Car in neutral while running

You are paying all the bills here?

Everyone is trying to help. Some are more trying than others. If you can't take the heat, it is time to move on. I doubt you can find a kinder gentler way to the truth, but you are welcome to go try.

 

Prius was engineered to start and stop the engine thousands of times a day.
You’re overthinking this

 

I'm a little new to the Prius and this site, but I'd encourage you to keep reading and hang tight- there are a lot of really smart members here and there's a lot to learn about these electromechanical wonders. I'll also mention that the site has an 'ignore this member' function. I have learned that the site is much more enjoyable once you figure out whom to filter out.

Lurching onward... (sorry)

The lurch is hard to quantify. I certainly feel a momentary vibration for about 0.5 seconds when the engine is being started. However, I have never felt the car move or change its current movement when the engine starts. If I was at a standstill in P, an engine start causes no forward or reverse movement whatsoever, whether my foot is on the brake or not. And when I am rolling in D, I can sometimes perceive the "bump" of the engine start, but there is no perceptible change in my forward speed.

 

I look forward to the little "lurch" - to me, it's ChuggyPig saying, "…all is well, I guess I'd better wake up and start doing what I'm paid for!" , which is (IMNSHO) far better than the eerie silence of nothing, no "clicks", "whirrs", "hisses"or "clangs". You pays your money, you takes your choice, I guess!

 

When my son had his 2005 Prius it had a normal lurch when the engine started.
His 2015 Prius v was much better and I think my 2017 Prius is even smoother when starting the engine.

 

You rang?

 

Do it right!

 

Are you always this dense and argumentative.......or are you putting on a show just for US ??

 

If the lurch, which is normal and harmless when only using “P”, worries you, apply the foot operated parking brake (erroneously IMNSHO called the emergency brake in the US).

The mechanical (foot operated) parking brake should be applied at all times the car is stationary and especially if unattended, even though it seems that only using the transmission lock (“P”) is default behaviour in the US.

 

If I'm sitting in Park in my Gen 3, I always know about a half second in advance when the engine's going to start, when I hear the hydraulic brakes self-apply to keep the car from lurching.

It's a nice touch. My Gen 1 didn't do it, so there was always a little lurch. Maybe Gen 2 as well. Never hurt anything.

 

A few thoughts on this-

1. Maybe @DWJM2513 just needs a bit of brake work?
2. I haven't noticed the hydraulic brakes doing this in my c, but then it is new and my hearing isn't.
3. I'm really curious why Toyota would do it that way. In another discussion, I had wondered if engine start wasn't just MG1 acting, but rather a combination of opposite actions by MG1 and MG2. If I have it right that would balance the torque on the power split device so the engine starts with zero impact to vehicle speed.

 

Gen 2 doesn't do that, it lurches

 

That was the idea (I think it's even discussed in The Prius That Shook the World).

Apparently, getting it perfect has been challenging enough that, by the time Gen 3 rolled around, they said "hey, we've got computer-controlled brakes here, right?"

 

I believe the lurch is just physics. I had a neighbor when we live in rural Ohio who had a P-51 Mustang. He said you do NOT want to slam the throttle wide open when you're close to the ground or you may hit the ground with a wingtip. North-south crankshafts do that. Side-to-side ones make a front-to-back reaction. It might bump the parking pawl, but that's what it's there for.

 

BTW. if I am driving east, I have a North-South crankshaft