How is the Prime in the snow?

Hopefully as good as it's hybrid only brother !

 

Isn't easier to turn off now?
If not, finding the way to do so isn't a hard find.

 

The only way it could do that is with friction braking. A regular differential will send equal torque to the two wheels. This means if either wheel has less traction, it will spin while the one with more traction doesn't spin.

Traction control is probably just controlling delivered power, not wheel brakes. Stability control does, but I didn't think traction control would engage the brakes.

 

The wheel on the slippery surface needs to start spinning faster than the other for the system to know it is slipping. Then it reduces engine power, and might apply the brake to that wheel. If the driver isn't easing off the pedal, that wheel will start to spin again after its speed matches the other one and the system stops intervening. At lower speeds the power reduction can be enough to lose momentum, and have the car come to a stop. I've found letting the wheels spin can net more headway in snow. At least that is lower cost than installing a limited slip differential. That or a locking one is what you really want in poor traction situations.

I do not miss the TRAC on my gen2. A left turn from a stop under heavish acceleration was enough to trigger it. Then there was sudden power loss with traffic possibly heading at my rear.

Primer on ABS, ESC, and TRAC with some videos: This Is How ABS, ESC, And Traction Control Work

 

First real snow accumulation of the season. Even though I still have stock Dunlop Enasave AS tires on my Prime, it drives surprisingly well on wet slushy surface. I may make it through the winter without purchasing winter tires. Yap, you do need to keep eyes on the front TOYOTA emblem. If you don't keep the snow off of it, Pre Collision braking system will not work.

 

In my neck of NewEngland, the snow arrived before I managed to do the winter tire swap. The car was slipping a good bit more than I was comfortable with... This confirmed to me that I personally would not recommend sticking with the Dunlops for the season. I'm used to having snow tires on so it shouldn't come as a surprise I found the lack of snows bothersome.

Later that day I did the swap. New X-Ice3 tires had already been mounted on my winter rims and were just waiting for me to get around to putting them on the car. Very noticeable difference. I am now very happy with the handling of the prime in snow.

Nothing scientific, no braking distance measurements (sorry)...But the car behaves very well now.
Haven't had them on enough to judge noise or impact on EV/HV performance yet. Compared to the Altimax snows I had on my Gen3 last year, these are definitely quieter. Some of that is likely Gen3 vs. Prime in addition to the tire differences. Not fair to judge traction between old and new and I it's been too long to form any opinion on how these differ from when the Gen3 had new tread.

 

Amen.

IIRC @Salamander_King is in a State with annual inspections, which will fail him with a tpms light, and his inspection date is mid-winter. This is putting a lot of owners in a quandary.

 

Here's a summary of TPMS requirements for about a third of the states
Tire Tech Information - State TPMS Regulations

Something went wrong for me this swap. I added sensors to the tires and loaded them in to the ATEQ tool and into the car.
All went smoothly but for some reason the prime TPMS lite has not gone out. There is an initialization sequence I tried in the manual that didn't help as well.

My guess is one of the sensors went bad or I entered the code wrong. Only thought around debugging would be to create a config in the ATEQ tool with one tire replaced at a time and see if those program OK...OR, finding a tire shop to scan the new tires...Sigh...

 

Well, actually when I had cracked front windshield swapped in Aug, it had to have a new inspection sticker on it. So, I no longer have to take my car for inspection during winter month. I was contemplating on getting new set of rims and tires for my PRIME, but the total cost of ~$1000 for set of rims and tires and TPMS is what I get quoted from most places. I thought I can get better deal after Thanksgiving, but I could not find a bargain. Then it snowed. If it was just price of tires, then I would definitely use snow tires. But, on top of initial investment on rims and TPMS, twice a year tire mounting and TPMS resetting at shop will cost too. If stock tires are capable of handling most of normal winter road condition where I live, that is a compromise I can live with. BTW, purely out of curiosity, I asked a Toyota dealer for an estimate to put winter tires on different set of rims on my PRIME. Since TOYOTA doesn't sell steel rims for PRIME, they quoted me with set of 4 OEM alloy wheels with set of OEM TPMS and new tires for whooping $2500.

Looking at Tirerack information @ct89 provided above, I am supposed to be in a state where TPMS does not have to be functional in order to pass the inspection. However, that really depends on where you take your car for inspection IMHO. The law may not requires it, but many shops will automatically fail the inspection if the dashboard warning light is on. On top of that, unless you do tire swaps yourself, many tire shops will refuse to install tires on rims without functional TPMS for liability reason.

Just noticed that Tirerack info contains Hawaii as one of state that does not require TPMS to be functional in order to pass the inspection. But but but...DO THEY REALLY NEED WINTER TIRES?

 

Yeah depends on the dealership. The dealership we bought the car through were adamant: the Prius is a "flagship" vehicle, you've got to use alloy rims, no steel rims will work. Another dealership response: "we're not sure, but think these Corolla rims will work". $70 apiece, vs $350+ for the OEM alloy rims, and thanks-but-no-thanks for the TPMS sensors.

 

The strange thing was that snow was already on the hood and presumably on the emblem when I left work. It had stopped snowing already when I started driving, so there would have been no more new accumulation. Yet, the warning light did not come on until after I drove over 20 miles. Maybe some splash of mud from road caused it? This was what it looked like right before I got out and cleaned emblem.

 

I took the Enasave tires off yesterday and my local tire shop installed the Michelin X-Ice XI3's and I honestly I am SO glad that I did it. It's truly night and day. I have full control now while driving in the snow vs feeling 50/50.

 

What are you doing come spring?

 

Putting new Michelin Premier A/S’s on along with new wheels.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure the pre-collision system would work great in a snowy/icy situation anyway? That seems a bit scary to me. I wonder if there are any firsthand accounts of it getting triggered in icy conditions?