My wife is working seven hundred miles from home & just called with the following: On her 2007 Prius she's had the following occur two or three times. she's driving along foot lightly on the gas in D,C. traffic when the squiggly line icon comes on the dash display accompanied by a brief sensation of skidding/slipping. Her impression is that the whole concurrence is very small fraction of a second. got any idea's what to do with this ? Paul
That's usually just the traction control, but shouldn't be happening with steady speed driving. the VSC can show the same icon + VSC icon and 3 beeps. So, unless the roads are really wet/slick or it's happening when trying to accelerate on slippery terrain I don't know why she'd be seeing that.
Yes its probably like eFusco says but I would also have her check all the tires for proper air pressure too. One or all may be very low.
If road conditions are not obviously bad (standing water or snow) then I'd suggest looking at the tire tread depth. How many miles on the tires? Maybe the car needs a new set.
It sounds like it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. When traction control is activated the little squiggly line icon is displayed. The real question is why is your wife's Prius losing traction? As mentioned above, tires are the first place to look, unless you know the road was broken or slippery. Tom
If the tires are the original Integrity tires, they are probably getting really bad by now. I could break the tires loose on dry pavement when I got about 30k on them.
First, THANKS to everyone who responded. I've spent the last hour on Skype having her check tire pressure, tread condition, the side walls, etc. I had her check fluids, front end feel, etc. at the end of the conversation she commented on the deteriorating condition of the roads surfaces after the long hard winter. It seems the roads are falling apart, big chuck holes appearing, road surface coming away around previous repairs. in general the roads are going to hell & need many repairs..... I think that the general consensus that the car's systems are performing as designed are correct. We currently own two Toyota's & will own more as the need arises Thanks again Paul
