06' Prius 95k mi. while driving it seems to go into neutral

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by Mark's 06 Prius, Mar 17, 2019.

  1. Mark's 06 Prius

    Mark's 06 Prius Junior Member

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    06 Prius with 95k mi. At least once a day as I drive the car here in Fl. it pops out of drive and just coasts as I can hear the motor rev. I tried pulling the gear selector into drive but doesn't do anything until I pull over and shut off and restart then it works temporarily. It also does it sometimes when I go to take off at a traffic light, does nothing barely moves. And sometimes it bogs down when accelerating. And I doesn't appear the electric motor is running at slow take offs just the gas engine. Not sure if there's any codes going off at this point because I sent combination meter off for repairs on Ebay for $69 It was a 1 owner car and I just bought it for $100 perfect interior newer tires and body and paint is good except for clear coat on roof. And the multi function display / Nav screen isn't clear to see through I think the sun or heat has faded the screen,and it's not the settings I've tried them all orange/green, brightness, etc. Its faded like old headlights .Lol I may send it off for the $200 repair to fix mfd. I've read many posts maybe Hv batteries or friction plates in gearbox or whatever it's called. But this popping out of gear crap has gotta be fixed I hope to let my gf use it to go work 1hr each way. PLz any help would be appreciated.
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    start with the 12v. if that is good, you'll have to have the codes read.
     
  3. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    You can read the codes via the OBDII port, if there are any. If you don't have an OBDII scanner, buy one. It's a REQUIRED device for a teenage-aged vehicle.

    The Prius doesn't have a neutral in the sense that gears can slip or anything like that. Forward, reverse, and "neutral" are all done with the same static gearing and the HV ECU just controls the speed and direction of the 2 MG's an the 1 ICE. The only way for the car to feel like it is in neutral, is if the car is in neutral. This can be done many ways. If you are driving down the road and press the park button, it goes to neutral. Same if you use the gear knob and select reverse while driving. Or if you select and HOLD in neutral.

    The shifter itself is just a joystick, completely electronic interface. And it has been known to sometimes act up. There are drivers out there that shift a hundred times going to the grocery store. My coworker did that with his Prius. Every light he would shift into B to slow down. Then to D to get going again. Sometimes into N while at the light or while moving. No amount of telling him how wrong this was corrected his actions. That shifter got probably two orders of magnitude more use than my shifter which sees reverse some days and one movement to D per drive. I'd start with the shifter and the park button as those are the two things that can make it go to neutral.

    I believe we had a member here with the same issue and it turned out that their cell phone mount kept smacking into the park button as they drove and sometimes activated it, which sent it to neutral.
     
  4. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    Your driving it around with no combo meter installed?
     
  5. Mark's 06 Prius

    Mark's 06 Prius Junior Member

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    I was while waiting for it to be repaired off ebay, got it back works great, I have a bad call in hv battery pack that may be causing some of these problems,
     

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  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    never heard of the hybrid battery affecting the shifter, might just be a bad shifter
     
  7. Jean de France

    Jean de France Junior Member

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    I have some issues with the shifter but only when the weather is cold (around 0°C). It is on a Prius 2 from 2005 with 400 000 km. The car is always parked outside in near Paris in France. The issues has come one year ago. When I start the Prius and put it on D or on R, the car comes back on neutral when I accelerate. The solution is to maintain the shifter on the D or R position which is not very easy. After a time or a better temperature in the car, the issue disapears. The last time I put the shifter on B and I had not the move to N. So it is a solution. I am sure I have no error code on the car. I hope that the problem will not get stronger that I can't drive.
     
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    Shifter replacement is fairly simple from what I’ve read
     
  9. Laura_M_H

    Laura_M_H New Member

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    I have the very same issue. I have a 2005 Gen 2 with 208,000 miles. The issue came on with the engine light and the red triangle. I had the codes ran which ended up being alot. The main issue I was having was misfire and low voltage 12v battery. I replaced the spark plugs. They were totally burnt up and black. And I replaced the ignition coil for the #2 cylinder. I also pulled the 12v battery out, cleaned the terminal, scrubbed the terminals with metal Brillo pad and I took off the positive and negative cables cleaned and scrubbed every connection to make sure all the metal connecting peices had nothing blocking the connections all the way to the negative cable bolt that grounds it to the car. Hooked it all back up tightened the terminals real good. After all that the car is definitely running smoother but still like at least once in every drive will the car act up or when I take off from a red light or stop sign. It feels like the car goes into neutral or something. But it doesn’t say it’s going into neutral on the dash only feels like it is. I press on the gas and the RPMs are raving up but the car is barely moving.

    i don’t think it’s actually going into neutral because pressing the gas does make it go alittle. If I take my foot off the gas you can feel the car just coast. When I put my foot back on the gas it moves forward more. The RPM’s rev up and it barely goes. In fact if I keep on it the car will build up momentum and reach up to 50mph. And once I stop and turn the car off, the start it back the car works fine. Don’t have to wait either. Just off then back on. Then it’s fine again. Not sure what’s it about. I need to do another diagnostic since I replaced those parts and cleaned the 12v terminals. I was gunna do another oil change because it’s due and the breaks also. Then run the codes again.
     
  10. MAX2

    MAX2 Senior Member

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    The high-voltage battery no longer helps the engine. Diagnostics of the high-voltage battery is necessary and, if its poor condition is confirmed, further replacement.
     
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  11. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    It is all good and well to report as you have, but curious minds here would prefer to know the actual codes, even if it is a long list. We would be able to provide far more accurate help knowing what the DTCs actually are.
     
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  12. Brian1954

    Brian1954 Senior Member

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    Please keep all the discussions about your 2005 Prius in the thread ( https://priuschat.com/index.php?posts/3533489) that you created two days before you made the post in this thread. Keeping everything in one thread will help those who are trying to help you.
     
  13. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    Did you load-test the 12V battery and ensure that the DC-DC converter is working properly? This has all the 'ear-marks' of a weak/bad traction battery.
    FWIW; you should probably add changing the ATF to your to-do list; but the priority now is traction battery condition. If your not going to fix that, there's no sense in dumping more money into it. Turning the car Off, then back ON again is making the ECU forget there's an issue. That's NOT a solution....