So I have been reading through the owners manual and there are several pages which cover driving procedures. I extracted most if not all the bits which mention driving/idling/parking (.pdf attached - ignoring repeats). I am mainly interested in preservation and longevity of components. When driving downhill shifting to B instead of D which utilises engine braking, reduced wear on the brakes as well as possibly better battery regeneration? Q1. Although I wonder whether driving downhill and keeping off the acceleration pedal in D would generate more battery power whilst braking every now and then? Of course this doesn't negate the wear on brakes. However then again engine braking takes a toll on the engine/transmission I believe? Q2. On a even surface incline stopped at traffic lights is it better to hold down the brake pedal or switch to P? Q3. Is it better to apply the parking brake along with switching to P when stopped/parking on an uneven surface incline? I am assuming it is suggested to use the parking brake first thereby switching to P in order to eliminate the wear on P assuming P is electronic braking? Q4. Am I using hill-start assist correctly? Whilst parked on a hill, personally I switch to PWR Mode, hold down the brake pedal, switch to D, push the brake pedal further in (activate hill-start) release the parking brake, release brake pedal and accelerate? Q5. Is excessive use of P bad? Alternative would be switching to N and parking brake engaged? Q6. What is potential repair cost of usage of P vs parking brake cable replacement? I am aware that we all have our own driving habits and styles although mainly interested in the "right" way to do things with minimal wear on components. I am aware that the parking brake shouldn't be used in very cold conditions as to not cause binding.
The car will shift to P every time you turn it off even if you didn't. so there's not really much reason to overthink about using P less by parking in N more. I've seen occasional reports of something going wrong with the parking actuator business (often wiring connections), but I've never heard of it failing from overuse. Engine braking is no more stressful on the engine and drivetrain than engine driving is. You do drive the car, right? Engine braking is less stress, for that matter, because there's no combustion involved and the cylinder pressures are kept very low by the closed throttle. In normal driving, the car will regen as much as it can into the battery, and resort to engine braking when the battery nears full. Shifting to B changes nothing about the basics, but it does make the car shift the balance earlier toward more engine braking and less regen into the battery. The chief time it's useful is down a long hill that you know is going to fill the battery anyway; by filling the battery more slowly, diverting more of the energy to engine braking, the life of the battery is made easier. In any other situation, B is just a less-efficient D, leaving regen on the table before it has to, and discarding more energy with engine braking than it has to.
Very cool and thank you for sharing out the excerpts from the manual. Q1: Depends on how steep and how long the hill is, and what speed you are trying to maintain. You can get a feeling for the difference between B and D and how much they slow you down. I personally drive around in B all of the time because I like the extra "regen" and pseudo one-pedal drive feeling, even though it is less efficient. There has been no extra wear on the oil analysis reports I do every oil change so not sure what toll it has taken. amarino - '15 Two - Oil Change Reports | PriusChat Q2: Depends on the traffic light and if I know that some will take a long time to cycle back to me, I switch to P sometimes. But most of the time I just hold the brake. I also use P sometimes in drive-thru when its going slow and I don't want to hold the brake pedal down. Q3: Yes Parking Brake first, then push P (or turn off the car as it applies P automatically). P is not electronic, but a parking pawl in the transaxle. You can see how the parking pawl works here: Parking pawl - Wikipedia Prime rolls when put in park even in small incline | PriusChat I think I heard this from some off road groups, but on an incline the "correct" way is to first apply the Parking Brake / E-Brake, then shift to Neutral to let the Parking Brake take the weight of the car, then last shift to P for the transmission parking pawl as a backup. What you don't want to do is shift into P first and have all the weight of the car on the parking pawl. Easier and cheaper to replace the Parking Brake parts than to open the transmission to repair the parking pawl. Q4: I didn't even know I had hill start assist, so no input here. Q5: There is nothing wrong with using P as long as you don't abuse it such as rocking the car without the Parking Brake or shifting into P while moving. Every time you turn off the car, it automatically switches to P, from page 210 of my manual: Q6: Just look at what I shared above on Q3 about the parking pawl inside the transaxle. But just some quick google searching, not much comes up for issues with our Gen 3 and parking pawl or parking brake replacements, so don't be afraid to use it.
Agreed, I should of added a bit more background to some of my questions that every weekend I do deliveries to about ~110 properties and leave the car running. I therefore have been engaging P about 110 times within a 4 hour period. Was therefore wondering about wearing it out prematurely. Alternatively I could put it in N and use parking brake. Thanks. Q1. Good to know! For some reason I recall something along the lines of using B in stop/go traffic (better for battery regen), skimmed through the manual now but can't find that quoted anywhere so not sure where I read/got that idea from. Q3. Nice to be able to visualise how it works as now makes sense based on that sort of claw/handle engaging into the gear whereby the car would slightly rock back/forward once. That does sound reasonable shifting to N first before P after engaging parking brake just as a double safety measure ensuring weight is off it. Think I may start doing so. Q4. Hill assist is quite a nice feature, used it a few times. Thanks.
That doesn’t seem like a good idea. It’ll reduce charging of the hybrid battery, and if I’m not mistaken the engine never shuts off, when you’re coasting or stopped. I would reserve “B” gear for long downhills, per @ChapmanF’s description.
