please help!! prius not accelerating (limp mode?)

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by hershey1203, May 18, 2025 at 7:32 PM.

  1. hershey1203

    hershey1203 New Member

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    hello all! i recently got a 2005 prius after my nissan maxima was totaled (rip). ive had it since december. in February the red warning light came on, then in march the engine light came on. it had been driving fine besides the lights, until one day while driving on the highway all of the lights on the dash turned on and the car started to shake slightly. took it to the nearest autozone to get a read (a useless attempt) and they told me they couldnt do anything. ended up driving the car back home to the toyota dealership and they said I had a bad 02 sensor, a headlight level acctuator that needed to be replaced, and a bad speed sensor. other than that, nothing. wasnt willing to pay over $3,000 dollars to get it fixed considering i bought it for 4k, so i left. slowly the cars gotten worse, has trouble accelerating and after about 15-20 minutes of driving at 45 miles an hour (quicker on the highway), the car goes into what i believe is “limp mode” and will not accelerate, even stepping on the brakes. if i turn the car off and then on again it goes back to running fine for 15-20 minutes again. battery screen is showing charging normally ‍♀️got the 02 sensor fixed today and hoped that would fix it but it did not. went into limp mode after 15 ish minutes. please help!!!!!
     
  2. Paul Gregory

    Paul Gregory Senior Member

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    I'm sure your dealer has a better opinion,
    but it sounds like your engine isn't running.
     
  3. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Yeah I don't know about the limp mode business you must have codes you keep going around in circles with all these mechanics and dealers and folks but nobody tells you any kind of codes they just tell you they're going to replace an O2 sensor and a speed sensor and a so on to me that doesn't even sound like that would fix the problem and I don't know why anybody would think that but I guess it sounds good coming out of mechanics mouth sounds like you're having pool running engine code 31 something whatever it is not necessarily engine won't start but poor engine running there's a whole section to troubleshoot that just like you would a regular car spark plugs ignition parts mass air flow sensor cleaning so on and so forth but in order to know these things you might have to understanding have some desire to have some mechanical background going on or something or some kind of an interest not just the fact that your car is not running right A lot of people don't have that so then you wind up just firing parts cannons and everything sounds sensible to you because well you work in a restaurant or whatever the case may be not shaming anybody don't care about all that but you need the codes that all the people are not wanting to give you for some reason so they can keep you strong along so you'll keep firing the parts cannon at the AutoZone kind of like drug addict behavior you know what I mean. So get the codes or spend the $68 and buy an ap200 you can Google it made by a company called a u t e l no self-respecting Prius owner should be without a scanner so they can be lied to and told all kinds of stories and walk around the whole city the long way just to get back to their house it's just silly but if that's interest you and that's the kind of behavior you want to pursue well you're well on the course you need to get the codes. Point blank without that you're pissing into the wind and it's getting you really wet
     
  4. hershey1203

    hershey1203 New Member

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    according to my toyota dealer the only problems are the ones ive listed…. thinking ill just have to get a scanner so i can find the truth out myself‍♀️

    agreed! i feel like im running around like a chicken with its head cut off! thinking ill take your advice on getting a scanner, the dealership told me those were the only codes that showed up besides a few recalls that they fixed for free.
     
    #4 hershey1203, May 18, 2025 at 9:11 PM
    Last edited by a moderator: May 19, 2025 at 1:26 AM