Today's Crappy MPG

Spcalan, just fyi, I will lose sleep if your car doesn't give you some love back That 5 mpg bar on your pic bugs me. Even when I start out uphill and putter along at 10 mph in stage 1 for a minute, my mileage averages 11-13 mpg. While it may be fine, many think it's tire pressure or trip length, I have doubts, and uart knows what he's talking 'bout, so battery fan sounds like a good next plan.

I see you said oil was at "lower mark near end of stick".



Did you mean the top dot? If it's the lower dot you were really talking about, pour some oil in that baby ASAP. Should be closer to the top dot, a little below. Bottom dot would be quite underfilled.

EDIT: Oh my goodness, that's a large one (that's what she said). Sorry about the annoying pic size.

 

Mike, your engine is bleeding

 

Uh-oh!

j/k, it's stolen from another thread. Ignore the color everyone, just focus on the dots...

 

That can do it. Once you get your oil and 12v battery thing sorted out you may want to learn about hyprmiling techniques to boost your MPG on such short trips. Ultimately, if you only do these short trips your MPG will suffer and unless you are really goo you likely will not achieve EPA ratings. Smile though, you're still using very little fuel.

 

Is your 10' drive city or highway? If it's city and there are traffic lights and you're using the A/C a lot and you're getting 40 mpg then I doubt you have a problem. 3/4 blue bars is very low SOC and likely because of your A/C ON-city driving.

Take it on the highway reset the consumption screen, drive it at for 20 minutes around 50 mph steady, and you should get at least 50 mpg in that distance. When the engine is working on the highway it will charge the battery, warm up the engine and also charge it.

If you drive city only with A/C and for short distances you will have to live with 40 mpg.

 

^^^
Concur w/the above. Short drives kills mileage because the ICE is warming up during the first 5 minutes or so and consuming a lot of fuel during that time.

I don't know if the OP has read this: http://priuschat.com/forums/other-c...uth-about-epa-city-highway-mpg-estimates.html. After adjustment, the 2nd gen Prius is EPA rated 48 city/45 highway, 46 mpg combined.

 

I didn't pay much attention to the responses to the first screen you posted but from the above, I think you car is operating properly given the 0-20 minute bars.

FWIW, Most fuel-efficient cars is what CR got in their mileage tests on the 2nd gen. They must have a very harsh city test.

At http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...-economy-doesnt-make-sense-2.html#post1299212, I posted a link to CR's test descriptions along w/some commentary.

Keep in mind that trying to stay in EV/keep the ICE off when accelerating is not necessarily the most efficient way to accelerate. There's the so called hybrid paradox. You have the HV battery, but you want minimize its use (both energy in and out of it).

 

Also you need to consider that while the battery is an energy buffer, any energy conversion is lossy. Try to slow down as slowly as possible and know that you take a big mpg hit to accelerate your car from 0 to 30 mph using the ICE, so coast from light to light as much as possible.

By the way when you learn your car's ins and outs you should be getting about 65 mpg at 50 mph even with A/C at 75

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...4-2-mfd-mpg-over-49-49-miles-62-44-mph-c.html

 

Quite the generalization from one trip.

Let's add some conditions:
* steady state, no stops or slowdowns
* No heat load to dissipate
* Humidity is not high

 

I like the challenge!

I can get over or about 70 mpg at 50 mph as long as there are no stops or slowdowns (in which case the mpg would increase because of the gradual slowdowns, but the average mph decreases if the A/C is off during these slowdowns).

In my earlier post I had advised the OP to take the car to the highway and test the car's mpg without slowdowns or stops, and in his response he indicated no slowdowns or stops. But it's good to restate that condition.

I would change your "low humidity" to "no rain" condition.

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...mode-lower-speeds-50-55mph-7.html#post1328764

 

^^ I wasn't challenging you to hit 65 mpg with the above conditions, I meant that those conditions are necessary.

 

OK, you never mentioned that Taco Bell stopoff Things look much better with that knowledge. I was also very nervous when I first bought Wentworth used, it is my first car ever (that's actually mine!), and asked plenty of questions on PriusChat ("it sounds loud on the highway, I think it has car syphilis," and so on).