Engine running overtime, clicking every 2 seconds or so

If you're really curious, you can buy a Prius-aware OBD-II scanner (like a scangauge II and be sure to read the sticky about it) and then be able to get some info about what the car is or isn't doing. There are a lot of things under the hood that can click.

If you're not really curious, just enjoy driving your car. We all tend to obsess over our batteries (because that's the one thing everybody's heard about in a Prius that's different from other cars), and while obsessing we find that mostly the normal car stuff does the wearing out, like wheel bearings etc. Not that the batteries never poop out, and it will when it will, but it took 12 years for Consumer's Union even to get enough data to report a failure rate, and it really wasn't high enough to support this habit we all have of worrying so much about the battery relative to all the rest of the car.

-Chap

 

My 2002 with 158k is doing the same thing. Gas motor shuts off and immediately back nonstop at stop position. It is cold here

 

This is interesting, because I haven't notice our cars ICE running a lot while stopped at a traffic light, or a stop sign.

Seems to almost always quit as soon as you back off gas, coast or are pointed downhill.

But what caught my attention in this thread is that, I do notice while waiting at a traffic light, if it's a long one. I can feel, what feels like a twitch or click (almost a grumbling feeling) from the front of the car, as if something is trying or wants to start, though never does start until I apply throttle after the traffic light changes. If I use a gentle foot, it will start out in electric for a few seconds (will hold this as long as I'm light footed to about 30-36 mph) but of course the ICE fired every time when taking off more moderate to aggressively.

The clicks, or grumbling (felt lightly in gas pedal and floor )Only happens when sitting at a really long light. I have never driven another Gen 1 previously to compare, what is normal, or what the character of the car is supposed to be like.

Car runs good so far and is avg'ing 44 mpg on my wife's day commute, so I'm not losing sleep thinking about it. Just curious if the car should feel 100% dead or motionless when sitting at a long stop light, with the ICE off.

 

Speculation, brake assembly. See if sitting in "P" has the same symptom.

Bob Wilson

 

Haven't had a chance yet to demonstrate the "Sitting in P" yet, wife took car to work this morning. But when you say "Battery Assembly" are you referring to the HV Battery or the 12V Aux Battery? We bought the car with 92K miles on it in Dec, and a thorough scan through Carfax, showed the car was a one owner, religious dealer maintenance (despite buying from a sketch used car lot). Car had oil changes every 5-6K miles, had something with the steering replaced at 34K miles, then an ECU reflash or possibly R&R (Not specific enough) at 38K, says "Battery Replaced" at 58K (Not sure if 12V or HV Battery. When I purchased the car the 12V battery was dead, and I had to replace with OEM a few days latter as the cars accessories and head lights started dim and flicker.

Oddly enough, it appeared someone may have been in the HV battery at some point and time, as some of the plastic push-pins securing the carpet around the HV battery were missing, and the carpet slightly pulled away. But I figure, someone may have also wanted to inspect it while it was sitting on the used car lot.

 

Sorry, I meant 'brake assembly." Also see if heater/defrost/AC turned off affects the 'click.'

Bob Wilson

 

When you sit at a really long light, do you hold the brake steadily down the whole time, or is it possible that you shift your foot on the pedal, get impatient, think the light is changing and false start then brake again, etc.?

Reason I ask: the brake power assist in your car doesn't come from a big vacuum booster such as you might be used to in other cars. The engine isn't always running, so there wouldn't always be vacuum! Instead, the assist comes from a highly pressurized "accumulator" that is kept full of brake fluid by an electric pump. You use a small amount of fluid with every stroke or partial stroke of the brake pedal. Usually a few pedal strokes will drop the pressure enough for the pump to run again. The pump itself makes kind of a low growly whirr sound, and it is stopped and started by relays that loudly click (they're mounted right on the cowl below the windshield, so they're easily heard in the cabin).

So to see if that's what you're hearing, at the next long light, just partly-release/pump/partly-release/pump... the brake pedal a few times, and notice how many strokes it takes you to cause another WHIRRRRrrrrrrrrrCLICK any time you want. If that's the sound you're thinking of, then relax, it's perfectly normal. Or, if it isn't, then by doing this test you'll at least know what the brake pump sounds like and you can say "no, my noise is something else" if it's really something else.

-Chap