Had a bit of a wait at a drive thru recently, the IC cut off and just sitting there with the A/C on my batteries started down, down , down, until the lines turned purple and I assumed the batteries were getting too low so I cut the power and sweltered until I got my order. Should the IC have come back on and didn't or did I panic and kill everything before the IC restarted? Alittle help from experienced drivers appreciated.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dculpepper @ Jun 26 2006, 06:42 PM) [snapback]277019[/snapback]</div> I sit with my A/C on full blast all the time. Sometimes I sleep for a couple of hours. The answer to your question is: Not to worry, your prius will not let your batteries get to low. I have a feeling that if you would have waited another minute or two the ICE sould have come on. Mine gets down to two purple bars and after a while the ICE comes on. I don't know if it will go to one purple bar or not, since I'm probibly asleep.
Yah, you paniced too soon. If you'd have just let it be it'd handled things all on it's own. The ICE would have started to charge the battery and when you moved the vehicle the battery would have come up pretty quick. The car's fairly foolproof, just leave it to do it's own thing and it'll be OK.
Yep. The engine will come on just before it drops to 1 bar (so you don't actually see it drop) and it'll stay on til it charges to either the top of 2 bars or it'll actually change to 3 bars.
As above: The car will not let the battery go below the level the car allows. Eventually the ICE will turn on and recharge the battery for a while, and then will shut off again. If you are after record-setting mpg, you might want to shut down to save gas. But that's all it is: burn a bit of gas to stay cool, or conserve gas and swelter. It's all the same to the car. FWIW, the car will allow the battery to go lower if it is standing still than if it is moving. But either way, the car's computer knows what it's doing and will protect its systems.
Very true, think about it, your situation (ie stopped for a bit) could easily happen while sitting in traffic. You shouldn't be expected to turn your Prius off then. There's been discussion of leaving it on when at a drive-in, if you wanted to make sure you had power for the radio.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dculpepper @ Jun 26 2006, 06:42 PM) [snapback]277019[/snapback]</div> Does it matter wheather the car is in Park, Neutral or Drive?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Brian K @ Jun 26 2006, 04:08 PM) [snapback]277035[/snapback]</div> But they keep building better fools... <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jun 26 2006, 04:22 PM) [snapback]277047[/snapback]</div> "I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that" :lol:
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Jun 26 2006, 10:14 PM) [snapback]277226[/snapback]</div> Ooooooh, I should have named my Prius Hallie instead of Gracie!!!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mcbrunnhilde @ Jun 26 2006, 10:16 PM) [snapback]277228[/snapback]</div> A few years ago, when we were writing the manual for my husband's market research survey software, we put that Dave quote in as an example of an error message--with a screen shot and everything. Nobody has noticed yet. It is SO tempting to tell the people who call for tech support to RTFM!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dculpepper @ Jun 26 2006, 06:33 PM) [snapback]277054[/snapback]</div> Yes, it matters. The battery will not be recharged in "N". When sitting leave the car on ("READY"), just like you were gonna drive away, and in "P". "D" works just as well as "P" if you don't mind keeping your foot on the brake. All of the important points are in the owner's manual. [D'ohh!!! Galaxee already answered this. Why th' heck isn't there a delete option in the forum?]
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Jun 26 2006, 10:14 PM) [snapback]277226[/snapback]</div> Hmmm. Can the NAV lady's voice recognition read lips? Glad I don't have that option. It's curious to note that when I was growing up, in the 60's, movies and books about futuristic technology portrayed a future in which technology was our friend and would solve all our problems. Today, futuristic movies usually portray technology as an enemy. That probably means something. Issac Asimov's robots were incapable of hurting a human, but today's movie robots are more likely to be the enemy. Of course, the first real robot was the so-called "smart bomb," whose sole purpose is to kill people.
