New (to me) 2012 PiP - some questions

@jerrymildred may be able to assist. He moved from a 2005 I think to a PiP. He seems to have found most of the tricks with the help of @bisco .

 

Congrats and welcome! While not a repair manual per se, Toyota does have something called Tech Info (https://techinfo.toyota.com) where you can get all the maintenance manuals you need for a 2 day pass for $15. I believe if you do enough searching on this site you might find a couple of complete manuals.

As for your second question, depends on whether you have an Advanced model or the Base one. If Base you also might find an Entune update here as well. That would be my first inclination, is to update Entune as the earlier versions were quite buggy. Although the later versions aren't much better they are more stable.

But if you have an iPhone you might require a lightning cable since the Bluetooth in the car is only partially compatible.

I'm not familiar with updates for the Advanced model of the PiP. Perhaps @john1701a can help there for update sources.


Unsupervised!

 

Congrats, @KCobby!

I see that @drash beat me to the punch. Thanks for saving me looking up that link for the tech info. I'm afraid I still have much to learn about the PiP. @bisco is the real expert. And mine is a base model, so it may not match yours, but here's what I know about my phone with the car. Bisco's is also a base, iirc.

I have an iPhone 6S, which seems to work perfectly with the car for my purposes. I did an Entune update the first time I connected it to the car via USB to the port inside the center armrest. I mainly use it for hands free calling and occasional audio streaming. I haven't seen any value to any of the Entune apps. Entune can't seem to find most of the nearby gas stations that Gas Buddy locates in a heartbeat. And my Garmin GPS with lifetimes maps shows more information than the car's map app and the updates are free. And the Garmin is up high where it's easier to see.

It was a snap to feed my phone's contact list to the car, so it's really nice to see the caller's name come up on the big display. And the phone connects when I pick up a call WAY faster than my '05 model V. With the '05 there were about 5 seconds before the caller could hear me or I could hear him. This one is right now.

My usual routine is to mount the phone in my holder and connect the lightning cable to the USB port. The car will ask if I want to connect to the internet and warns me that it may use cell data. Since the car can't seem to access any info on the internet that I'm interested in, I say no and just let it charge the phone while I drive.

One other thing, @KCobby. I don't really expect to ever learn all about this amazing car. I find out something new every now and then even after having it for 3 months. Others have had theirs for years and are still making discoveries.

I'm hoping that an update to Entunes will fix your bluetooth problem. What phone do you have?

 

Thanks for the help, Jerry.

 

Similar here-- got a good deal on a '12 PIP Adv. two weeks ago to replace my '04 with 229,000 miles. I also have lots to learn. I filled up for the first time today and am hoping this gas gauge is better than on my '04 where I almost always filled with 7.x gallons after running 1-20 miles on the blinking pip and that included "over-filling" .3 or .4 of a gallon. I never did learn where those additional four gallons were hiding.

The manual states the PIP has a 10.6 gallon tank and the last pip will start blinking with 1.6 gallons left. After running 15 miles on the blinking pip today I filled with 8.4 gallons including .2 topping off. So while the math is better than with the Gen2, it is not working out here completely either. What are other's experience with this tank and gauge?

 

I hope you carry a spare 3 gallons to get started again after you run out of fuel.
You might want to update the vehicle in your profile to show the PiP.
Enjoy your ride!

 

When mine gets to 2 pips on the gauge, I start planning for gas. When it gets to one, I get it as soon as I get to one of my usual stations, if possible, or just anywhere along the way if I'm away from home. After 650-800 miles, I'm ready to grace a gas station again with my presence. I've done that six times so far this year, and I've been putting on lots of miles lately with some family medical issues.

 

mine is the same, and keep in mind, the gen 3 has no bladder. i put in almost exactly 8 gallons from the blinking pip, so, i figure 2.6 in reserve. i don't think i've ever put in 10 gallons, maybe 9.

 

Oh, I should add that the most I've ever put in is 7.984 gallons. When filling, I let it stop itself and then round to the nearest dime. None of this includes my first fill up, which was a mile from where I bought it and the last pip was blinking.

 

I do not want to run out of fuel, which is why I am asking these questions here.

 

I'm just trying to learn if there is consistency here or not. If not, I will be more cautious. I was thinking Gen3 would be more consistent sans-bladder.

 

absolutely. mine is spot on. if you look at the spreadsheet sticky, you can see all my fill ups. most are at the same gas station.
once in awhile, i'm on the road and can't fill up when the last bar flases, that's when the fill ups are over 8 gallons. i did 9 gallons last fall, all highway at 60 mph, 59 mpg.

 

Thanks all. Has anyone intentionally on non-intentionally ran out of gas to see how many gallons it actually holds from the nozzle and how long it runs on the blinking pip? It would be helpful to know if that is consistent. I have an 11,000 mile road trip coming up and would rather not leave 100 - 200 miles in the tank at each filling.

 

I wonder the same thing. I have yet to put more then 8 gallons in when it says 0 miles left. My other Prius a 2011 takes over 9 gallons when empty. I wonder what size the tank is but I don't want to run it out of fuel.

 

the capacity should be in your owners manual. it is a little larger than the pip, maybe 12 gallons?

at 10.6 gallons, i wouldn't hesitate to use 10, as long as you know there's a station around the bend.
keep in mind, the reported mpg's are a bit high, and if you plug in, it throws the whole calculation off.

 

A very dangerous game you play. I've done 10 gallons in my PiP. Same as Bisco, I average 8 when DTE is 0 so I figure I can do 100 miles additional to get to 10 gallons.

I would not do that on a road trip where elevation, speed, and especially bad math can severely alter my averages. I fill up when the last PiP is blinking. On road trips with a fully weighted car and family expecting AC, I've dropped as low as 43 mpg.