Shuttering at partial throttle

Hello everyone!

So my 2006 Toyota Prius has 286k miles and I drive it every day.

Ever since I purchased new tires, i've noticed that the car shutters in situations with light throttle, especially when it is running from just the battery.

Is this normal? Perhaps it was coincidental?

Maybe shudder isn't the right term, but I can feel it in the gas pedal whenever it does exhibit the symptoms and it's been slowly been bothering me.

Any ideas?

 

You really think? It has only shown these symptoms since I bought the new tires.

 

The traction light does not come on.

I was going to go for the Bridgestone Ecotopia's, but I ended up going with a standard Uniroyal tire.

When the car is coasting and charging the traction battery, it shows no signs of shuttering.

 

That sounds like a great plan, JC91006!

Thank you guys for the quick responses, I wasn't expecting immediate advice!

Glad to be a part of the forum

I've driven this car 50k miles in the past five months and plan to keep it for a long, long time!

 

I had another question, as well! It may pertain to this issue.

On occasion, with hard acceleration, I can hear a rattle coming from the engine bay that comes and goes with no consistency. I'll have to snag a video of it making the sound sometime. I thought it was the timing chain knocking, so I replaced that.

It almost sounds like spark knock, but I eliminated that by doing plugs and checking the coils, etc.

 

That did not solve the noise. The sound is also intermittent, which makes it difficult to diagnose. I've been driving on, not worrying about it too much. Like you said, if something serious is happening, it will tell me via a CEL.

The timing chain kit came out to about $100 after tax, me and a friend of mine knocked it out in eight hours. It did not solve the noise issue, but I wanted to do it regardless as preventive maintenance.

I am willing to put the money into it because it is a big asset to my company, and I have access to a two post lift, ALLDATA, and friendly help.

Six months ago, I purchased it @ 245k with a bad traction battery for $675. I had a company install a traction battery from a wrecked 2009 Prius for $900. Unfortunately, it would not come with a warranty if they sold me just the battery.

If I paid more than $675 for it, I would probably give up on it if problems arise, but with parts being relatively inexpensive, I don't mind putting money into it.

 

For a while, it would occasionally throw a P0014, but has since cleared itself up and hasn't come back on for at least 20k miles.

Is it possible that the knock sensor is bad but not throwing a CEL?

 

And I made a typo on a post above.

I actually meant to say

 

I checked for codes, and it was clear. No pending codes, either.

For the first time checking, I used my basic Bosch scanner. Then I tried my friends Snap-On shop scanner and I had the same results, no codes and no pending codes.

 

They pop up every now and then, but I usually see them selling for $2500 to $3000 with a failed traction battery.

I almost bought an 07 with 163k miles, but I didn't have $2500 at the time and the lady wouldn't accept $2000.

 

That is my new plan. I'd like to have a Prius with a better body. I have a few photos of mine on my profile, and it has a lot of dings and dents.

I could then use my current Prius as a parts car once I get another one and swap the bits I need.