I officially hate my prius and toyota

If you want fuel economy help, please answer the questions at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...-answer-these-questions-esp-if-youre-new.html. May as well answer in this thread.

The weather is colder now, so you will experience some mileage hit.

The ICE will run to provide cabin heat if the ICE is cold and you're demanding heat. What if you turn the HVAC totally to OFF (fan to OFF, no auto)? The ICE should be able to shutdown around FWT (Fahrenheit Water Temp) of ~110 F or so or ~43 C. I'm guessing you have no means of monitoring.

I've discussed heater and ICE on/off at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...r-in-history-in-winter-13.html#post1249210and many other posts before. If FWT is <146 F, and heat is set to I can get the ICE to turn on/off, at will by merely turning the HVAV fan on/off.

As for water leak, I haven't seen the terms of your warranty so I can't say anything about whether it should be covered or not.

There are several Canadians here on PC. I don't know where in Canada you are.

 

Aside from oil changes, the leak fix and the Optima battery, what services have you had performed?

 

You really need to see a different dealer in my opinion. Don't even go into the history with the first dealer, just tell them your problems and ask for their help. Getting someone with the right skills interested in solving your problem is key. So far either they don't have the skills or aren't interested.

- D

 

For the mileage complaints, we still need more info from the OP. Answers to the questionnaire will shed some light as to whether things are normal, given the OP's drives, conditions, car condition, etc.

 

When you say the gas mileage dropped to 30 mpg, is this the figure showing in the MFD or by your actual calculation between fill ups?
There are so many Prius taxi in Vancouver. Can you ask there they do they have it fixed? I have a feeling that those cab drivers may know of the best place for repair other than the dealer you are dealing with now.
Good luck.

 

Whoops... sorry. I originally even posted BC in my reply but then noted your location was Canada and thus removed my mention of Vancouver. :redface: There are at least one or two Priuschatters in BC.

12.5 l/100 km would = ~18.8 miles per US gallon and yes, I'd call that unusual for coasting. But, that's far outside the range that you were saying earlier.

I believe some symptoms of a failing HV battery are ICE running a lot and also the battery fan (intake vent in the back seat area) running at full.

Again, please fill out the questionnaire so we have more to go on. I noted in one of your old posts that you stated "even thought the MFD does not show the engine to be running,". There is NO ICE on/off indication on the MFD. One way to tell is via a tachometer. ScanGauge includes one. (Until I got my ScanGuage, I discovered I was sometimes wrong about whether the ICE was running or not, when not stationary.)

Yes, I'm familiar w/the 5 stages doc as mentioned at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...angauge-best-threads-mileage-improvement.html. I can easily see when I'm past stage 1a by the ignition timing change.

As a side note, the guy at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ng/89063-help-nearly-no-heat.html#post1250695 had trouble w/his ICE getting above 145F. It turned out that he had an air bubble in his cooling system. I later hypothesized that perhaps some people complaining of poor mileage might have this same issue. But, alas, the Prius doesn't come with a temp gauge nor a ICE cold/too cold light, so it could be happening silently.

 

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...-answer-these-questions-esp-if-youre-new.html

 

Could your one problem be connected to the other?

You "notice" the failure and the sudden springing of a leak in your back hatch area, once the seals totally failed. But I wonder if you haven't had a growing leak, or a serious but subtle problem perhaps for a long time.

Water in the back of a Prius is NOT a good thing.

In anycase, problems CAN be solved. But from what you are saying about the support you DON'T seem to be getting from your dealer I commiserate.

Good Luck. As already suggested, you might try another dealership. How could it hurt since evidently the one you are going with now....is not helpful.

 

I'd replace the 12V battery.

...right after replacing the dealer, of course.

 

Actually you cant say anything about this without knowing the speed. If the engine is not cutting off and essentially just idling (idle fuel usage is approx 0.85 L./hr), then the expected L/100k is equal (0.85 divide speed) * 100. So if the speed was only 7 km/hr then the fuel consumption rate is largely what you'd expect.

As to the question of whether the engine was running "Full Blast" as the OP described it, or if it was merely idling, I'd assume it was merely idling but with the speed very low unless more evidence was shown to the contrary.

Ok so 378km is the distance, are you also measuring the number of liters?

BTW Brookside. I'm not asking you these question because I don't believe you. I do believe you are getting crap fuel efficiency. It just helps to have all the information.

 

Wow!
I'm really sorry that this is happening to you... You must have gotten a freak Prius!
I've never heard of this issue but all I can think of is..possibly a new 12v battery like Rae_Vynn said, or HV battery...Or the fan!

 

I'm going to quote what i said to a fellow PriusChatter today, but here's something to definitely check out.

One thing I would definitely look into is looking at your battery cooling fan.
The HV battery fan isn't even on Toyota's service menu, but what can happen is, you know in rear seat on the passenger side right beside the door is a vent. That vent as you probably already know, draws in air to cool the battery when it gets hot. Well, the fan that spins is a duct fan which can clog over time with hair, dust, dirt, and debris causing the battery to overheat and age more quickly and eventually go bad. I'd deffinetly have it checked out, or you can even do it yourself! It's very simple, I've used these instructions and looked at my fan too.

The symptoms of an over-heating battery is the engine running all the time, reduced MPG and performance.

--> Here's a link for you if you want to try and see if the battery overheating due to a clogged fan is the case. There is a PDF file that you will see, click it and check it out. It gives very specific directions on how to do this procedure.

Battery Fan Cleaning

 

The "issue" may actually be a combination of smaller issues so that's why as much info as possible is needed from the OP.

Let's look at the issue of engine running excessively first up. Brookside can you let us know what happens if the car is fully warmed up and you come to a stop, with your foot on the brake pedal and the car remaining in "D". (with auto AC and fan off).

1. Does the car continue to idle for about 7 seconds and then cut off or does it just continue to idle?

2. If the engine does cut-off in the above test then immediately continue to drive. In this state does the car still keep the engine running when you're coasting. (again, auto AC and fan off during this test).

Please test the above and let us know the results.

 

dont know about you al guys but it seems a bit odd that there are al those complain topics opening??

 

I have a few suggestions that you might try:

1. When you replaced the 12V battery, did you apply an auxiliary source of power (in an effort to keep radio presets, etc.) or did you allow the car to power down? If you used an auxiliary source of power, I suggest that you try disconnecting the 12V battery negative cable where it connects to the body for 5 minutes, then reconnect. The point of that is to allow all ECUs to power down, then reboot.

2. If you still have trouble with the gasoline engine running at all times after trying #1 above, then I suggest that you visit another Toyota dealer. Explain that the car doesn't produce any warning lights or DTC, yet the gasoline engine will not shut down. As a result your fuel consumption is 2x the levels that you had previously experienced.

- Ask that the tech verify that engine coolant is reaching normal operating temp of ~82 degrees C.

- If no problem is found with the engine coolant system (such as an engine coolant thermostat stuck in the open position), then ask for the hybrid vehicle ECU and engine ECU to be reflashed with the latest firmware applicable to your model year. Maybe the HV ECU firmware became corrupted. The HV ECU is responsible for telling the engine ECU when to turn on and turn off the gasoline engine, how much power the engine should produce when on, etc.

3. Your rear hatch leak is very interesting to hear about. If the car had not previously been in an accident to provoke that leak, I am really surprised that such a major leak happened. Was the car parked on a downhill slope? Are you sure that the hatch rubber seal is intact?

Good luck.

OP says that the 12V battery was replaced.