Reacquainted with an old friend

Gary

Nice one with buying back an old flame lol.

I'll pass on a bit if my experience which may help.

Have you disconnected the 12v battery and then reconnect which will get the car to learn your driving habits?

Sounds like you need to get the wheels off all round and take a good look with a torch and pry bar. Or why not put it in for a "pre" mot where the garage can do all this for you and won't fail it but advise you to complete what they find?

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Well...friends change in 17 years.
You've got a 17 year old Prius and probably need to look at, and deal with all those things you are mentioning.

Rebuilding old relationships can be challenging.

 

It may need new struts in the front suspension.

 

Quote:

Thoughts / issues or not as my memory of the car's behaviour is obviously 10 years old:

1) when starting from cold the engine comes on immediately at the turn of the key - I thought there was a brief delay (my 6 month old hybrid Yaris and my previous gen 2 did that, can't recall if the gen 1 does)? That's the way mine starts.

2) I'm not sure the brake regeneration is working, mainly because the pedal isn't overly firm, just like a normal car infact and very unlike the Yaris (and the gen 2). I've yet to take it out, deplete the hybrid battery a little and then find a long steep hill to drive it down to see if I can see display screen to show the battery restoring as I brake. Also when first manoeuvring the Prius after start up, I don't get that graunchy / grindy sound as you creep around? I know it did that before - but the graunches are no longer there? Maybe the discs / pads need replacing or fluid or?? Graunchy? If regen isn't working, it will set a code. It needs an Italian tune up, take it out and drive it like you stole it.

3) When first driving the Prius I have to climb a short rise out of where I live, only 300-400 meters. I know from the Yaris (and the 2nd gen prius I've owned) that the hybrid battery is put to use to push the car up the rise along with a bit of oomph from the petrol engine because the ECU knows the petrol engine is cold so doesn't want to strain it. However, in the gen 1, I get a sort of surging sensation, the engine revs rise and then fall again even to aid the battery; I'm on a light throttle and only traveling at 15-20mph. Once the Prius ECU moves into the second stage of warm up that surging goes and the transition between petrol and electric via the HSD is smooth. The hybrid systems help the car when it needs a bit of extra boost. I don't know that engine temp has anything to do with this--you maybe should clean the MAF sensor and the throttle body, give it a tuneup, & update all the oils and coolants.

4) I've noticed a few clonks from the front drivers side suspension - I'm guessing that's worn / tired bushes or ....? Check your tire pressures, retorque the lug nuts, get the driver's side off the ground and visually inspect. You may need new bushings.

And finally....I'm sure this has been covered elsewhere but any suggestions for disconnecting the CD player and adding one of those connectors that allows me to play my iPhone through the original audio?? I'm using the tape to AUX cable at the moment which is fine, but would be nice to have a proper link.

Many thanks in advance, Gary. Close quote

 

There is no pump for the steering; the assist comes from an electric motor.

Gen 1 had a known issue with the steering torque sensor; it could show up at first in the steering wheel quivering or shaking, and eventually the steering computer giving up on the unreliable torque signal and abandoning assist entirely. (Or, in some cases, an owner would get tired of the shaking and disconnect the computer, with the same effect.)

If there is no assist at all, you would probably not describe it as "a fair bit heavier" (unless "a fair bit heavier" is your way of describing a car you can barely park without really putting your shoulder to the wheel). If it's not that bad, and it isn't shaking, it is probably working, and maybe you remember it having a lighter feel than it did.

If it has not yet begun to suffer from torque sensor wear, that is probably something you can look forward to.

The cold-engine "surging" when climbing a hill is probably a sign of the engine not running well when cold. It happened to mine at one point. Start ... rev ... stall ... restart ... rev ... stall ... all masked to an extent by the way the battery keeps the car moving even as the engine stalls and is restarted. Once warm, the stalling goes away.

The usual suspects are the usual suspects ... you can check the fuel injectors and the spark plugs (and their ignitors). While the plugs are out, check the compression (or, more or less equivalently, use a leakdown tester, which requires that you have an air compressor, but does not require using Techstream to make the engine crank, as a conventional compression test would). At 110k, I would not expect compression problems ... mine went more than twice that long before starting to show uneven readings.

