...usually they are brown. Is this because I've got the air conditioner running? Thank you very much. By the way - I LOVE my first Prius...it's new to me...a 2007 with 66k on the clock.
My 2007 is usually around the blue-green boundary. Of course, as I live in Maine, I have needed the air conditioning only twice this year. Generally the car wants to keep the battery at that blue-green boundary, and when it gets into the brown should really be making efforts to charge it. Have you done a 12v battery check? Low traction battery is often an indication of a failing 12v auxiliary battery.
More pulse and glide, gliding and consistent speed will go a long way toward getting and holding onto green bars.
Hey Julia. Welcome to Priuschat and Prius ownership. :welcome: And welcome back to the joy of driving again. You will very rarely see the green bars. That's normal. Don't let it bother you.
Thank you all very much. I'm in Maine too, by the way! And I use the air conditioning almost constantly at this time of year, except in the evening or early morning. And now that I think about it, the bars may be blue and not brown. I'm about to head off to the coast and I will take note of that. I VERY much appreciate knowing that it is normal not to be seeing green bars very often. That relieves my mind a lot. If I have good luck with my first used Prius, I suspect I may become a Prius-for-life girl. That said, I haven't driven through a Maine winter yet. To my fellow Mainer on this board, do you advise using studded tires? I am quite concerned about winter driving -- I'm going from a Subaru Outback to the Prius so I know I need to lower my standards to some degree! Thank you all again for your kind responses. Julia
To skruse, when you say "consistent speed", do you suggest using cruise control where reasonable? I will have to look up the "pulse and glide" business. That's a foreign language to me at this point. ;-) I do have one further question. I would like to purchase a small battery pack to keep in the car in case my 12V battery ever needs a boost. I have read not to allow a tow truck operator to charge a Prius battery. I have AAA Plus, but if most tow truck operators cannot charge my 12V, I would like to be able to do so myself. I did learn where it is and how to charge it when I purchased the vehicle. I asked specifically. But I would like to carry the appropriate battery pack in case the need arises. Is there a specific type/brand/model recommended? Thank you all again! Julia
We got ours in March, so we did see some snow, I wasn't the one driving it for the most part. My sweetie claims that it drives better than our old Subaru Legacy, (though the ground clearance is less, and that was a problem when the snow was deeper than that). We had no studded tires at that time, so I am going to see how it goes this winter before committing to them.
Thank you very much, Corwyn. I appreciate the information. I am concerned with ground clearance for sure. The snow in my driveway was at nearly 2 feet when I woke up one morning last winter. Glad to hear your experience has been satisfactory in winter! By the way -- we got the same color Prius. Thanks again!
For the Maine winters, you might want to look into an engine block heater. You can find one here at the Priuschat shop: PriusChat Shop : Toyota Prius Engine Block Heater [Prius EBH] - $59.00 or pick one up at the dealership or Canada (they're cheaper in Canada). Here's some information: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...ine-block-heater-when-you-buy-your-prius.html
Thank you, TonyPSchaefer -- I will look into that right away. By the way - those were blue bars I was seeing -- not brown.
My goodness. Reading all about the engine block heater and grill blocking now for low temps. The folks who owned the car before I did never did any of this and they drove it through Maine winters since 2007. So for me that begs the question: is all of this sort of thing necessary? Or is it more for MPH enthusiasts? Thank you.
Grille blocking and engine block heaters help the engine warm up faster. There's a benefit for fuel economy but as with any car it operates better once it has warmed up properly. Plus grille blocking helps keep some crap out of the engine bay. If your car is garaged an engine block heater will definitely help it warm up. Our Gen 3 is parked outside so an engine block heater wouldn't be as effective and I haven't bothered. I just use grille blocking on my Gen 3. It's a bit quicker to warm up than a Gen 2 anyway so you should see more benefit. Grille blocking is very easy (generally, push pieces of foam pipe insulation between slats on the grille) so it can be for everyone. But, for obvious reasons, it can cause overheating in warmer temperatures so unless you have a device that allows you to monitor temperatures you'll probably want to take a safe approach. Other threads have good information. As for tires, it would depend on where you live in Maine, what roads you drive on and how you drive. From what I've read a 2007 Prius should be fine with good snow tires, especially if you don't race like a left-lane SUV driver. There are posters here who drive their Gen 2's through Colorado winters. I'm in Central Maine and I survived last winter in our Gen 3 on the regular tires just by driving sensibly. But, I live in a city, commute to another city, can take I95 in bad weather and generally just drive on main roads.
