Interesting things you learned about the Prius long after buying it

At least it's visible on the Gen IV. I have no issues with it.

 

Found a button under the dash that resets the current tire pressure setting. Had a phantom tire pressure warning light that would blink, turn on and off at random times despite all tires being at the desired pressure. Press and hold the button till the dash light stops blinking and no more phantom warnings. Many times that light would come on in an unfamiliar area out of town or in bad weather and would cause some nervousness till I could verify all was actually fine.
Another item helpful for me was the hiding spot for the cargo cover. Much better than in the garage LOL.

 

I learned some interesting (also not nice) things of hybrid ownership:
1) If you run out of gas, you need to fill at least a quarter tank to "maybe" startup. Or you may end up at the shop for a reset.
2) You can't to shift to neutral for towing without turning on the car. Makes things complicated if the car is completely dead.
3) If your 12V battery dies, you either need to boost just to get to your battery or you need to crawl to the hatch release. Gen4 fixes this.
4) If your 12V battery is low, it is hard to predict how the Prius behaves. 12V boots up computer which ramps up 120V which starts car.

None of the above has happened to me, but what the hell?

 

Try turning the steering wheel while the car is parked. You'll notice you can; the car does not have a steering column lock for theft prevention as older cars did. The only-computer-unlocked transmission is what takes over the theft-prevention duties. (Note: this is Gen 2 and later; Gen 1 did have a steering lock, and a regular mechanical park linkage from the shift lever.)

But you can boost using just the boost terminals provided under the hood, at which point you might elect to just start the car, drive to a happier place, and then get to the battery if it needs to be replaced and not just recharged.

That '120' should be closer to 200, the rough voltage of the large traction battery, which is disconnected when the car is off. The 12 volt battery does need to have enough power to pull in the relays that connect the traction battery; at that point the larger battery takes over.

The "low 12 volt battery" ⇒ "hard to predict how the Prius behaves" is a notion that has a lot of adherents on PriusChat, but not all of us. In all of my experience, a Prius is quite predictable:

• If the 12 volt battery is in a good state of charge, the car will start, and work fine
• If it's pretty close to dead, lights and dash displays might dim out while attempting to start, and it might start, or not, maybe with a little help from you, like pulling the brake pump relays. If it starts, everything will pop back to full brightness and be fine. If the voltage dropped at some point below 8.5 to 9, some of the computers will have logged trouble codes that say so, which are, of course, correct.
• If it's closer to dead than that, it won't start, so you'll need to jump it, and probably reset the clock, radio presets, and auto window motors.

There is a widespread alternate view on PriusChat that can be roughly translated as "absolutely anything unexplained happening in a Prius is probably the 12 volt battery because computers, you know", it just doesn't have support in the world of experience I live in, anyway. Often it strikes me as more of an easier substitute for the legwork to find out why the Prius is doing the unexplained thing. The computers in the "because computers, you know" are built with onboard regulators that are stable down to input voltages way lower than where the car just isn't going to start.

 

A number of PC members have found that the shop visit is not necessary. Just disconnect the 12V for long enough to clear the computer memories of this saved data flag.

(The other part, about adding at least several gallons, is disclosed in the Owner's Manual.)

 

I found this, and it appears to be the only reference, on page 37 (printed page number), of a pdf of the 2010 Owner's Manual (North American):



I wonder if "make the low fuel level warning light go out" is synonymous with "is sufficient for the engine to start"? They sure don't spell it out.

 

OMG! I just... OMG!

Now I just slowly crawl back under my rock...

 

I have noticed when getting gas and the the last pip is blinking, the point at which the gas gauge stops blinking, the gauge goes to 2 bars and the pump is at about 2 gallons.

 

This is also the amount of gas required at fill up to reset the DTE value. I’ve gotten away with 1.3 us gal during summers though.

 

There's an extra "click" on the dash brightness dial that lets you get full dash brightness with the headlights on.

You need to lightly separate the base wings on the rear wiper so that the rear wiper is fully freed (to clean the rear window for instance).

 

There is a manual hatch release. Not a lot of fun to access I hear. Still, under the hatch floor in the tray is such a perfect fit for the JNC, it's hard to resist.

 

So no explanation why not to store the JNC under trunk space. How will that convince me not to do that?

 

Presumably if it's your Prius with the dead battery, and the electric hatch release isn't working? That was my take.

 

Backing down a 1/4 mile steep road, I found out it doesn't regen in reverse!

 

Riding the brake pedal gently under 10mph prevents charging the pack

 

The ecu is programmed not to rev up a cold engine. In hot climate full ac in conjunction w start n drive off behavior deep cycles the pack shortening its life