I was today years old when I found out I have active shutters

i'm amazed the shutters are that effective in a warm climate

 

I've had mine for four years and have about 40,000 miles on it. My average MPG over that period is 60.1 miles per gallon. I don't know why I got such a cherry, but it sure is nice to not have to buy a lot of gasoline.

 

Good on you @ I amPrius and thanks for the heads up on the plastic cover for access. Was it the bottom shutter you needed to put back in place? I really need an old win10 lappy (one of these days) and techstream
to double check to see if my shutters are actually working or if they were disabled during presale inspection.
Not knowing if my shuffters are actually functional yet, I just put winter grilleblock in as I've been doing for the last 10 years. One of these days....

 

if interested in some of how the things works This Weber University Automotive Colleges video
describing the Prius cooling system and related components.

or the specific shutter assembly is here in the video

since you mentioned torque being used to erase the code, pay attention to the video at the 15 minute point where John references the trouble codes related to the dynamic grille block assembly.

 

and here i was all along, thing it was only about cooling

 

13:26 - isn't that interesting ... so people who drive Priuses in cooler climates get a substantial MPG increase between the more aerodynamic setting of having the shutters closed, and they benefit from having the cooler air charge (i.e. more dense air for better combustion).

I guess I shouldn't feel so bad about my MPG, then, as it just won't get out of the 90's (Fahrenheit) here.

 

Just to add my experience with the Active Air Shutter system I have this information. My wife's 2016 Prius Four suddenly popped up a check engine light one evening coming home. I checked for engine codes and was able to retrieve P059F and P05A0 codes which were able to be cleared. The next day I looked at the shutters and did not find any debris or damage like is described in the TSB. Hoping that this was just a spurious alarm we continued driving the car and the next day received an alarm on the dash that the Active Air Shutters were inoperable and to see the dealer. No check engine light this time however P05A0 was stored in the ECU. The alarm appeared when the car reached 45 mph and then was cleared when the engine was shut down. The car is out of warranty. After a couple of discussions with the tech at the Toyota dealership we identified that the shutter on the drivers side was not closing completely due to a very slight interference at the bottom. The shutters otherwise were working as designed which he verified with the Techstream procedures. Long story short is that recently my wife had backed over a landscaping stone at the end of our driveway and the skid panel under the radiator area had apparently pushed against the shutter assembly just enough to misalign it in its opening behind the bumper. Two hours of shop labor later the shutters were working again. The front bumper has to be removed to access the shutter assembly otherwise it would have been a much easier fix. No parts needed to be replaced and all codes were cleared and have not returned.

 

Holy crap!! How do you get that kind of mileage? What kind of tires you riding on? I just got my 3rd Prius (a 2017) and it’s getting the best mileage I’ve ever gotten. I’m getting around 51-52 but the 2007 and 2011 I had only got 46.