Hello all,

New ES300H owner here. I have a question when it comes to how quickly you can start the vehicle. When I start the car, you hear the engine kick in, I have automatic eBrake on, so you hear a noise, of what I think is the brake being released. I wait until that takes place before switching to Drive, or Reverse, but sometimes when I do, I hear and feel a rumble in the car. Is this normal for this to be happening? Do the Hybrid systems need warm up times before switching into gear? I want to make sure I'm not messing anything transmission wise.

 

Will you shift out of P for the first time, the car rumbles, that is normal.

 

Would have to hear it to know if it's normal. The hybrid makes a lot of noises that regular vehicles don't.

 

The ES300h gas engine can rumble and jerk/shake the car at times. Yes it's normal. I had two ESh. Both did this. My CT200h did this as well as my Prius. It's the nature of the hybrid system. Normally the engine is off while the car is stationary, but should the conditions be just right to where the car requires the engine to be on, you will feel the rumble/shaking. Sometimes more shaky than others. Usually you won't feel this though as the car is at speed, driving in most of those cases. You just notice it most when the car is stationary.

 

Conventional IC engines are started with a small (roughly 1-2 HP) electric motor spinning the opposite direction of the
gas engine it is connected to. Bit of noise from the "Bendix" sliding gear and the process is a couple of seconds long.
Our Synergy Drive (Toyota catchphrase) planetary system silently sends the power from MG1 (Motor Generator 1) which
has around 40 HP to spin up the gas components almost instantly. This creates the engine rocking we feel at each start
up cycle. Less noise, more motion.