Future Owner Charging Questions

Thanks. I'd like to buy an obd/bluetooth adapter. Is this one good for my prius?
Next step: where is the obd port located?

 

I don't have a vpeek. but it should work OK. DrPrius web page Dr. Prius App
has a write up on OBD11 adapters linked to in the menu at the top of the page.
Many of the commonly used apps like torque, hybrid assistant, car scanner, etc also describe the adapters they tested and or recommend.
The ODB11 port is located in the drivers footwell under the steering wheel. Easiest way to find it is to shine a flashlight up in the footwell.

 

Great. I'll give it a try. Do you know if such apps allow to access the customisations? Settings like assigning remote key buttons functionalities, seat belt alarm muting and so on? Thanks

 

DrPrius DrHybrid app - has access to a few of the Prius customization features like -reverse beep, seat belt beep. battery temp ( to turn on the HV battery fans), read battery errors. clear battery errors, read engine errrors, clear engine errors, disable traction control and maintenance mode.

Some or all of those features may need the $12 us subscription to activate. After finding where they are in the menu of the free version it should be easy to tell which are free and which need a subscript.

I've read that the carista app has access to the most Prius customization, I don't know exactly which ones or which Gen Prii they work on.

Be careful when using apps, besides Toyota app for customizations, especially for Gen 4 and 5. (imo)

 

why?

going back to the main topic: how important is not to drain a lot of current out of the battery by flooring the "ex-gas" pedal? is there any difference between flooring just after having started the car and after a warming up period?

 

I'm curious too. I would assume the system in the latest models is smart enough to know when the HV/EV switch should happen, and so it probably wouldn't let you operate the EV mode outside of safe temps to do so anyway so "warming up" shouldn't be a thing for high current EV only acceleration. It doesn't have oil viscosity to worry about like a normal ICE, which is why you would historically warm it up a little then drive carefully without big revs until it hit operating temp. The battery is either at a warm enough temperature to safely operate for whatever you ask of it, or, it's not. They prioritize battery longevity with the whole SOC charging limits they have, plus a 10 year battery warranty, so they probably have checks and balances all figured out for that too.

Of course there are probably small optimizations you can do, but I think those probably fit better into general "don't drive like a bat out of hell in sport mode all the time" and the other stuff you've posted like charge schedules and not charging when you don't need to, etc.

Living in Canada, and having been through many cold snaps (even if not super north where you need a block heater all the time), there's even a limit to how warm idling gets an engine, and long idle times are bad for cars also. So you inevitably had to drive the car at low rpms to finish getting the thing up to proper operating temp. I just don't think this process applies to the battery or the electric motor. It's either good to go, or it's not.

Maybe others have more info though, I'm new to this. I just take the view that at some point, we need to just trust the car and use common sense. If it's -30C and in EV mode, gunning it is probably not great, just like it isn't good in general and not good for ICE either. Even if warmed up fully

 

It's the engine I'd be worried about doing that. The car always applies limits to maximum current it will put into or take out of the battery based on temperature, but I believe it won't make particular effort to protect the engine.

And limits on the battery will mean more is asked of the engine (although if you're really flooring it then the engine will be at max anyway.)

 

Another note - in EV mode the maximum power is limited, to the midway mark in the "POWER" part of the hybrid meter.

That represents a level of power the battery should be able to provide on its own at normal temperatures.

So in normal temperatures, flooring it in EV will normally not start the engine.

But if the battery is cold enough that the system won't let it provide that "midway through POWER" level, then the engine will start. (But you'll still be limited to the halfway through POWER output, so it won't stress the engine as much as flooring it in other modes.)

 

Due diligence at inspecting the app, it's features and which sensors it gets right or at least close and which ones it doesn't. Than after inspecting and understanding the limits / limitations of the app connected to your year and model, you can decide which features you'd like to try and which you like to wait a while before jumping in.
You'll see this in all apps to one degree or another even the Toyota app, but at least with the Toyota app it's OEM and supported, so if it screws up you're covered.

