Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
Hybrid Vehicles Toyota Camry Hybrid Toyota Camry Hybrid Maintenance & Repair Toyota Camry Hybrid Rattles, Bumps, & Squeaks
122 messages, Last post on Jun 15, 2009 at 4:33 AM
You are in the Toyota Camry Hybrid Maintenance & Repair Forum. Your Host is pf_flyer
Hearing some strange noises and can't figure out whatthey are? This is the place to start your investigation.
When starting from a dead stop, my new TCH begins in silent/smooth battery mode, but almost immediately I experience a faint rumble, akin to going over a set of small washboard bumps or a cattle guard. I've duplicated this over and over in every attempt to repeat it, BUT it only happens immediately prior to the gas engine kicking in. If I am careful to keep it at a crawl, utilizying the battery alone, this does not happen, and then when accelerating from this crawl it also does not occur when the gas engine kicks in. It is so subtle, that my wife had to point it out to me, but now I am sensitive to it as well. I would be real curious to find out if anyone else is experiencing this.
|
|
I thought my previous post would have all you TCH people scrambling with curiosity to see if your vehicles experienced this anamoly. My e-mail to Toyota says they could not help and to contact my dealer for an inspection, which I will do, but I would sure like to know if anyone else experiences this. I speculate it is the gas engine kicking in - I don't know if it needs a starter since the car is already in motion, but SOMETHING needs to kick in the engine.
|
|
|
Finally today I drove a TCH which the dealer has for test drives. It is not for sale and every other TCH coming in is sold. My wait here is 2 to 3 months but at least I drove the car and absolutely loved it! I noticed the rumble you both described every time from a stop light. It is not a problem for me and certainly not a deal killer. The transition between systems is seamless at speed and only noticeable from a dead start. I am wondering if this is just the nature of the beast? Cheers from Victoria BC Tom |
|
I picked up my car last night so I don't have a lot of experience with it but -- I have definitely noticed the rumble. To me, the rumble feels like when you don't give enough gas to a manual transmission. I went from thinking it was a problem to thinking it was normal behavior for this car when I noticed tonight that the rumble was gone. So it may be transient. I am very interested to hear from other readers on this. Otherwise I am very pleased with the car. As sibbald wrote, it is only noticeable from a dead start.
|
|
|
Replying to: downwind (Jun 15, 2006 7:43 pm) I hesitated to respond to this since what seems an anamolity to one is insignificant to another. Previous postings have talked about a "lurch" on the interstate at high speeds. Does my car lurch? No. But I do sence when the engine kicks on and off. If you simply go by what it "feels" like you may want to call it a lurch, however the car is moving smoothly, there is just some vibrations to be felt. As for your rumble. It indeed may be a problem, however, I don't know how you were trying to accelerate. If you were really taking it easy trying to take off under battery power alone then you may be at the point where it's borderline if you will have the engine kick on. Your slow speed merely highlights the fact of when the engine does kick on. Were you to go ahead and accelerate to say 20 mph and immediately let off the gas to go to EV mode then you will have the same sensation I believe, but it will occur more rapidly in succession and probably not as noticable. If you have a NAV system watch the energy screen as you do this and see what is happening with the ICE. My understanding is that the "starter" for these spins the engine at 1000 rpm. I can see where trying to start the engine while creeping may cause some "rumble" Again, what's a rumble to one person sounds like the engine starting to another. I believe the slower you are going the more you will notice this. If I am "gliding" through town on EV and the engine kicks on at 20 mph, it is more noticable to me than when it kicks on and off at say 50 mph. Unless you are on very flat, or down sloped terrain when you start out it will be seldom that you can start out with just battery power alone. I believe you indeed can in a lot of cases (I have), but the people behind you won't like it. It takes a lot of torque to start a 36oo# mass from a dead stand still and accelerate it. Unless you (and the people behind you) are patient you'll want your ICE kicking on most of the time and then you can let off in just a second or two once rolling. If you don't think the "rumble" is very noticable at speed and your ICE kicks in and out normally as you lift your foot from the accelerator (watch the screen) then I don't think you have a problem. I don't know how many miles you have on yours yet, but I'm over 4000 and I have yet to discover just what all the (subtle) noises are. |
|
|
Replying to: downwind (Jun 14, 2006 3:51 pm) |
|
|
Replying to: downwind (Jun 15, 2006 7:43 pm)
|
|
|
Replying to: droid13 (Jun 20, 2006 6:18 am) Anyways, on all three toyota camry hybrids, I did notice a faint rumble every time I started off from a dead start. During one test drive, the sales person told me this was the gas engine kicking in... so it seems pretty normal if you ask me!
|
|
|
Replying to: cgi101 (Jun 20, 2006 1:22 pm) Does anyone havea rattle in the sunroof when open and driving in excess of 40 mph? I notice one that is annoying me so I need to take it in anyway. Other than that, this is a fabulous car that I am very, very happy with. |
|
|
Replying to: newnotch (Jul 12, 2006 11:45 am)
|
|
You are here:
Forums
Hybrid Vehicles Toyota Camry Hybrid Toyota Camry Hybrid Maintenance & Repair Toyota Camry Hybrid Rattles, Bumps, & Squeaks
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
2010 Toyota Camry Hybrid
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
