[Guest]

My 2001 Prius will hesitate anywhere from once to five times a day (does skip some days). It happens after backing out of the driveway and is put into drive (about 2 mph), going down the street (about 30 mph) or on the highway (about 65 mph), hot weather (about 95 degrees) and cool/cold (about 40-50 degrees), wet, dry, foggy, etc. The service people have driven it twice trying to get it to do this for them and they do have it on record. They said they are not aware of this in any Prius. Seems like it started at about 60,000 miles.

 

[TNTNA]

We haven't seen this situation with our 2001. We only have 36k on it though.

 

[mrv]

since you do not have any warning lights yet, it sounds like classic "Big Hand Syndrome" (like a big hand comes down, holding your car back). Is it basically your have your foot on the accelerator pedal going a set speed, and suddenly you loose speed a bit so you have to temporarily push harder on the accelerator to maintain speed?

When it gets bad enough to leave a check engine light, my guess is that you'll have the error code P1120.

Have your dealer look into TSB EG018-02 when that occurs.
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/toy ... 018-02.pdf
Sept. 12, 2003, Master, Hybrid & M.I.L. "ON" P1120, 2001-2002 Prius. (symptom: low engine power output (similar to big hand syndrome). fix: replace accelerator pedal assembly.)

Unfortunately, it's only covered by the basic warranty (3 years/36,000 miles), or the extended warranty if you bought it.

I think some people had it fixed by replacing the ECM, but don't quote me on what exact computer was replaced... (ECM is under the emissions warranty.)

 

[Frizzycat666]

GET the car checked at the dealer soonest!!! sounds like the ECM it's a well known issue. Of course the toyota dosen't consider it important enough for a recall but it cost me a month when the ECM flipped out totally and ate my engine... Luckly I had the extended warrenty. all was covered. :roll: @ 47K