I recently purchased a 2010 Prius with 35k on it. It's having trouble going up hills and accelerating in highway. I replaced the spark plugs and it helped some but it's still not accelerating the way it should. The dealership is trying to say it's Prius lag. I had a gen II Prius and it had much more pick up than this. I've been told the engine in the gen 3 is larger so is the dealership denying a more serious problem or does the gen 3 acceleration have to be built up?
A Gen3 should be peppier than a Gen2. If it seems slow, make sure ECO mode is turned off. Or even try PWR mode. (Gen2 didn't have these settings, but was always in the equivalent of Gen3's Normal mode.) If these gas pedal mode adjustments fix the issue, then the apparent slowness is just a touch-and-feel issue between you and the gas pedal, so pick the mode that feels best to you. If these don't fix it, then you do have some real issue with the car.
Thank you. That's what I thought. I put almost 400k on my Gen 2 in 4 years. Right now it has more pick up than my Gen 3. I have to put the gas pedal almost to the floor to get up a hill or to accelerate to over 70 mpg, even in power mode. I did diagnostic on 12v and it is at an 11 but I don't think that is low enough to be causing this lag.
When the battery drops to 3 bars and the motor kicks in to charge, you will feel a lag. 35K miles on a 2010 is not very many miles. The battery pack may be on its way out due to the low miles. The car should be driven to help with the longevity of the battery pack. Older low mile cars is not best when it comes to hybrids.
How's the hybrid battery state of charge? Does it hold fairly steady, usually above halfway mark? Any up or downwards movement is steady, no sudden jumps? Or? You could check it out with Dr Prius and a blue tooth OBD adapter.
Hard to imagine with a problem as stated, that there are no warning lights on the dash. Personally it sounds like a clogged or failed catalyst to me.
What diagnosis? head unit, jump points, direct to 12v, autostore, dealer? You know if it is the original? 9+ years old?
Yeah, if you checked the volts with the car off and it's reading 11.0 or thereabouts, and it's 9 years old, even if it's not the issue, it is an issue: way overdue for a change. From 4~5 years old you should check it periodically. There's prosumer level electronic load testers available (Solar BA9 is one example, around $60 USD) for DIY, or have dealership or battery retailer test it. The latter will will usually do it for free. These testers will check the voltage, apply a load (tailored to the battery type and spec'd CCA), show the as-measured CCA and give a verdict. With the Solar it's either a pass, pass-but-recharge-needed, or fail. And in a pinch, a check (first thing in the morning, hood popped the night before, at the jump point) with a digital volt meter, should show 12.4~12.6 as a minimum.
The first thing to do is, take it to a different dealer. What the hell is Prius Lag? You know how your older Prius performed, so you know what to expect from the Gen lll. The dealer is simply insulting your intelligence as an excuse not to properly diagnose your problem.
I’m not talking in the literal sense of the word, “lag”. It seems to me that the dealer conveniently coined this phrase, “Prius Lag”, to throw the customer off of something that is an actual, legitimate problem. He needs to go to a dealer that will not treat him like he’s a fool. Just saying...
Sometimes it can be a defect from manufacturing, bad gas, road debris flying up and hitting the catalyst breaking the 'honeycomb', etc. I purchased a brand new Saturn VUE in 2003, and not long thereafter, I dont remember the actual mileage (it was within the bumper to bumper factory warranty), but the catylytic converter grenaded and the car wouldnt do anything but idle and accelerate realllll slowwwwwww. lol. The only thing I could come up with was it was a super snowy winter and I got stuck in deep snow a few times, up to the subframe. I could only imagine the weight of the vehicle on the exhaust, being held up and packed with ice and snow, had something to do with the accelerated failure. The dealer installed a new catalyst, and the VUE now has 179,000 miles and it is still working fine (Yes, I still have the VUE).
The best way to check the converter is with an exhaust pressure test. The dealer should have tested it when the OP had it there. Dealers*^%#><*
The running number is the inverter/charger output, so doesn't tell us anything about the battery condition. For the battery, use the figure for car off and resting a number of hours, preferably overnight. Not merely just shut off in the past few minutes. 11.7 is too low.
