A Sick 2001 Prius

I found this post by googling "2001 toyota prius revving" The scenario described is exactly what I am experiencing. Car began revving, no power to wheels, max speed only 30-40mph. Emergency brake light on. I want to ask Gippah if the replacement battery is still making the car work ok. I am in Canada and fewer prius's here. My dealer says there has never been a battery replaced in a prius in this country. I have no trust in the dealer. All you have to do is querry prius revving a you can find out more than my local service manager knows. So Gippah has this been a lasting repair for your prius?

 

i agree with bob

 

I have just gone through a battery replacement for a 2001 Prius. (190,000+ miles). The symptoms of a failing battery have been described. The drive acts as if in neutral, the engine revs some and the car moves at a speed consistent with the revs, about 12 to 15 mph. The display shows a red triangle with a white exclamation mark, a grey square with "PS" in it and a car symbol with an X on it. The instrument panel will also show "Check Engine". The car will not respond to the accelerator. If the headlights are on, they get really bright. Shutting the car off and restarting it may restore normal operation for a period of time (45 minutes to one hour) but the warning display will remain. The duration of normal operation will get progressively shorter.

My mechanic did all of the diagnostic and repair. A new battery from a Toyota dealer cost him $1595. The battery has a one year warranty. It took almost a month to get the new battery. Panasonic makes them and I think had to manufacture one. Their production line is building generation three batteries.

We considered a used battery, but there are no salvage yards in Kentucy with Prius batteries. Yards that have them require cash purchase and will not ship (hazardous material), or provide any information about the age or mileage of the battery.

Toyota has a used battery recycling program. I had to call Toyota North American HQ twice to get that information sent to the dealer. The dealer has picked up the old battery and is supposed to reimburse me $150 for the old battery. I have not received any money yet.

 

I am interested in your experience. Did you have the emergency "BRAKE" light on as well. Where did you get the battery because, I have been quoted 2950 Canadian dollars for a battery. At current money exchange rates that would be about 2300 US dollars. Just wondering what dealer you used and did you mechanic have any trouble replacing the battery?

 

Hello Gentlemen (and Ladies if any..).
It was very interesting to follow your discussion. I have very similar problem. I bought Prius 2002 that didn't start from car auction (it turned out to be a big mistake now). Dealer told me to replace the HV battery. I bought a salvage battery for $400, replaced it and vehicle started. But now I have whole bunch of other different problems. Fisrt of all, I keep getting p3006 code. When Check Engine light and Exclamation mark come on, if continuing driving, after a several miles of driving Brake Light comes on and vehicle slows down. Plus, fan in a trunk works all the time, and the faster you go the more loudly it works (higher revs). I never had Priuses before and have no idea how it supposed to work. I replaced battery together with battery ECU. I am thinking now to replace battery ECU with original one. I have read in repair manual that after replacement of battery assembly (battery + ECU), ECU needs to be initialized by performing an active test, but I have no idea how to do that. Does someone know what Active Test is? I would appreciate any comments and recommendations. Thx

 

Hi Alexey, new poster. Hope we can get others discussing this because I don't have all the answers, for sure.

First you probably know that P3006 reports uneven SOC. This could be 'real' or it could result from corrossion affecting the module voltage sensing wires. At a minimum we should consider opening the HV battery case for a good look. If the cells are actually uneven there are options to improve that, but it is quite involved and there are skills and safety issues.

The HV battery ventilation fan would only blow big if the temperature sensors inside tell it to. I'd like to hope that this could also result from sensor corrosion spoofing high temperatures, but I am not confident. Therefore it seems likely that at least one place inside your HV assembly is getting hotter than it should.

I suppose that active test refers to comparing module voltages during charge and discharge cycles, and this can only be 'commanded' by the Toyota Handheld Tester, a multi-thousand$ device that most or all Toyota shops will have. But we do not, unfortunately.

Could you start by throwing yourself on the mercy of your local Toyota shop and see how much they can help with this? In particular the Active Test.

I'm actually thinking along the lines of a second used HV and module mix-n-match but not ready to suggest that yet and I don't know if you are willing or able to work inside the HV. The dangers inside should not be taken lightly.

In another direction, we should make sure that the 'other' (12 volt) battery is healthy and well connected, and if not to consider replacing that early in this process. Prius do funny things when their 12v is not right. And funny is an understatement.