(On the other hand, I have a Gen 3 now that is at comparable mileage and already had slightly uneven compression readings when I last checked, which I haven't further explored yet.)

One caution about disconnecting the 12 V battery at a time when you are having some engine stalling issues: you may want to conduct your checkout of the fuel and ignition system first. The ECM may have learned a drastically changed fuel trim to make the engine run in its current condition, and if you disconnect the battery and it forgets, you may then have difficulty getting the engine to start at all. Every engine start attempt is a drain on the HV battery and not replenished until the engine successfully starts and runs, so you have a strict budget on the number of attempts you can make on a no-start engine before there are no attempts left for you to make.

-Chap

 

One simple thing you can check on the engine surging: make sure the clamp on the bottom of the air cleaner housing is well tightened down on the throttle body. The only time the ICE on mine stalled while I was driving it, this was the problem. I don't remember if I forgot to tighten it or the shop did, but no matter - this joint is after the air flow sensor, so if it's loose, the engine can suck in "extra" air that the engine computer doesn't know about, which makes it run badly or not at all. I'm pretty sure it's a 10 mm bolt.

On the "graunchy" sound from the brakes - you might be hearing (or not hearing) the effects of rust on the brake discs and drums. If I drive mine, park it, and then drive it again later that day, I don't get that sound. If I park it for several days in dry weather, or just a day or two when it's raining out, I'll get a little bit of noise from the brakes the first couple of times I stop.

I also had trouble early on with the front brake pads apparently not applying all the way on part of the disc. Some of the disc was clean and shiny, but some of it was rusty (and thicker than the shiny part), with a corresponding contour in the brake pad. I had the discs turned at the shop, got new Toyota brake pads, and really worked over the grooves in the caliper body where the "ears" of the brake pads run, to make sure they were smooth. Put it all back together and no trouble since then. I mention this because if yours was doing this when new, it has almost certainly had at least a front brake job since then, which may have changed the sound of the brakes.

 

Don't forget that even a stalled Prius engine is still being spun at somewhere around 1200 rpm as the car uses MG1 to try to restart it.

Short of stalling, even old, pre-Prius engines not running well when cold can show a 'surging' behavior where you can kick it to save it from dying, and then back off, only to have it bog down again, so you kick it again. Many of us have driven old cars that could do that, and a Prius can too (only it's doing the throttle kicking on its own). I think that's more likely than the HV ECU being undecided about the power level it wants.

-Chap

 

I've never seen my battery symbol fill over the pos neg symbols so I didn't think it did! So now that it's looking like mine at the 'usual level' I would suggest the car has learnt your driving habits. I do a lot of motorway so I use the D and hardly use B. I've noticed that it doesn't quite know what to do around town for at least 5 mins when I change to B mode.

Another thought is to now watch the mpg screen over at least 100 miles and see what your getting. That'll prove to you that your confident that it's all good.

Did you try plugging in Techstream and see if there are historic codes?

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Techstream is an absolute must for you. It's the cheapest diagnosis tool I've ever bought and has shown me the Toyota specific codes and the battery health. If you haven't done already, get on fleabay and I'll bet that once you've seen how cheap it is, you'll have bought it by the end of the day!

It will be good to hear what Toyota will report back once they give it a once over. Personally I would be giving it into a trusted local garage which would be cheaper and they have much more experience. Maybe not with the hybrid part but hey the rest of the car is just a car. And you can use Techstream to confirm how good the hybrid system and battery are.

I use a Bluetooth transmitter which works for me. Easiest option without disturbing that delicate dashboard.

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[Upgraded Version] FM Transmitter, VicTsing Bluetooth Car MP3 Player Radio Adapter Hands-free Talking Car Kit with Dual USB Port and 3.5mm Audio Port, 1.44 Inches Screen Supports Display Car Battery Voltage and Phone Number, Support TF Card and U Disk Memory up to 32G - Grey

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Yes you need windows and specifically XP and a USB port. Find an old laptop and put barebones XP on it. No network or firewalls or antivirus. Best diagnostics laptop you'll ever have.

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Easy. Choose a frequency on the transmitter say 100Mhz and tune the radio to the same. Now Bluetooth your phone etc to the transmitter device. Now play whatever genre of music your into. Hey presto you've just Bluetooth FM transmitted your music to the car!

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