Sheba, Take the car to whichever authorized Toyota you trust most. But do not count your warranty dollars quite yet. The manufacturer warranty does not cover damage.
Good to know about the battery. I still need to take a meter to mine to see what it's reading. I'm assuming I can put a multimeter on this battery the same as I would any previously owned gas engine vehicle. I am going to fuel back up this afternoon, then I will have a manual calculation and the auto estimated mpg to compare both on the same tank. As far which dealer to use, I purchased this vehicle less than a week ago. It was a certified preowned and came with a short period of warranty coverage over EVERYTHING. Because I purchased it so recently I wanted to take it back where I got it, I'm sure after this I will look into a more local dealer for any needed regular maintenance.
to check your 12v, pop the hood and shut the driver door. wait a few hours for the surface charge to wear off, open the hood and check the voltage at the jump point in the fuse box. should read 12. 6 or higher. 12.5 is borderline and may cause problems, if not now, in the near future.
I was referring to the big high voltage (~250V) traction battery. You would need to unbolt some access covers to directly measure it, but such measurements are generally unnecessary. The bargraph on the dashboard SOC display carry enough information. The little 12V auxiliary battery can be measured with an ordinary multimeter just like previous non-hybrids. The actual battery is under the trunk floor, but there are also jump points in the engine compartment that are convenient for your measurements.
I've read enough threads that would suggest it simply can happen. I think it's the simplicity of the action that occasionally leads to it's abuse. I'll admit to having stopped one time in a parking spot, hitting park and setting the emergency brake because I wanted to continue to listen to something on the radio, and then turning the radio off and starting to exit. Yes the Prius warned me. But we live in distracting and hurried times, while one would like to think simply hitting a power button "off" would be a no-fail scenario? The truth is forgetting to simply hit the power button can also happen. Since obviously the Prius doesn't have a regular ignition key, and a constantly running ICE, leaving it in "Ready" state is a rare, rare, but possible scenario.
Since owning my Prius, I've *almost* left it on twice. Especially if I park and the engine is off and I'm distracted or super tired, it's easy to do. That said, it beeps a dummy reminder as soon as you're, like, five feet away. The only way I can really see someone missing this is if they park in a garage and put their key on a table right inside the door, not far enough to make the car chirp.
I've heard there can be issues with keeping the FOB too close to the Prius, but I thought it was mostly wearing down the FOB battery as it keeps communicating with the car since it's in range.
Yep, I was hoping to hear what if any resolution the OP was able to reach. Or what answers they were able to get.
I'm back! Ok, final answer is apparently my first tank of gas was a bad one. I had begun getting progressively better mileage with each fill up, so I let it run a tank all the way to empty and filled up. So far I'm now averaging 45-46 mpg on the last two fill ups using the odometer estimated mileage, and about 42-43 mpg using manual calculation. I have not changed anything else about my commute or driving technique.
Definitely run a bottle of "dry gas" (may go by other names) and/or Seafoam/B-12 Chemtool through the system. In what way was it bad? Water or sediment? Also, save your gas receipts. If your car goes to pot after a fill-up, it's proof where you got gas and is evidence if you need to go to small claims court against the fill-up station. As a side note, I find it odd this still happens. Modern fill stations have numerous safeguards that cut off fuel pumps if water is detected in the system in large enough quantity to pose a danger to the consumer.
I did read your first post in this thread stating that you have a Prius II, but can you confirm that you have the stock LRR tires and the stock 15" rims on your car? If the previous owner hooked it up with 17 or 18" rims with non LRR tires that could be a huge contributing factor. Subtract 3-6 mpg from window sticker mpg numbers for larger rims. Also, is your tire pressure set to the stock setting or did you try 40f/38r or even higher? I run 44f/42r on my personas 17's... Pumping up those tires should give you 1-2mpg... Also try 55-65 mph on the highway (and try cc) instead of 75-85mph. There is at least a couple more mpg right there...
I don't really know HOW it was bad, only that it apparently was. Once it was all gone my mpg went way up. Odd thing is, my first tank of gas came from the dealership. They filled me up the night I bought the car.
If they filled you up, that doesn't mean they reset the trip data or whatever you used to compute the mileage for the first tank. They also could have put in just enough fuel to make it "look" full on the gauge and that means it was actually 2-3 gallons short of full. My first tank got significantly more mileage than the display showed, so I knew something was off.
If you want to go over 50 MPG you do have to change somethings about your driving style. Once you get the bug in you making it a game to see how high you can get you will be changing a bunch of little things in your commute to see if you can bump your MPGs up. I commute 85 miles each way to work, 95% freeway, so I have to entertain myself somehow.
the story changed from the o/p. referring to post #18, the mpg calculations were very difficult to interpret. even post #51 is a bit confusing.
I drive on the interstate at 75 to 85 MPH and still get around 46 MPG on trips. thats not part of the problem!! I also keep my tire inflation at 35 psi for a more comfortable ride.