DrPrius DrHybrid apps main focus was / is the high voltage battery. So users can more easily detect and observe issues with parts of the battery and it's performance as a whole unit. Not taking away from it's usefulness in that regard, it was originally built to monitor Gen 2 Prius NiMH battery packs which it still does well. Now a days, the app supports many generations of Toyota Hybrids and Plugins as well and the list of supported vehicle is on the priusapp.com web site. If looking close enough one can sometimes find some things that don't always exactly match the hardware in the car although in my opinion form what I've seen in our Prime is darn close enough and exceptionally handy, for anyone interested in learning about or repairing the high voltage battery.

 

Are you sure about that? If it is the case, it means that I shouldn't worry much, since my ICE has never kicked in so far (though in the future i could experience much lower temperatures than the ones of these days).

 

why? coils should be designed to handle a reasonable amount of current ABOVE the one that the battery is able to output....

I'm sure this is cared of during charging, but is it the same during draining?

Ok, yes, I had given that care for granted!

What do you mean bu "toyota app"? I guess you don't refer to the cr@p app I have on my phone, that takes ages to connect and retrieve a (usually not updated) car status, do you?

 

The battery power is only significantly reduced below around 0°C. The battery heater function is there to help keep it above that. If temperatures are like 5°C or more, as I believe they are in Rome, the battery is fully functional.

Coils? Oh, no, I mean I'm worried about the petrol engine, not the electric motor.

Absolutely. Car monitors like the DrPrius mentioned above who you live readouts of what the current limits are.

When down at -20°C, say, the car will spend ages just drawing a kilowatt or two, getting the rest of the power from the engine, until the battery's warmed up.

 

Yep that's the one that is already on your phone. Toyota app. No app is going to everything a user wants and some are better than others at certain things. I edited my reply above with some thought about the DrPrius DrHybrid app.

( ICE ) internal combustion engine and electric motor. It takes a while to get all the terms in order so don't worry about switching some around every once in a while.

Yes, it's most noticeable for me when the battery is cold and I put the car into B mode for more regen braking while exiting the hwy. To much regen and the car switches the engine on and reduces the regen current to the battery.

It all depends on priorities. The more stress the driver puts on the battery no matter whether / weather the battery is hot cold of just right at about 90 F / 32 C the internal parts of the battery also get stressed and resistance to flow rises. If the battery is stressed all the time the internal resistance keeps rising. It's not that the driver can't floor the Go Pedal, lots of us do at one time or another. It's that there are times when Flooring the Go Pedal puts more stress on the battery ( like when the battery temps are in the -10 C range after the car has sat unplugged for 8 hours when temps are frigid ) then other times ( like when it's between 24 to 26 C and battery temps are around 32 C ) when flooring the Go Pedal

 

Keep in mind that the many ECUs ( computers ) ( 26 of them in the Gen 4 - i've read ) and sensors are at work monitoring and communicating with other ECUs, and all doing their best to provide the correct signals to provide the most efficient use of the engine and motor, in combination or separately. So if the temp is really cold 0 C and the battery temp s 32 C the ECUs are going to notice something is not typical and will change the cars behavior in some way to compensate for the abnormal signals sent to them from the sensors.

 

Charging etiquette sort of evolved naturally using common sense. Never charge for more than an hour if someone else is waiting. If you have a hybrid, give way to someone with a full electric. I'm not aware of any official standards so far.

 

That's like going to the men's room and not finishing

 

When I came back to my car, I saw a very impatient EV driver waiting for me to unplug. He obviously needed it more than me.

 

I've switched the Prime meters to metric and I'm learning. It's going to take a while before I understand what I"m looking at. Some of the imperial gauges I use regularly are calculated oppositely in metric. I've suspected this for a while, but I didn't realize exactly how different the measurements are until I started looking at them for more than a few minutes.

5k Gen 3 Prime — Milky oil | PriusChat
The title is a bit confusing since the subject is a 2024 Prime, and the milky oil might also be one of the things that happens when running the Prime hard before it finishes it's warmup cycle, and much more so below freezing temps. That was my initial suspicion when I noticed it the one time it happened to me, approx 10 years ago.

 

in a recent trip in cold weather my car allowed only very low regeneration even in "B" mode. I was on a steep down slope and battery temp was around 4C...

 

What was the level of charge in the battery? I find that above 85%, the charge is limited since the system still considers the battery is be at or near full charge.