Does the Prius have- for lack of a better term- a "black box" of sorts that logs technical data, etc. for the dealer when servicing the car? I just ordered the Coastal Tech EV mod and was wondering if a Toyota tech could tell this feature had been activated in my car. I'm assuming most folks here who have this mod have not had any troubles with getting their Prius serviced...thought I would just double check... Also, do most people remove this modification before taking their car in for service? Is this step necessary? brian
It's been speculated that it might be possible to read something with the THHT, if they were specifically looking, but nothing just pops to tell them. And, honestly, I doubt there's any way to tell. But, I showed mine to my Prius tech, he thought it was cool, had never heard about it, has never mentioned it again, and couldn't care less about it being there. AFAIK, the techs are not inserviced about the EV mode in the US and don't really care if it's there or not. I never hide or remove my EV button.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Apr 25 2006, 09:15 PM) [snapback]245263[/snapback]</div> Okay I won't worry about it. Someday if a Dealer asks I'll just tell them I accidentally shorted some wires and EV came on!
Actually, if they wanted to find out who had an EV mod, it wouldn't have to be fancy. Just have a notice to all techs that when servicing a car for any reason to do the following steps: 1) Is there a button marked "EV" next to the dimmer wheel? Yes/No 2) Power up and put MFD on screen other than "Energy" and pull headlight stalk. Does the screen go to "Energy?" Yes/No 3) If no, repeat by pulling Cruise Control for over 2 seconds. Does the screen go to "Energy?" Yes/No 4) If there is a "Yes" to any of the above, mark the "EV" box in the report. Later on any report with a "EV" box marked would be entered (along with the VIN) into a national database. In theory that would mean that if there was a battery problem, entering your VIN would pop up a red flag. Again a very big IF. This assumes that Toyota is looking at chats like this (and I'm sure they do) and they want to stamp this out. But AFAIK, this ain't happening. Use it in good health. In the three times I've been to the dealer I didn't remove mine.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PriusBrian @ Apr 25 2006, 06:58 PM) [snapback]245255[/snapback]</div> Doc Fusco pretty much nailed it. No there is no way to tell. There are a few of us who know about it and think they are cool so we put them in for our customers. 99.9% of the techs could not care less, .1% think EV is cool. Most dealer techs are flatrate not hourly. This means 2 things....1) I don't make money if I'm snooping around your car for ev's or aftermarket licence plate frames, I get paid to fix an issue so I concentrate on the issue at hand. The faster I get done with your car and on tho the next one, the more I make. There is a "black box" function that I belive is only acsessable with the THHT. It looks at (and flags) how many times you are DWHUA........things like accelerating with the brake on, shifting into gear before you get ready light, accelerating in neutral etc. That way when new owners say the car is not working correctly, we can see if the customer need counseling or if the car needs work. Regards, mike
