My fiancee abd I just bought our first hybrid. We picked it up on Saturday night and went out to dinner. We ran errands on Sunday, all stop and go city miles. Anyway, I went out Monday morning and warmed the car up for her and the car shut completely off. I drove it around the complex parking lot and it was fine, however, when I came to a complete stop it would shut off. I was concerned so I had it towed to the dealer. They check everything out and I was told that everything was normal and that for it to require a restart was considered normal. Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks.

Jerry/

 

Um, not to be rude or anything.....but is this a serious post? I mean, you bought a hybrid. One of the biggest gas-saving features of most hybrids on the road is that the engine will shut off at idle or when slowing down. Then you can drive briefly on battery power until the engine needs to come back on. If you were not aware of this you need to do alot of research/reading on your vehicle. I'd start with your owners manual.

 

No. I mean the car shuts completely off requiring turning the ignition key to restart. We have researched for months on hybrids and have driven all of the ones on the market. I have never heard/read that you have to continuosly turn the key to keep them going when the battery is low. I thought the gas engine would kick in.

 

Definitely not normal behavior if you have to restart the vehicle with the key. If it continues to do it, try putting the air conditioner on a red setting (defrost, max a/c) next time and see if that causes it to restart. You should never have to use the key once you have started the engine once. I would have a chat with the service department - bring your owner's manual.

No, not rude - just assume the poster is a complete idiot.

 

Thanks Jay, Yeah after I posted I found a thread that said "red" controls will kick in the ICE. I advised the dealership of this as well. The only qualified person at the dearship had "paper knowledge" and said it was normal. Bunk I say.

 

There's another thread here, posted late last year, that sounds like the same issue the OP (Original Poster) mentions. I'll see if I can't dig it up via the search to at least link the two threads... because that one started off like this one, with some of us (myself included) reading it and thinking, "Uhm, that's what hybrids do" until we got more information or re-read the initial description of the problem.

Edited to Add:
Here's the referenced thread... I'm not sure it'll help since that thread kind of petered out, but message #30 in that thread does show what resolved that particular poster's issue, and the thread may aid in explaining the problem to the dealership --
https://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/...highlight=dies

Fact is, anytime the vehicle has been started with the key and the key's still in the ignition, whether or not you hear/feel the gasoline engine running, the car should be capable of powered movement (forward or reverse.) If that is not the case, something is wrong with the vehicle.

 

Thanks Shannon.. just hate to think i have to turn the key everytime this happens, I have to look at ESP to see if the ignition block is covered! lol!

 

I'm not sure if this is related, but wasn't there a discussion of "active neutral" and "passive neutral" modes, where shifting into neutral at some speeds would require a keyed restart in Park?

Did any of your restart problems involve shifting into neutral at some point before it wouldn't restart? Sorry if I got this completely wrong.

 

The problem started when my fiancee went out and started the car. She came back in to grab her lunch and give me squeezes (lol) so i walked her out to the car and said " **** that thing is quiet". It was then i realized it wasn't running. So it actually idled for about 5 minutes and shut off completely.

 

Shannon, thanks for the thread link. i'll give a thorough reading. Green people are cool.