started making a loud "scratching" noise the first couple of times I stepped on the brakes after it has been started up in the morning or after it has sat a while. It goes away after I have used the brakes several times. It has now been two months but it has been constantly cold.

I used to lock it and go to get the mail. As I walked by the car to go to the house, the interior light would go on but it didn't beep. I didn't stop or touch the handle but it wouldn't be locked in the morning. I started to leave it unlocked after I got out, would get the mail, and then came back and lock it. It would beep like it had locked. It isn't locked when I go out and start it in the morning. I don't have any trouble locking it at work - I get out, lock it immediately, and walk away. Does walking by it with the fob cause it to unlock? Shouldn't it beep it's usual greeting when it unlocks?

It seems to accelerate sometimes while coming to a final stop. I am not sure if this is because the engine that wasn't on kicks in. Once I feel that the car isn't continuing to slow, I step on the brakes harder.

The stock radio really (I mean really) stinks. Completely muddy mid-tones. It is easy to replace? Since the car doesn't have the typical touch pad radio, I am not sure how a replacement would fit in the dash or if it could be wired into the touch screen.

 

Thanks so much for all of the suggestions.

Noisy brakes - I will take the car into the dealer to have them look at the brakes just to make sure everything is OK. We have had a pretty tough winter with lots of snow and road salt so hopefully it is just a little rust.

Fading brakes - I did tend to ease off the brakes to avoid that final jerk in my other cars. I didn't realize that there were two sets of brakes with different "feels." Thanks so much!

Locking - I will walk away and lock it with the fob rather than at the handle.

Radio - Thanks for the advise about upgrading the radio. Other discussions seem to indicate that the JBL isn't much better. I have hearing loss in the mid-range. This is the only radio I have ever heard which make it impossible for me to understand AM radio talk (especially traffic reports).

I am really hoping that I will eventually get used to the car. I would have loved to have bought an Altima hybred but Nissan doesn't service them in Illinois.

 

I haven't had any problems with the locks since I started locking it with the fob. I was locking it at the handle previously. I am taking the car to the dealer on Saturday and let everyone know what they say about the brake noise. It has also been pulling to the left and has been getting gradually worse over the two months I have had it. I may file a report with the NTSB regarding loss of power during hard acceleration.

 

The problem with the locks is resolved. I used to "test" the locks on my Altima by pulling on the handle. A guy got into my car and stole everything down to the cough drops and barrettes after a passenger left the door open. Who knows - maybe I was sending it mixed signals? Long commutes in bad weather probably hasn't helped with sharpness. Locking it with the fob seems to have cleared this up.

I am not sure why it is pulling to the left. It has been getting steadily worse, I will let you know what the dealer says.

The acceleration issue: I was going about 45-50 mph in a merging lane and began to accelerate hard to get out of the way of a truck. The engine revved real high and then - nothing! It felt like the car had slipped into neutral. I took my eyes off the truck to check the speedometer (figured it would be lit if the car had power) and saw it was holding on 40 mph while the engine was continuing to rev hard. I had to let off the accelerator and jump on the brakes to avoid becoming part of the truck. It accelerated slowly when I brought it back to speed. Since then I have noticed that, if acceleration is started in the low 40 mph's, it takes a lot of time and effort to tick through each mph.

Is there a reason this car doesn't have a tachometer?

 

OK -I took the car into the dealer. I didn't talk to the mechanic - they have the area with the mechanics separate from the service check in area. They are overly concerned about getting high marks on this survey that Toyota sends out. Every exchange is punctuated with "remember to fill out the survey."

So between all of the talk about the survey, I asked about the brakes and the alignment. The service guy (not the mechanic) said "this is normal" (repeat 2x) but did it in a way as to say "this is the end of the conversation." Why is it normal to have brakes that make loud scratchy noises? It just doesn't seem right.

They gave me a loner car (~3.8K miles on the odometer so mine has been broken in longer) and this is the interesting part:

1. The loaner didn't have "scratchy" brakes - it only has the normal whiny noise during regen braking;
2. When I punched the accelerator, after a second the ICE punched in and the car shot forward;
3. It had the JBL system - which is just a little better (like stereo to mono) than the standard radio - not worth the extra cash if anyone is looking to upgrade their sound system since I consider it almost as stinky as my std radio.

