We recently purchase a clean used 2010 Pkg 2. It has been a better car than I had anticipated. Not just a good green car/hybrid or great on gas.....it's a good car! This forum provided a lot of answers to our questions prior to purchased, and even more afterwards. I really appreciate all the knowledge I have gained. I apologize, and thank you, in advance for this dumb question. I did a search of this forum, Google and several sections of the Owner's Manual before posting this. How does one determine visually when the ICE is running? Specifically, where is this indicated on the display? I can sometimes tell when the ICE is running, but other times I'm not sure.
OP's 2010 doesn't have that EV symbol on the dash. Or least, my identical year-level did not. That symbol was added in 2012 as part of the mid-cycle refresh.
There is no direct display for this. If you are showing the simple animation that shows power flow, you can tell the ICE is one when the arrows show power going out of the engine. Mike
When the instantaneous fuel consumption gauge indicates anything other than maximum (100 mpg on my UK spec car) the ICE is running.
However, there can be times when it shows 100 mpg and the ice is still running. While not frequent, it does happen.
As a side note, engine RPM is an available gauge on a ScanGauge II ScanGauge II ODB Scan Tool + Digital Gauges + Trip Computers - PriusChat Shop
EXACTLY! Look at the HSI Indicator. When EV is not lit, the ICE is burning fuel. Cut and dry. No mysteries here. Ice is OFF when HSI looks like above. Ron (dorunron)
I agree - get yourself a Scanguage and mount it right on the dash behind the upper middle of the steering wheel. It's a cool "tool" to keep track of 4 things (you get to choose which ones) to monitor. It's cool when you start to go down a hill and the Scangauge shuts off. That's when you know the ICE is NOT operating.
That's when you find out that your ScanGauge is not set up right for a hybrid. I don't recall just which menu setting needs to change (its in the manual, which I read five years ago), but you shouldn't have to tolerate it winking out periodically while driving. I prefer to watch RPM to determine when the ICE is burning fuel, but GPH and some others can also work.
You need to go into the ScanGuage set-up and configure it for a hybrid. It won't shut off after that.
When the instantaneous fuel consumption gauge (circled) is up to the top (or down to the bottom with liters/100km), and you're below ~45 mph, the engine's off. Above 45 mph my Scanguage will show minimum 900+ rpm, but the IFC gauge (and Scangauge) will show no gas being consumed. So maybe it's just turning over.
On US models, scaled in MPG, that is not definitive. In certain circumstances the car can be burning fuel as low as 0.2 gallon/hour, getting 100-300 mpg, and it will still peg that display the same as the no fuel condition. If your Canadian (or almost anywhere else in the world, except Japan) car is scaled in liters/100km, then this display should be definitive, as either zero or not-zero fuel consumption. This is another reason I hate the US MPG scale. If we can't go metric, then at least we should replace MPG with Gallons/100miles. That would get rid of many misunderstandings among the non-mathematician consumers. On my Prius, 992 rpm means no fuel. Any fuel burn displayed on GPH appears to create a higher rpm.
You can configure the "Cutoff" parameter on the ScanGauge to watch the fuel flow. The gauge will also accurately show the instantaneous mileage up to 9999mpg....well past the cutoff. It can also be configured to read l/100km, although I have not personally tried it.
