Does ECU Upgrade Fix 04/05 Traction Control?

Actually my FJ has been perfect. Even the headlight aim and wheel alignment are proper. Was back to the dealership once for their complimentary oil change, that was it

I only have around 7,000 km on my FJ, but so far love it for driving out to the hobby farm. They started a small logging operation just north of my place, so that 4.5 km long gravel sideroad is really taking a beating. Lot's of deep ruts.

No problem with the FJ, it just soaks up the bumps and keeps going. I did try to take the Prius out once last month, before it snowed, and managed to scrape the bottom a couple of times.

I had new a 1990 4Runner V6, and had around 320,000 km on it when I sold it in 2000 to get that POS GMC Sierra. Except for routine maintenance - especially timing belts - it was also problem free.

I put a TRD limited slip unit in my 4Runner. I'll never use a clutch pack LS ever again, they only transfer a portion of the power to the stationary wheel, and need frequent maintenance to prevent trouble with the clutch pack

If a person really intends on going offroad, get something like an old FJ40 or Jeep, and put in locking rear ends. I put this rear end into my 1984 Ford plow truck at the hobby farm, it is very simple and reliable. But noisy in turns: clickclickclickclick

http://www.powertrax.com/lockright.html

 

FYI, since the new software I've seen some posters posting pictures much larger than 19.5kb ... I believe I've seen some larger than 1mb. I don't know how they did it. Obviously they're more tech saavy than me.

 

I'll probably do that sometime in January. I'm very curious now to determine if this issue is "fixed" with the newer Prius models

My 2004 "B" was $35,000 Cdn. I've noticed the 2008 base models around here are $29,000, and that side and head curtain airbags are now standard. The "Special Edition Premium" are $32,530 (SmartKey, backup camera, "premium" sound, BlueTooth, etc). With Nav is $35,280

I could do without the fancy bits, but wanted the head curtain airbags, so had to cough up. Much like my FJ Cruiser, I had to take a lot of extra crap to get curtain airbags, which for 2008 are standard

Company paid for it, I guess they want to work me to death. Nothing too fancy about it, like any satellite system there is huge latency and jitter issues. Compared to my Shaw Cable connection, it's a fraction of the speed.

However, it *does* beat a scratchy 14.4 kbps dial up modem connection. Folks at the office understood that when I was out at the hobby farm, I couldn't really do any work or check my email. No way a person can move 5-50 MB files over dial-up

 

There's a place I go in the mountains in B.C. (hiking in summer; snowshoeing in a week from now) that has "broadband" satellite internet because neither cable nor DSL is available. At its best it is maybe twice as fast as dial-up. At its worst it is 1/10 the speed of dial-up. Unless it quits altogether. It allows me to get and reply to my email, providing that I'm in no hurry. Some days I just have to wait until the next day. I'm glad they have it. But I sure wouldn't pay for it if there was anything else available. Dial-up is actually more reliable.

 

In the Army I was familiar with the exotically expensive units that were designed to survive a battlefield nuclear environment. They are built like a brick s***house, and about as heavy too

The service I have is provided through Xplornet, apparently it has been around for a couple of years

http://www.xplornet.com/news.php?id=15

Daniel is entirely correct, sometimes it will conk out altogether. SO far I've had to brush snow off the little dish, even a minor amount of snow that would not affect my StarChoice reception, makes the internet dish poop out

 

Not sure this is useful, but I've managed to kick in traction control on my 2008 a few times and it's pretty abrupt. I'm in S FL, temps in the 70's F lately so not an ice situation, but if you turn a corner and stomp it, especially in the rain, then when the wheel slips the traction control puts a pretty abrupt stop to the slip. The sensation is that someone very briefly stomped the brake. But then it continues on just fine. I was surprised by how abrupt traction control was, I can see how in very slippery going this could cause an issue. But I must say on dry pavement it definitely stopped the spinning and kept traction.

 

2005 owner who grew up driving in snow. Never been stuck, even with worn tires, in other cars both front and rear wheel drive. The 2005 Prius traction control is inadequate, possibly dangerous, and I am hoping there has been a upgrade that either allows the owner to disable the system or severely restricts the operation of the system. Is there an answer from Toyota that I haven't seen?

 

Living in Montana, you also get "real" winter weather, and are probably just as cold as Winnipeg too

Tideland Prius got a new ECU when the dealership made a booboo during a reflash and fried the old one. He claims the Trac behavior is much improved

I test drove a 2008 about a year ago, and can honestly state the Trac behavior is much improved. Still nothing like the Trac on my FJ, but it isn't fair to compare a Prius to an FJ

I finally solved most of my winter traction complaints by running very aggressive, modern studded snow tires. From Canadian Tire I got the Goodyear Nordic, which is the same tire as the Ultra Grip 500 sold in the EU

Goodyear Eur-Winter Tire-UltraGrip 500

If you click on "Profile" a Flash movie loads that explains the tire construction and benefits. Studded, this tire works very well on glare ice, and the aggressive tread is great in snow. On dry pavement, noisy

I've heard good things about the General Altimax Arctic studded. A co-worker has them on a minivan and swears by them.

The factory studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta 5 is a very good winter tire too, but pricey

The only way to disable the Trac is to put the car into Inspection Mode. This is dangerous as you run the very real risk of grenading your PSD or CVT

 

Since this thread has been resurrected, could Tideland please look at his service invoice and let us know the part number(s) of the part(s) that was(were) replaced? Thanks!

 

I second that request

 

I bought a used 2005 Prius as well.
a) Is there any way to know if ECU was upgraded ?
b) Is there a way to know if cars built prior to certain date were required in ECU upgrade?

I do not know from service records if this was done. I do not see this in any formal recalls for this car. I see that a steering recall was issued. My car has that recall addressed. I could not see any formal recall for ECU anywhere. Was that a voluntry or a soft recall from Toyota? Was there any letter sent to registered owners back then?

Thanks,

Parag

 

Tideland Prius had his ECU replaced due to the dealer making a booboo and frying the original ECU during a flash update process for another problem

I'm not aware of any dealership procedure to "upgrade" the ECU itself, short of a problem requiring replacement. The flash updates for issues like The Stall (My '04 had that happen) do not have any effect on TC behavior

 

I meant flash (software) upgrade when I said ECU upgrade.

Was that a standard recall based on some build date or was it done strictly as a resolution of the problem? Is there any version information you can find out yourself from some hidden screens?

 

I'm unaware of any flash to change the TC behavior. I had to have my car reflashed due to The Stall. It had no impact whatsoever on TC behavior

 

My 06 has this problem too (of spinning and stopping when trying to climb a snowy hill). I put studded snow tires on in the winter which helps a bit...but I'm wondering.

Would the "Power Mode" on the 2010 Prius help with this? Since the wheels stop spinning to protect the electric motors, I'm thinking power mode might give me that little extra boost to make it up the hill.

 

Along the same lines, I had heard from a PriusChatter in Europe that with his European Gen II, the "EV Mode" solved this problem.