Please list your tips for better MPG in the winter.

Engine blocking is merely blocking the lower grill on the car. I went to a local hardware store and purchased some round, black foam insulation (pipe insulation). The smaller sized stuff (1/2"? or 3/8"). I cut some lengths that would fit across the lower grill and wedged it in there. It didn't fit as well as I liked, because there are some plastic bars that run perpendicular (up and down) to the grill. I resolved this by cutting little "slits" into the piping so that the slits would line up and fit in with the vertical slats.

Basically, it deflects the air and reduces the amount of cold air getting into the engine bay. This allows for the car to warm up more quickly and maintain heat better because you don't have as much cold air cooling the engine down.

While I don't have the same mileage I was getting in the summer (62 - 63 mpg) I'm doing a lot better than I was this time last year (my last fill up was 59 mpg, last year, under the same conditions, it would have been 55-56 mpg).

Don't forget to check you tire air pressures. They will decrease with the colder weather, so you'll want to pump them up again. I run mine at MAX PSI in the front (44 PSI for my tires) and 42 PSI for the rear. This helps with rolling resistance issues.

 

See bottom of http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...mileage-gets-worse-in-winter.html#post1411488.

 

NO SPECIAL SKILLS REQUIRED
======================
1) Scrape off the frost/ice from your front and rear windshield
manually with a plastic auto windshield ice scraper and use
the front windshield defroster and rear windshield defroster
only when necessary and then so sparingly. Avoid using the
cabin heater for the first 20 minutes.
2) Rather than warm up the car for a few minutes before
driving it - if the windshields are clear and driving conditions
permit - immediated start your trip and drive once you start
up the Prius - however, donot push the Prius beyond the
HSI eco mode during the first 3 to 6 minutes - allow the
ICE to gently warm up while the Prius is moving forward to
its destination for the first 6 minutes.
3) Park your car to get the maximum sunlight exposure during
the winter with your front windshield facing east in the mornings
and south in the afternoons - this maximizes the suns warming
up your windshield so you dont have to put on the defroster.
4) If you can - drive during the warmest part of the day and
avoid driving when its cold if you can.
5) Combine all trips less than 4 miles/20 minutes together
during the day - driving each trip in sequence with the longest one
first and the shortest one last making sure that the time between
each trip is less than 15 minutes of the last.
6) Keep your speed under 53 mph, for best fuel efficiency keep
your speed between 23 mph to 46 mph. Driving longer than 40
minutes per trip tends increases your fuel efficiency while driving
less than 40 minutes per trip tends decrease your fuel efficiency.
7) keep your Prius trunk empty ( keep your payload as light as
possible especially over the rear tires).
8) Avoid driving in wet/rainy, icy or snowy road conditions


ADDITIONAL WORK REQUIRED
=====================
1) Raise your tire pressure to 42 psi front/ 40 psi rear.
2) block your lower air intake grill as a previous replying
poster has suggested when the outside temperature is
less than 50F.


MAJOR INVESTMENT REQUIRED.
========================
1) install Toyota's optional electric 400W engine block heater
onto your Prius. Plug it into a wall socket for 30 minutes to 90
minutes before you drive. After it warms up your engine coolant,
remove it and drive off. The Engine block heater cost about $60.
The installation if professionally done is the major expense ($$$)
but it can be done as a DIY if you have the time, energy, and
skill ( a heated garage or a nice warm day in the parking lot helps).
The ongoing electricity cost to heat up your engine and whether
the FE savings is worth the cost is one of debate. From what
I've read Engine block heater last from 3 to 6 year.

2) Learn to hypermile with a ScangaugeII. The ScangaugeII
cost $160 normally but the bigger investment is in your
time and effort. While hypermiling can achieve over 20%
better fuel efficiency than the EPA, it usually requires that
Prius must be driven slower than what most people are use
to and adds about 25% more time to your travel time.

For a second opinion/resource
=======================
A Hybrid Owner’s winter survival guide - CleanMPG Forums


FWIW: MPG improves over time because the stock Prius
tires' rolling resistance will decrease over time - New tires
cause a 5% to 10% reduction in MPG for the first few
months.

hope this helps

Walter Lee
(aka "HyperDrive 1" on Cleanmpg.com)
2010 Toyota Prius III , Blue Ribbon/Dark Grey, oem floormats
Yokohama Avid S33D (front 50psi/rear 48psi)
ScangaugeII(Fwt ,SoC, GPH, RPM)
100% grill blocking

Odeometer +17800 miles
overall 61 mpg
Worst Tank 52mpg (Winter, Dec 27th 2010)
Best Tank 70mpg (Fall, Sep 29th, 2011)
Last tank (Dec 8th, 2011) 63 mpg, 17835miles, 636 miles using 10 gallons of E10 87oct gasoline.

 

Regarding #1, some people use windshield covers to avoid having to scrape ice. Having covered or garage parking helps too. When I had covered parking at my apartment, the car that was covered had a clear windshield while the other didn't, if it got to freezing outside.

Regarding #5, yup, this is always a good practice in general... if going to the shortest destination first, stopping, then the next and so on, the ICE may never finish warming up and is constantly wasting fuel in warmup mode.

Scangauge II athttp://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B000AAMY86?tag=priuschatcom-20 is now down $118. I posted about it in another thread but it was $118.85 yesterday.

 

wear a heavy coat, hat and gloves and leave the heat off!

 

Some of us can not avoid driving daily on ice / snow. When temps are minus, just get used to the idea that fuel economy will be less.

 

+ the winter survival guide, he did an excellent job.

A Hybrid Owner’s winter survival guide - CleanMPG Forums

 

+1
You can do a lot to keep mpg's high in the freezing cold - but slush, rain, snow ... there's no way to prevent the drag that those elements cause. Those are mpg reducing things that can't be prevented.

only the lower grill? Maybe for YOU that works, but when it comes to grill blocking that's not all that some do.

In addition, a few of us got Toyota thermostats (from Japan) that run a few degrees warmer. That helps a bit too, along with all the other trick that have been posted ad infinitum.

.

 

What is your average trip distance? Due to engine warmup needs, short trips are not good for MPG in any gasoline car.

I live in your region but was out of town the first half of this month. As my MPG graph shows, past Decembers have produced the worst MPG. Summer will be much better.

You are new to the Prius, so you still have a lot to learn. And if you were not already a hypermiler, you have even more to learn. Refer to the already-mentioned winter survival guides both here and on CleanMPG.

For the very best results, you will also need a ScanGauge or other engine monitor, though this is overkill for most drivers.

 

wowsers! That's a bargin!

My first one cost me $160. My second one (now on loan to a FEH with an intermittent ABS problem) cost me $125...I really do miss my second one... I am soo tempted to get a third....

 

what site did you go to to get the thermostat from Japan? And was it a coolant thermostat or a heater thermostat?

 

Coolant. One of the members here on PC brought a bunch over (from japan), many years ago, for the gen3 reveal in Detroit.
Wow! That was a lot of years back ... just like this thread

.