HELP PLZ! What happens if you accidentally drive in B mode for any distance?

nothing. maybe lower mpg's. of course, anything can affect an old car.

 

I believe another feature that doesn’t work is cruise control, but that’s while in B mode.

Should be no lingering effects.

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

All of the lights on the dash have a meaning.

The challenge is figuring out what they mean. Think of it as a game where the goal is to have none of them displayed .

No cheating by applying the electrical tape .

Where in the greater US of A are you located?

Definitely worth researching the codes .

 

What lights exactly? Are you sure they are not working properly? If working as designed have you explored what system they are giving you a warning for? I've never been a fan of covering with tape. If it is your display then there are threads on repairs but I believe the symptom for defective display is that it blacks out.

Paul

Edit: Ray beat me to it!

 

dash lights mean the are trouble codes. a dealer can read them, or you can buy a proper code reader. it would be a good idea to find out what they mean, and follow up on anything important.

 

no, it just goes blank. how is the 12v health?

 

i would certainly like to know which dash lights are insignificant, for future reference, thanks!

 

The problem with the "ignore strategy" is that if there are new serious codes that come up since you last scanned the codes, you will never know about it unless you adopt a regular scan strategy.

Warning lights generally are not something to ignore. Even if they redeemed not too serious, the problem they represent still should be fixed. If they are not too serious, shouldn't cost too much.

 

B mode reduces the hybrid battery charging rate; maybe sustained B mode would be drawing the state of charge down. But I think it'd spring back with switching to D.

 

I was thinking the opposite -- B should tend to increase the battery charge a bit, but at the cost of extra (and needless) fuel consumption.

Agreed here -- unless there is something important hidden by those taped-over dashboard lights.

That should be unrelated to B mode, present or past.

 

I see your opposite and raise you, an opposite. I'm not sure though. I do know it's popular lore to use B on long downhill stretches, to delay fully charging, since it tends to do engine braking. But I seem to recall in any sort of driving it reduces charging. I'm by no means sure though.

 

No, Mendel is correct.

The point of "B" is to reduce input into the HV battery and substitute the reduced re-gen with higher engine braking. It is specifically for descending long (e. g, mountain passes) descents.

 

I agree on the downhill, as some gravitational descent energy is diverted to engine braking instead of the battery or brake pads and disks.

But on flats, it seems to lead to more aggressive regeneration drag than does D-mode, and only part of this is extra diverted to the engine. The rest goes into the battery. Plus, it prevents ICE auto-shutoff when gliding and when stopped, wasting some gasoline. That extra time spinning the ICE also continues charging the battery at a slow rate.

The point of "B" is really to reduce heating of the friction brakes when the HV battery gets filled and can accept no more. But it works best when B is engaged at the top of the hill, delaying the filling of the HV battery and reducing the amount of time that the ICE spends screaming like a banshee.

 

You are also correct and I can see how you might have misunderstood my post, but I took it as a given that the result would be reduced use of the brakes, but I shouldn't have assumed everyone would be on the same page.

So perhaps I should have phrased it thus; The point of "B" is to reduce heating of the friction brakes and it does this by reducing input into the HV battery and substituting the reduced re-gen with higher engine braking. And it works best when B is engaged at the top of the hill.

I think you'll find the more aggressive braking feel is the substitution of a more aggressive engine braking configuration – at the expense of re-gen. I am happy to be wrong about this, if you have any quantitive data to show my understanding is not right. Always wanting to learn.

 

I'll agree with you on two major cases that don't apply to the OP's situation, dispute one corner case that also doesn't apply here, and leave the OP's situation as unresolved.

The agreements: on major downhills, compared to foot braking or retarding cruise control, B mode does use heavy engine braking that doesn't leave as much current available for battery charging.

The disagreement corner case: on mild downhills when moving slowly (under 25 mph??), if B is engaged while the ICE is stopped, braking effect is increased even when the ICE doesn't spin up. In such cases, the battery charging current is clearly increased.

But the OP's situation concerns B-mode vs simple ordinary D-mode driving without significant hill descents. I.e. without extended foot braking or cruise control drag, likely little or no heavy engine braking, so the above scenarios generally don't apply. Uphill, B is a generally a No-Op. Highway cruising with propulsion applied, it is again generally a No-Op. The relevant scenarios are thus common flat-land stop-and-go city driving, plus possibly the gliding phases of cases of highway driving with the (aggravating for some of us passengers) thermostat-style gas pedal control (On-Off-On-Off...). These are cases that involve mild engine braking, plus times when B-mode prevents ICE auto-shutoff.

I don't have battery charge rate X-Gauge programmed into my ScanGauge-II, so lack quantitative evidence either way. So I'm going with my seat-of-the pants feel until something more definitive appears.

 

One reason we're all milling around: the Owner's Manual doesn't really explain B mode. I've heard it's there in part because it's mandatory to have some "low gear"?