So - the dealer says for $72 they will do the 5K maintenance (check brakes, oil change, rotate tires). I put this many miles on a car in two months and am not going to pay for this every time, but I figured have them check it this once. Apparently the brakes are "OK." Made lots of loud scratchy noises while I was leaving their parking lot. I am going to try braking in neutral to see if this helps (suggested somewhere in this forum) but it is hard to believe the car got rusty brakes (roters?pads?drums?shoes?calipers?) a week after I bought it. The cars name is Tomato because I was not in love with it's looks when I first saw it. I was thinking about putting a stem on the top but that would increase drag. I think it is going to be renamed "itchy tomato" as in "dustyhuskie, please brake and scratch the itchy tomato."

Since the acceleration problem wasn't duplicated in the loaner, I am going to start documenting exactly when it is happening. Service guy suggested it might be a faulty computer but "there are so many of them on that car it is hard to know which one." I had them download the codes from the computer but there was no indication of a malfunction. So far it is isolated to hard acceleration when the car is already going ~40 mph.

The alignment was off. It started a couple of degrees off and worked its' way up to about 25-35 degrees in the two months. Service guy says that the alignment at the factory can be knocked out during the shipping process. I would have thought this should have shown up immediately - not as an increasing problem. There is a hole that was punched through the front bumper cover they said was for the tow line while it was on the freightor. Tried to say its "a benefit if I want to ship it overseas." It's on the driver side which is the side the car pulled to. Anyone have any insight as to how this could have impacted the suspension?

I got my first door dinge today. Obnoxious SUV which didn't even bother to move after they did it. Does anyone know where to get exterior paint?

 

Re: New owner: brakes, locks, and radio, acceleration and alignment

I found a link post by mkaresh directing chatters to TrueDelta.com which then links to this review of the Prius:

Still weird, but now the stylists are mostly to blame - 2004 Toyota Prius - Epinions.com

Excellent article but interesting part is about acceleration:

"Under heavy acceleration, the computer directs the engine and motor to both give all they have to turning the wheels. This is more than the past but still not a whole lot. ... This makes it much quicker than the Civic Hybrid as well. Or so Toyota claims. The new Prius felt slower to me. This might be because wind noise is very low even at highway speeds, and thus provides no indication of acceleration. The numbers on the speedometer jumped faster than my internal sensor suggested they should be. I once accelerated from 65 to 72 without realizing it....Whether or not the new Prius is as quick as Toyota claims, it is not very satisfying to drive aggressively. Put the pedal down and the CVT sends the engine to the neighborhood of 5000 RPM and holds it there. At higher RPM the engine is noisy and this noise is of the weak-engine-working-its-butt-off variety. ... Another common CVT issue: since engine RPM remain constant while vehicle speed is increasing, the sensation is much like that of a slipping clutch...If I owned the Prius, I’d only use a heavy foot when absolutely necessary. Which is precisely how this car is intended to be driven for maximum economy anyway."

Since I never owned a manual (I think I may have been in one once or twice) I have no clue what a slipping clutch feels like so I had to look it up:

. . . and discovered a whole subculture of people filming their tachometers and speedometers (?). If this video is a slipping clutch, it seems to show slow acceleration at very high RPMs. If this is a common enough experience that it appeared in a through car review, it may be a software issue or the car topping out at 5000 RPM with no accompanying surge in power to boost the mph.

I don't understand much about cars. Could anyone tell me if this is plausible?

 

This is exactly what it is doing - revving high and no corresponding boost in acceleration. It was so shocking I thought the car had died and I was going to follow it when the truck smacked into me.

I haven't gotten involved in this internet chat stuff before and know that I am going off the original title of the topic. Is this OK?

BAP: My Altima (back in the shop again for the never ending timing chain drama) was keyed a couple of months after I got it so I think that I burned out every anger center in my brain after that discovery. I am just glad that itchy got a few months blemish-free . Since you are in California at least I know that cold weather isn't to blame for the scratchy brakes. I didn't think about it before but the test drive Prius didn't make that noise.

 

Sorry - I feel like I am talking to myself but here goes: Is there any way that the bad alignment caused the TC to alter the acceleration?