Gen2 (2006) intermittent poor engine power

large hills can be draining. have you tackled them in the past with no problem? how are your mpg's in regular driving?

 

I KNOW NOTHING -- so this is a WAG. Take it as you will. But we had power issues in our Camry on hills, etc. We cleaned the MAF and it really made a major difference. You might give it a try. It seems like the Prius MAF is pretty easy to get to, compared to some cars.

 

if it cleared, might have been something in the gas. if not, or it comes back, cp.'s^^^ advice is good, and you might pull the plugs and injectors as well.

did the dealer check the codes?

 

You followed the master's tutorial (Hobbit). On our Camry, at 145K the MAF was absolutely filthy. When we cleaned it, it was an immediate and powerful improvement. I suspect you may find the same improvement....let us hope so.

 

What has happened with your car is what happens often with my 2006. The HV battery pack has lost some of it's capacity and when you drive/climb a hill, the hv battery will drain if you push the pedal to the metal. Once the battery drains (1-2 bars remaining), it goes into a low power mode. The ice works harder and your mpg will be in the teens. Once the battery recovers from the low SOC, goes back up to 5 -6 bars, then your car will operate like normal again.

A helpful member (miscrms) here helped me tackle this issue by showing me how to drive the car so that the battery will not drain all the way and prevent my car from going into low power mode. Here is something he's posted before (he has a few of these instructional posts).

- When climbing bring up the "energy" display that shows the arrows going in and out of the battery.
- Find the point on the accelerator where you are maintaining speed on the hill.
- Adjust the accelerator position slightly until the energy display show no arrows into or out of the battery. (Note this can be from either lifting up a little on the accelerator, or from pushing it a little harder. If its floored though, there's only one way to go).

I've actually been really impressed with the hill climbing ability of the Gen 2. The problem IMHO is that it does take some driver participation to avoid depleting the battery. Once you have driven it down to 1-2 bars, its game over. Now you are not only on ICE power only, but are sapping more power off the ICE to bring the battery SOC back up.

By being mindful about what the battery is doing when you are climbing, I've found I can routinely climb long 7-8% grades at 65-75mph without dropping any bars off the battery. This is extra handy, because if you do have to slow down waiting for an opportunity to pass a truck or something, I've found that by maintain a fullish battery the Gen 2 even has plenty of power to get back up to these speeds from 35mph or under on these sorts of grades. This does mean flooring it and using battery and the engine will be at max rpm and sounds like its going to explode, but its really fine As long as you don't over do it and drain the battery you'll still be fine. In fact, I've often found that after one of these acceleration bursts you can find a pedal position that still maintains 65-75mph and puts some charge back into the battery while you continue to climb, just in case you have to pass again.

 

if this is the case, you might consider a grid charger from the priuschat shoppe.

 

You might have experienced slightly worse mpg with the dirty MAF, but that won't explain the battery SOC causing loss of power.

 

I don't know much about any of this. But, when we cleaned the MAF, our Camry was struggling to hit 35 mph on a steep hill. After cleaning, it hit 50 mph with no issue. Of course, the Camry is not a hybrid, so, not sure how that compares, but if that sensor is dirty, it sure can decrease power from the ICE.

And, now, to make your life more complicated....have you considered cleaning the throttle body?

 

i think you're right, but maf contamination appears to come from bad gas, which seems to show up more often in rural parts of the country. something that toyota can't really account for in testing and building a maintenance schedule.

 

Actually, the MAF sensor contamination comes from dirt-laden air getting past the engine air filter and dirt particles accumulating on the sensor. I would say that this problem is caused by leaving the engine air filter in service longer than the filter is effective - or using a substandard filter. It probably doesn't help to drive on dirt roads where the car in front kicks up lots of dust.

 

thanks, thats what i meant to say.

 

Glad things are looking good. I guess I have learned a few things on here in the past seven years!

When I first posted, I could not figure out how to get the cabin filter out of the car!!

Only problem, you are making me think I should go ahead and clean the MAF and the throttle body on my Prius....