I've always been a little curious why the ICE receives fuel when going downhill in B-mode. I've noticed that at times (especially at lower speeds) going downhill in B-mode that the instantaneous consumption bar will be in the 30-50 mpg range at times that I don't think the engine would be receiving fuel if the system were in D-mode.
View 8 RepliesCuriosity question. I've noticed that on a downhill of a couple miles, especially in "braking" mode or with the cruise control on, the motor/generator and engine are used to keep the speed down and the battery gets charged to the very top quite quickly. That's good!
On a really long downhill, will the motor/generator still be used for braking and the excess electricity discarded to keep from overcharging the battery?
I have a 2010 Prius with the Type B radio, the basic radio with the mute button. One day last week the FM just quit working. AM works fines. Do not have a satellite subscription so cannot say about that, but the preview still work on satellite.
View 1 RepliesI was driving around some very steep hilly highways recently. I have tried this in both cruise control and normal coasting.
I noticed that the Tiguan will automatically downshift when going down a steep enough incline and a certain higher speed is automatically reached. Whether that is based on what was set by your cruise control, or even when letting the car coast down by releasing the gas peddle, it will still reach a point of downshifting automatically.
What I hate about it though is that this downshifting causes the engine to suddenly rev very high RPMs. Its also pretty loud at that point. That's bad for the transmission system right?
Usually in automatic mode driving, gear shifts up at around 2,500 RPM (mostly around 2000 RPM point). But when you are going downhill in a steep incline, the Tiguan automatically goes to a lower gear causing the RPM to shoot right up. I've had mine go up to 4,000 RPM downhill and the engine screams and spins really fast as you can clearly hear. It of course does the job of keeping the car at a certain speed, but is this bad for the transmission?
I mean, I prefer pressing on the breaks to control speed downhill. Break pads are cheap and easily replaceable. Transmission strain and failure is a whole other business. So I would prefer the strain be placed on my breaks and not my transmission system for the purposes of controlling speeds downhill. The latter failure mode will be the case if they rely on the transmission to control speed downhill.
So what is a "happy RPM" for the engine anyway? What RPM is the 2.0T engine at its most efficient?
My 07 prius with 190k started shaking violently when going down hill if I press the gas or brake at all is goes a way suddenly, this happens only around the high 40's to low 50 mph range and once at 75, this happened just after my tires where balanced and rotated brought it back they re balanced them and said they balanced out perfectly and the problem still protested. I drive on dirt roads all the time and i hit a big pot hole earlier last spring but the issue just started after the balance a week ago.
View 13 RepliesNew 2016 - 6.7 automatic with exhaust brake:
In tow haul mode is the exhaust brake automatically activated or do you still have to turn on by button? Getting mixed answers, and seems to me that it does not activate unless you push the button which is seems to be what the literature is saying.
On steep downhill pulling heavy trailer, in tow haul mode every time you hit the brake it downshifts, and isn't long before it will over rev, unless you kick it out of tow haul mode. is there a way to hold it in a gear in tow haul mode? Or should I shift into manual mode at the top of the hill then use the +/- buttons.
Yesterday was driving my 2008 Prius (75K) down a paved road from a ski-hill (no snow/rain, perfect weather and completely dry road). Not hard driving, 20-30 mph some curves, very smooth road with no potholes, etc. Battery turned all green, its fan initiated and I also rolled back window during this 75 degF day (not unusual to have battery fan turn on in this condition, it's occured plenty of time before). Wasn't braking hard either. Out of know where, I first noticed upon slightly accelerating that I had no acceleration, like the hybrid had disengaged from the ICE, and then check engine, (!), red triangle, VSC light!! At this point, couldn't tell if car was on or off, the wheels disappeared from the main display, although the ICE/electric motors continued to show although there was a red warning top left corner.
It did scare the hell out of me going downhill with curves wondering if I was really still in control of the car. I pulled over as soon as I could maybe 1/2 mile downhill. I then shut car off, waiting maybe 1 minute, turned back on. The VSC cleared I believe, but all other lights continued on. Next, I only knew to drive it to the Toyota dealership. It was odd, as the Prius was now in some sort of weird, pseudo on-state. It had virtually no acceleration, maybe 40 mph after 1 mile and that was it. Drove it maybe 8 miles like this thru town in this pseudo on-state. Pulled into dealership. They pulled codes and found P0A1D-HYBRID POWERTRAIN CONTROL MODULE INFO 1 AND P3000-BATTERY CONTROL SYSTEM. They stated vehicle was found with problem with hybrid control ECU. They cleared the codes and test drove with no issue repeated. That's it. If it comes back I'm told I will need to replace hybrid control ECU.
