I bought my 2015 C a week ago (used, Toyota certified only 20k miles on it) and have noticed that when I start it, even after short trips, the engine often behaves like it's been sitting overnight and is cold. It will run for quite some time before the engine will shut off at say, a stop light. My understanding is that once the engine starts, it just stays in a ready state until needed, but mine seems to run longer, like it's always trying to warm up, even if it's only been off for say, ten minutes. Is this ok? Normal even? Temperatures have been in the 30's and 40's this week with lows in the 20's and 30's. Thank you and I apologize if this is a dumb question. It's my first hybrid and I want to know everything I can.
While I suspect most owners bought the Prius for the gas mileage, the designers built it for the low emissions. The car does a full warm up to get the emissions to their lowest. We are just lucky that one way of lowering emissions once warm, just happens to be burning less gas to begin with.
One way to hasten engine shut off is to lower the cabin temp setting, and/or shut the heating/ventilating system off at red lights. It does two things: directly speeds engine warm-up, and changes the thresholds the computers use, when deciding if-and-when to start shutting down.
Thank you, I will keep that in mind. This is all so new and a bit foreign to me, so I'm hesitant, but excited, and I love the car so much.
Please be advised that your car is going to make strange noises, even when it has been shut off for hours. You are driving a computer that monitors itself 24-7, so don't freak out to the buzzes, Clicks and humming noises your car, will make.
I'm going to agree that it is PROBABLY normal. New owners seem to sometimes get to hung up on all the minutia of what they think their Prius is either doing or NOT doing. My advice is to actually ignore some of that... Just drive it. If something IS wrong, you'll know in the form of thrown codes and/or significantly bad gas mileage.
