I was at a traffic stop and the road ahead was a steep hill. I wanted to get ahead of everyone because the road ahead had a huge pothole and by switching to the other lane, I could avoid it. So I turned on PWR mode (never used it before). As soon as the light turned green, I accidentally floored the pedal and it was faster than a jet engine taking off. The reason I floored it is because I'm not used to the pedal intensity, in ECO mode..the pedal is very hard to press. While climbing up the hill fast, I end up flooring it 1-3 times more (accidentally).This was in 100 degree weather, do you think I damaged or wore out any engine parts?
Hi Mw, The only thing you wore out was your brain from overthinking this Your engine is fine, your prius wanted to please you so it gave you what you asked for. How about rewarding the prius for such fine work with a nice wash and wax and topping off the fluids!
For your future reference, flooring your Prius in any other mode would have produced the same fast acceleration. PWR mode does not provide more power, it only changes the mapping to give you a more sensitive accelerator pedal. Tom
But it doesn't. The placebo effect is very strong. Back in Detroit when the 2010 was first revealed to the public, we had a private meeting with the Prius Chief Engineer. He was very clear about the various modes, and the fact that full power was available in all the modes. Subsequent testing has also confirmed this to be true. Tom
No. The only difference between the modes is the response to the pedal. For example, half way down in eco asks for less power than half way down in pwr. There are other differences though. I think eco is lighter on the A/C system as well from reading comments on this forum. When you press the accelerator pedal all the way down there is no difference between pwr and eco! Do the test. Time from a stop to some fixed distance ahead with full throttle (on a deserted road of course - and keep it short enough you won't reach supra-legal speeds). It's been stated this is the case and others have tested and confirmed it.
You're obsessed over damaging your Prius and it's getting annoying. http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-main-forum/79096-best-vehicle-rough-roads.html http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...ubleshooting/83608-did-i-damage-my-axles.html http://priuschat.com/forums/freds-house-pancakes/81792-can-someone-please-explain.html http://priuschat.com/forums/freds-house-pancakes/79737-what-do-about-tail-gaters-14.html#post1133673 http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-main-forum/76712-prius-durability-decisions.html http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-main-forum/84151-whos-fault.html
We've gone over this before. It's energetically inefficient to use battery power to climb a hill. Use gas engine when climbing a hill (as well as getting up to speed).
You mean you pressed the accelerator pedal and the vehicle went fast? What were you thinking? Couple that with using the "Power" mode and you probably came dangerously close to ripping a hole in the fabric of time and space and being transported back into time or into some alternative universe where solar powered sunroof panels are mandatory. I think you are fine. But take it easy.
I agree that theretically flooring the gas paddle should yield the max. power of the car regardless of which mode it's in. I doubt if anyone routinely "floor" the gas paddle to prove this. I even doubt if the op actually "floored" it, although accidentally. It's just he's not accustomed to the "power" of PWR mode so he felt it was "floored". No I'm pretty sure the ICE was not "damaged" or else Toyota will not allow it to be "floored"; the mpg record might, that's all. This is one of my opinions previously posted in the forum that I felt "unsafe" driving in ECO mode routinely, for when I switch to drive my son's G5 I step on it just like the ECO mode of the Prius (by subconcious muscle memory) causing it to race forward unexpectedly. In the op's case he didn't drive another car but for some reason put the car into PWR mode and stepped on it just like he's so accustomed to in ECO mode causing the ICE and the car to race forward unexpectedly. I hope nobody got into an accident because of this. I routinely drive in PWR mode and "feel" that the 1st 50% of gas paddle travel does more than linearly multiplying a factor to the response rate of the ICE in ECO or standard modes. I feel the full power of 80HP from the MGs in PWR mode right from get go. I suspect the ECO and standard modes limit the power of the MGs in addition to remapping the ICE response rate to lower %. See? If I'm right the power of the PWR mode would be 100% MG + whatever percentage of ICE power and that's very powerful for accelerating from stand still. Can anyone give us some insight / confirmation about this?
If anyone implied that the accelerator pedal mapping changes were only for the ICE, it was unintentional and wrong. With the Prius, the accelerator is nothing more than a computer input, telling the ECU that the driver wants more or less power. It offers no direct control over the ICE or MGs. When the accelerator pedal mapping changes for the various modes, it changes the mapping for the entire control system. This includes the ICE and the MGs. The mapping changes are mostly in the first half of the accelerator pedal travel. In the limiting case, full power, the mapping is identical for all modes. Most driving is done with the first part of the accelerator pedal travel, which is why you notice such a large difference in response. Tom
But what Tim might be referring to is that Eco mode will smooth out accelerator input a bit; there's a slight lag in that mode, and it averages pedal input to get engine demand. A good thing for the average driver who is just driving the Prius normally, but it can be annoying if you start noticing it. I agree though, that it doesn't really accelerate any faster, it just *starts* to accelerate sooner.
You are asking if flooring the car hurt it? Are you serious? LOL, worried about damaging brakes from using them? What's next, OP, a post about did you break your windshield wipers by using them in the rain? I bet your primary care physician loves when you visit
Personally I think there should be 4 buttons on The Prius Dash. Power, ECO, EV and Placebo.... Placebo doing nothing but activating the noisemaker that makes The Prius sound like either a V8 or a Space-Ship.