I've been driving an 2007 Prius unitl last week, when I upgraded to an 2010 model. I'm very happy with it so far.
View 15 RepliesSeveral time lately I've gotten in to go to work and the battery shows for half sometimes 3/4 of charge, but it will not go into EV mode. But I can be in town driving and it will go into EV mode with only 2 bars of charge. Whats up with that.
View 19 RepliesWell been playing with all the mode to see what they do and the one thing I have noticed is I get worst mileage under ECO Mode. Why it doing this.
View 19 RepliesI've been hitting the EV switch to keep the car in EV mode for the first couple minutes. It kicks off at about 20 mph. It does let me get up to speed using EV mode so my hope is that will translate into higher fuel savings.
The default and Eco modes require starting up too slow while hitting EV lets me apply more power and faster acceleration. Wondering why Toyota didn't engineer that into the car though?
In reading the manual, I note that it says to use the ECO mode when you're doing a lot of stop and start driving. Does that mean I should NOT use it on the interstate? My daily commute consists of 11 minutes start and stop to interstate, 11 minutes on interstate, and another 11 minutes of start and stop. My Prius is not quite a month old, so i am still learning.
View 16 RepliesNew to Prius. I have read everything I can find on getting better MPG and find different ideas about using EV. My car is a 2014. Most say DON'T use EV except to move the car or just before the ending of your trip.
My thoughts are the ICE is not very efficient at or below 25 mph. Why not use EV excelling from a stop? Or driving 20 mph anywhere? I notice my car goes electric below 45 mph using very light throttle on a level or slight down slope.
I haven't lifted my foot to force it there, just driving to go with traffic or maintaining speed. So some Toyota software engineer thought it best to use electric even if I'm doing 44 mph ???
I searched but did not find a post about entering diagnostic mode of Prius 2010. Is that possible at all?
View 19 RepliesMy friend is an aggressive driver. After she drives there is a drop in the calculated mpg's by at least 2 mpg sometimes as much as 5. Would it be better for her to drive in POWER MODE not only for the mpg's,?
View 3 RepliesI've been using the EV mode - the EV portion of the curve without pushing the EV button - to run around town and to maintain speed once I've accelerated to traffic speed. It really boosts the mpg numbers and I'm able to get 55-60mpg on my 47mi. Roundtrip mostly highway commutes (hills included). Without the running in EV it's probably 42-48mpg.
View 8 RepliesI've been driving a bit different to try and get some more mpg. I will pulse up to about 45 then let off till ev kicks in and keep the bar right at the verge of going into ice. I can usually cruise at 40 mpg doing this on flat roads while only using the battery. Although if I'm able to do this ev mode for a long distance my battery runs down then the ice kicks in even with the bar below the ice line.
I'm still only getting 50-51 indicated mpg this way but much better than the 42mpg I got just driving it... My route has some hill and my tires are no lrr so I'm think that's has some to do with my low mpg.
Question is does driving 40 mph in ev mode till battery runs dead then recharge with ice just to run battery down again coasting with ev do any harm to the battery?
While pulse and glide, is it better in Eco mode or normal mode with Prius c?
Eco mode will take more time to pulse, it may lower mpg?
Nexus 7 ?
In a cold weather also noticed the EV mode doesn't stay on for a long time even with a 90% full battery and fully warmed up. The engine starts to kick in randomly.
View 6 RepliesI have only been driving my Prius for a month. I have been paying close attention the to the Car energy usage screen. I have been noticing the car (while on cruise control) entering into stealth mode (Engine seemingly off and power getting drawn from battery only w/ about 3/4 bar on EV) on the highway @ 60mph going down a slight decline. I have been trying to mimic this on my own w/o the cruise control, but no matter what I try (P+G and other techniques) I cannot get the same results.
View 18 RepliesConditions often allow me to choose between moderate to high current draw in stealth mode, or a lightly loaded ICE (<1300 RPM). How much power do you find it's best to allow in stealth mode before you decide to give the throttle a slap and fire up the engine?
View 12 Replies