Winter driving tips?

I see a garage in the background , does the prime sleep in the garage ? is the garage heated ?
I dont have a garage so I activated the traction battery heater . This function only operates when the car is plugged in.It will turn on if the temperature of the traction battery is close to 0 C and cut out around 4 C see the manual, for details to activate the battery heater. Power derived from the plug is approx 200watts.Even if the traction battery is fully charged , it will monitor the temp and The EVSE will kick in to keep the temp adequate. Since the heating circuitry is supplied by the 12V battery ,the activation of the heater triggers the EVSE and the DC to DC converter in the charger module will supply 12v power to the heaters and also keep the 12V battery happy and charged.

 

You have the main one:
FOUR Good Snow Tires!

After that, I'd suggest a quick spray with Surface Shield underneath. If you don't have the time/height to remove the underneath panels, then spray what you can. You can spray towards the brakes/rotors. Just don't purposely spray them.

If you don't have one already, installing and engine heater is also a good idea. You should be able to get one from a Canadian dealer, or get one on ebay. Iirc, dealer installation is ~1 hour of time charged (about ~30mins mechanical work, then moving car, filling form/info, and buffer time for any issues - like underbody clips breaking/needing to be replaced).

Change your oil, every 5K miles.
I do an oil change before the snow/winter starts - regardless of how many miles I've gone since the last oil change. Imho, I don't have any desire to do an oil chance in the middle of winter/snow.

Good Luck!

 

You're going to get significantly less economy in cold weather. Just accept that and don't obsess. Generating heat for the cabin will consume a lot of energy. There's nothing B mode can do any better in cold weather. Use it like you would in warmer weather.

Never power down the car when the ICE is running. Wait for the computer to shut down the ICE before hitting the Power button. If you have to wait, put the car in Park and turn OFF the HVAC, otherwise the ICE may remain on as needed to supply heat for the HVAC.

Okay, maybe the Prime uses the heat pump sometimes in lieu of the ICE for heat, but it's still a good rule of thumb to shut off the HVAC before shutting down the car. That way the ICE will not start immediately upon powering up the next time because you are already demanding heat from the HVAC.

 

Even with the snow tires it's too easy to spin a front wheel when starting off on a slippery surface. Take those starts easy.

I might agree with an oil change at 5000 miles of engine use. For us, 10k on the odometer is more like 2k or 3k engine miles.

B position of the shifter will give more regenerative braking from only the front wheels. The rear might pinwheel around on you if you're on a very slippery surface.

Please let us know if the Toyota dealer there offers an engine heater. You'll use the engine more than many of us due to the temps too cold for heat pump operation. An engine heater is great...you'll have a warm engine and a warm cabin in a block or so of driving. A warm engine burns less gas and puts out cleaner exhaust, also.

 

not sure what you're trying to say. 'turning off the ice' = turning off the car?

1) car always starts in ev, but the engine will come on if the temp is set above 'low', and it's too cold for the heat pump to work efficiently

2) engine will come on if it's too cold period

 

The traction battery heater function is active when the car is plug in, and if it is activated in the menu, therefore if the system detects that the traction battery is close to 0C it will trigger the EVSE to allow the heater to function to activate , regardless of the charging shedule. When this event happens the light on the EVSE will indicate Charge and you will hear a slight buzzing sound under the hood ,( that is the inverter buzzing )

 

Keep in mind that the traction battery gets very warm when the car is running,so when you park your car at the end of the day, the battery is quite warm . It takes a long time to cool down . Remember that the traction battery is over 200 pounds,it is quite a mass to cool, therefore it is possible that the moment you leave your car and the moment the charge shedule starts,the traction battery temperature could be still over 4C thus preventing the heater to operate.

 

Here are a few thoughts on winter driving in the Prairies based on 3 winters experience.

Mudguards - Toyota North America thinks we don't need them, but Toyota Europe knows better. They're a perfect fit.
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/283357792777

12V Battery - Toyota doesn't give any love to the 12V battery. It can survive their neglect in most climates, but not really during a prairie winter.
- BM2 Bluetooth Battery Monitor - Permanently installs across the 12V battery. Takes a voltage reading every two minutes and stores the result. Download the results to an app on your phone. Widely available on ebay, Amazon, even Princess Auto, although the Princess Auto version is almost twice the cost of other units. Watch for a sale.
- Battery Maintainer - Get a smart battery maintainer - preferably one that's temperature compensated.
- Battery blanket - If you're going to plug in the wimpy block heater anyway, you might consider getting a battery blanket. Normally, a warm battery and a cold temperature sensor would result in a very overcharged battery. But since Toyota doesn't use temperature compensation when they charge the 12V battery, it might work well. Be careful if you use it with a temperature compensated maintainer. I haven't done this, so you're on your own here.

Rear hatch weatherstripping. Snow & ice will collect in the gap at the top of rear hatch. When you open the hatch, the glass itself will be pushed down into the ice by the pneumatic lifts. I hate the creaking & snapping noises it makes. I have visions of the glass shattering. There is weatherstripping you can buy that does a decent job of filling the gap. The gap now stays clear of snow and ice and the weatherstripping stays in place. Note that there may be other types that fit even better. YMMV.
https://priuschat.com/threads/rear-trunk-snow-ice-in-top-gap.230776

Ed

 

This was a particular issue with the Gen 3 Prius, so maybe carries over to the Gen 4. The problem was if you powered down the car while the ICE was running, it would lead to pronounced knocking the next time the ICE did a cold start. Perhaps because unburnt fuel was not cleared from the system. So the recommendation was to let the computer shut down the ICE before powering the car off with the Power button.

 

how do you turn off the ice without turning off the car?

 

I think what @FuelMiser means is to shut down the car while the engine's off, not while it's running. Maybe that's only necessary with cold-starts; you want to let it run till it shuts off the engine. Say when doing driveway shuffles.

 

hopefully not an issue with gen 4. i don't recall reading anything