Good luck - maybe we should have a separate thread for this vehicle?

 

My 2001 Prius just began this surging at about 30-40 mph, too.
When I put it in cruise at that speed at that exact moment, it seems to stop doing it, though.

It's as if it gets confused on what you are asking it to do with just the fuel pedal.

 

Sounds like 'big hand syndrome'. The Classic Prius uses a pair of potentiometers to measure the position of the accelerator pedal. They can accumulate a certain amount of crud and the resistance changes from what the car's expecting. If it were the volume control on your amplifier, you'd likely hear a dead spot or crackling.

A suggestion is, with the car parked and off, to press the accelerator full-range 30 or so times. That may clean the contacts up a bit and sort the resistances out. Otherwise it's necessary to replace the accelerator assembly, or, if you're feeling brave, take it apart to clean the resistive track (see here for details).

The 2004 and later cars (hatchback) use magnetic field (Hall-effect) sensors to detect the accelerator position, and don't suffer from this problem.

 

You have several options with a bad accelerator:

• New accelerator - $495 last time I checked
• Salvage accelerator - if you can find one, price negotiable
• Rebuilt Accelerator - I picked up Doug's business
• Rebuild your own - the car is down while being rebuilt

What I do is rebuild an accelerator (I have several,) and send the customer the accelerator that has been in my car. The current one has roughly 8,000 miles and was rebuilt using this jig:

This allows me to test each rebuilt accelerator before installing in my car.

This approach lets me plot the resistance versus displacement:

It provides quantitative numbers to make sure the rebuilt accelerator will work in my car. My customers get an accelerator that has been in my car for months and thousands of miles.

Of course the best answer is the $500, new Toyota accelerator. A junk yard accelerator will have an unknown reliability. I'll swap any of my rebuilt accelerators with another rebuilt one within the first year. It is not that difficult a job if you decide to do it yourself.

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

 

Editorial:
New for $500 is not the best accel. One that has been opened and cleaned is better because as far as we know, once they are cleaned they don't get scratchy again. I think this is a manufacturing probelm, not design. What we really have not worked out is whether some type of potentiometer lube (e.g. from Caig) is helpful in the long term.

 

I just had the same symptoms last week - warning lights, brake light on, and engine revving. Engine revving didn't really seem to affect driving at lower speeds in any way, so I was able to limp home.

Dealer called yesterday, quoted me about $3,000 to replace the hybrid battery. The 8 year hybrid warranty expired in February :-(

Does anyone else have experiences on how long its taken to receive the battery? I'm wondering how long this car might be out of commission.

 

Hi abeagler, it sounds like you have already committed to the full retail route on this so I'll not describe the alternatives (again).

Sometimes new replacement batteries are 'on hand' other times have taken more than a month from Toyota. Only their parts people can tell you what the wait would be right now.

 

Hi Tocahichu,
I actually haven't committed to anything formally yet. However, at this point I have lost confidence in the car, so I'm not quite sure yet what I'm going to do.
Colin

 

Update - because the warranty just expired a few months ago, the dealer is getting Toyota to provide a new battery at no cost, I just need to pay the labor to install it. I've caught a big break here.

 

Good good good - How much will the installation cost? These are normally offered with 12-month warranty so please confirm you are getting that in writing.

 

The installation is estimated at about $550. Thanks for the heads-up on the warranty, I'll make sure i confirm that. Still no word on how long the battery is going to take, though. The service tech said he'd never had to order one before. I'll give them a call next week.

 

When it's all finished please compose a graceful thank-you letter and send copies to the various levels of Toyota from the local shop to the top. It's karma-time.

 

I actually already have those letters composed The service tech has gone above and beyond, and I'll be sending one to the owner of the dealership too.

 

That's the spirit. I just had an exchange on another Prius group concerning owners whining to Toyota in these cases. But I will still suggest the 800-number route, and all the rest of it. If Toyota doesn't like it, then they should stop paying my way to vehicle reveals

(Hi Toyota - Love you guys :biggrin1

 

MY 2001 Prius has the same symptoms. When it revs up I can still drive it but it acts like the hybrid system has been disconnected. Usually I can stop, shut the car off and start up again and the car is back to normal. Lately though the "Ready" light won't come on until the car has set for a long time.