The Prius engine turns on/off automatically, so miles driven do not correlate to "Engine" miles. Thus, it makes sense to me that somewhere there should be access to "Engine hours". My diesel truck even offers this feature. Does anyone know if this data is recorded and available??
No. The Toyota engineers determined days/miles to be the basis for maintenance, not hours. Write to Toyota and let them know you disagree. Just maybe this feature might be available in the future. Diesel trucks see lots of idle time, and it makes sense that such vehicles have hour meters. As you know, the Prius is not a diesel vehicle. You can always install an hour meter if so compelled.
You can easily obtain approximate "READY" time between resets of "A" or "B" trip data by dividing the trip miles by the triip average speed. For actual engine run time, find a circuit (related to ignition or ... ) that's live only while the engine is running, and connect an hour meter to it. I don't care that much.
Correct, Diesels "sometimes" idle a lot. In comparision a Prius does not usually idle a lot, and thus an engine hour meter would come in handy. It was just a question, and I believe a reasonable one, but I will not be contacting Toyota. If I ever buy a new Prius, I will most likely add an hour meter myself, but since mine is used with over 100k, it really isn't of great value. More than anything I am curious at what percent the engine runs over the life of the vehicle. For instance, does an average 100k mile Prius engine have similar similar hours as a 50k mile conventional engine because it ran 50% of the time? Obviuosly, the engine hours will vary a bit based on driving habits, and environmental factors of each vehicle and that is where this data comes in handy when looking to buy used. If you buy new and just drive the car, it is of less value and my intention was never to use the hours as a maintenance schedule.
What do you count as running? If you drive over 70km/h or 42MPH engine needs to spin or if engine is just cold and more heat is needed Prius will spin the engine with MG1 and give no spark or fuel to it. Is that running? Much of engine wear happens at startups. That’s why you couldn’t look at the engine run time and think that it tells you much about engine condition. And besides if oil is newer let to go below add line it’s very unlikely that engine wear will ever become an issue. Engine run time couldn’t be used for maintenance schedule since short and cold runs aren’t good for the oil. And other items are still related to mileage.
Not only are diesel engines often idling, they're often doing work when the wheels aren't moving. If you have a PTO, an ETM (elapsed time meter) is more important. I used to drive a fire engine, where we'd drive two miles, disconnect the engine from the wheels and reconnect it to the midship pump, then run it at 2100 rpm at full load for hours at at time. The fleet mechanic wanted to know about incidents like that. A very few Prius owners let the hybrid drive system work when wheels aren't moving. I know at least one Prius camper who leaves the system on overnight for air conditioning. That would be a good case for an ETM, but what would you do with the information anyway? The maintenance schedules don't exist.