Thank you very much, ItsNotAboutTheMoney. Very kind of you to send this information out to me. I will do a search to see if anyone has photos of their grille blocking set-up and for posts which discuss the engine block heater and grille blocking further. I sure would like to not have to deal with the engine block heater, though. I've just read that in order to be effective, one plugs the EBH in approximately 3 hours prior to taking the first trip of the day. My first trip of the day is about a mile down the road to get my young child to school. And a mile back. Not even that far, in fact. I'm not sure I would really benefit from the EBH so much. My car will be garaged in winter. Thank you again for taking the time to respond. I really appreciate everyone's thoughts, guidance and shared experiences.
It's not necessary, but it can help. I never use grill blocking or heaters with our Michigan winters, but then I don't drive on a daily basis. For me it's just not worth the bother. Tom
If you drive the Prius over 50 mph for over 40 minutes your likely to see the battery SOC go green ( >= 67% state of charge). If you drive in mainly stop-n-go city and suburban driving you'll normally wont see the SOc level go green. You can force the prius to charge its HV battery. With the Prius on but in park mode holding down the brake pedal all the way down ( keep the emergency brakes on too) then put the Prius into Drive while keeping your foot on the brakes, and then using the other foot to press the accelerator all the way down - while the Prius won't move, it will engage the ICE to generate electricity - keep pressing down the accelerator until your SOC indicator goes green. I've done this on my 2010 Prius - it wastes gasoline but it does artificially put your traction battery at a higher SOC. This technique was used in the last Cleanmpg.com Hypermile Fuel Efficiency Challenge to make sure that every driver started off with the same SOC when he started. If you don't normally go on the highway and you dont want to artificially raise the SOC BUT you'd still would like to drive more efficiently so that once in a while the SOC will go green - then you need to learn hypermiling driving techniques - which it sounds easy but it took me about 18 months to really learn - hypermiling requires a focused driver - and if there's alot of traffic on the road its much harder to do... BTW: Grill blocking helps in urban/suburban stop-and-go driving when the temperature drops below 45 Fahrenheit because it helps keep the engine coolant warm even when the gasoline engine is turned off. When the car's engine is constantly on and running hard like in a superhighway environment (+50mph) for over an hour (e.g. 2 hours) then grill blocking does not increase fuel efficiency that much.
Thank you VERY much, Walter Lee, for the excellent information. I really appreciate you taking the time to post it. Julia
fyi - The latest weather report I've seen is forecasting that Hurricane Irene will hit dead center into Maine instead of Massachusett. === This is the most comprehensive article on winterizing a Prius that I've found sofar. A Hybrid Owner's winter Survival Guide by Manuel Santos of Cleanmpg.com Nov 19 2009 ( winterizing a 2nd gen 2007 Prius) A Hybrid Owner’s winter survival guide - CleanMPG Forums === Here are detailed step by step instruction on how to install an Engine Block Heater (EBH) on a 2nd generation Prius if you are a DIY type. http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ine-block-heater-yourself-guide-may-help.html === Here are detailed step by step instructions on how to jump start your 12 volt battery on a 2nd generation Prius if you are handy. How do you jump start a Prius? Can I do it by myself? - Yahoo! Answers == This video by usbseawolf2000 demonstrates how a coolant thermo bottle and grill blocking helps a 2nd generation Toyota Prius improves its overall energy efficiency in the cold ===