2007 Prius gas pedal issues

Hello,

I bought a 2007 Prius this January, and for the most part I'm very happy with the car, but there's one issue that is starting to be a problem for me. Compared to my old car (a 1992 Honda Accord) the gas pedal is not very sensitive and I have to push down HARD if I want the car to go more than 40 MPH.

A little background – I have a disability that makes it very difficult for me to do anything strenuous with my arms. I can push all the buttons in the car as long as I don't push too many in a short space of time. But this also means it hurts me to use my arms to control the mouse on my computer for any length of time. So for the past couple of years, I've been controlling the mouse with my right foot (using a program called Dwell Clicker to do the actual clicking). Until I bought the Prius, this setup worked very well for me and I could spend hours on the computer every day without pain.

But after a few weeks of driving the Prius – in particular, after one long drive in February – I noticed that my right leg was starting to have a lot of pain. Especially on days when I drove the car and used the computer right after coming home. The problem got so bad that I had to completely stop using my foot to control the mouse. Currently, I'm only using my arms to move the mouse, which means I have had to drastically cut down on my computer time.

I've tried moving the car seat closer to the pedals, and that has helped a little. I also make a point of using a series of gentle pushes to get the car up to speed, rather than one big shove. But driving still hurts my leg, and now I'm actually afraid to take the car on any long drives. I have considered the cruise control, but local traffic is very heavy these days so it's not practical for all that stop-and-start driving.

Is there anything else I can do – or a good mechanic could do – to make the gas pedal more responsive? I thought about putting in some STP gas additive, or even some fuel injection cleaner. Would that help at all? I'm also wondering if the recent cold weather has made the problem worse. My MPG has also ticked down a bit since the cold weather started.

If I can't find a way to make this better, I may have to get rid of the car. It's that serious, so I'm very much hoping somebody out there will have some advice or suggestions!

Thank you for reading.

 

My understanding of the B mode is that it should only be used when going down hill, and shouldn't be employed for long periods of time. It's also my understanding that it slows down the car, which is the opposite of what I need. I'm desperately hoping there is some way to make the car go faster more easily, so I don't have to press down so hard on the gas pedal when I want to go fast.

But thank you for reading and trying to help. I really appreciate that.

 

I have looked through the owner's manual, and I have seen nothing anywhere about the different modes you mentioned. So I'm pretty sure that must've been a later model. But that sounds like an awesome feature which probably would have completely solved my problem. Thank you anyway.

 

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I prefer not to floor it, as you say, because that is what hurts my leg the most. I did at first. I suspect you may be right… It just feels like the car doesn't want to go very fast, at least not compared to my old Honda. Maybe that's a function of the low horsepower. I was just hoping there was some way to make the gas pedal a little more sensitive. I think I read somewhere it's called throttle response.

Thank you for the pain recommendations. I didn't want to spend a lot of time going into the details of my disability, but I have a severe case of Repetitive Strain Injury. I injured my arms through years of overuse, and now I have injured my right leg. To be fair, the Prius is only part of the reason my right leg is compromised. In any case, the cure is rest. If I can go a few days without straining my leg, it feels much better. But of course, it strains my leg every time I drive, and the Prius wants to be driven on a regular basis.

 

Thank you for the advice. As I just mentioned above, my condition is not a disease and not necessarily progressive. The key is rest. But my arms are so messed up it will take at least a year of good rest for any hope of recovery.

When I say I pressed down HARD, I do mean farther but it also means I have to push down with a lot of pressure. You are correct that part of the problem is I have short legs. The problem has gotten noticeably better since I moved the seat closer to the pedals. I didn't know that about the seat height in Generation 2s being unusually high – I'll look into ways to compensate for that.

It does sound like a 2010 or later model would be perfect for me. I've also heard that later model Prii have a special kind of cruise control where you can tell the computer how much distance you want between your car in the car in front of you, which means I could use cruise control in regular traffic.

 

To answer your questions – my car has 98,000 miles and change. I have owned it for a little over a month, and in that time I think I've put maybe 300 miles on the car. No, so far no issues with the HV battery. When I got the car, I made a point of learning what to look for with regards to a failing battery, since I still have the original HV battery. My MPG has gone down slightly in the past couple of weeks. I was consistently getting 49-50 MPG on the first tank of gas, and now it is consistently 47-48 MPG. But we've recently had a snap of unusually cold weather, and I have read that can affect the MPG.

I don't understand your question about how fast the bar cycles on the battery display. I usually keep it on the consumption screen, but I'll check the battery SOC at least once each trip. It's usually at six blue bars or better. Once it went down to two purple bars, but that was after a drive in very heavy traffic when it was very hot and I was running the AC.

I hope that helps! Thanks for the reply.

 

I wish I could explain it better myself. All I can tell you is that I have to exert a lot of pressure with my leg to make the car go fast. Probably a big part of the problem is my legs are short, and as I mentioned in another reply, the problem has gotten somewhat better from moving the seat closer to the pedals. Instead of my calf muscles being sore after a drive, now it's my thigh muscles. But it just feels like this car doesn't have a lot of "pep" – at least not compared to other cars I have driven.

I want very much to go on some long road trips eventually, so any car I buy would need to have a long range. Money is an issue, so I'm not enthusiastic to say the least about the prospect of having to buy another car. But if that's what I have to do to be able to drive without pain, I guess that's it.

So I take it there would be no benefit to adding a gas additive like STP or a fuel injection cleaner? The first time I fueled up, I bought a high octane fuel, but more recently I filled the tank with regular 87 octane. Between that and the cold weather, I'm thinking it may have made the engine a little less powerful. Or is that my imagination?

Thank you for the reply.

 

Thanks for the suggestions! At this point, anything is worth a shot.

To answer your question… I'm a fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd. My memory is pretty fuzzy on the names of any of the other famous southern bands from that era, but I'm huge fan of oldies in general.

 

Thank you for the reply, but I'm a little bit confused. What specifically about the driver's seat in the Prius causes these leg problems? That it's too high, too low, or too something else?