Interesting things you learned about the Prius long after buying it

An additional quart of oil drains from top of engine overnight. Changing oil first thing in am yields over 5 qts

 

This car is rediculously simple to diagnose and repair, yet it scares most mechanics to go near it

 

Shoot, I forgot that “cold engine” one, which I learned about when we drove out of a hotel parking lot in a blizzard and tried to immediately accelerate onto the entrance ramp of the freeway, and the ECU just refused to let the cold-soaked ICE get the car to more than 35-40 mph, IIRC, which made joining the interstate traffic dicey. Did not have tach then, so do not know what the rpm limit was.

 

It is hard to tell a successfully-started engine from a cranking engine, because the car cranks it at a high rpm that sounds like the engine is running. Plus the car might not even try to start it until well after you've pulled out of your driveway, and can continue cranking it, in the hope it will successfully start, as you are driving down the road.

Like any engine, once a Prius engine is of a certain age and if its plugs/injectors/controls/mechanical condition aren't in tip-top shape, it can get a bit balky to start, especially in winter weather. The car will only try cranking it for so long, possibly at the same time as you are driving down the road on battery power, and if the engine hasn't caught and supplied steady power by when the timer expires, the car will give up and log the P3191 "engine does not start" code.

Of course when that happens, you may already be half a mile from your driveway.

 

2020 XLE Camping mode has been canceled . Woke up cold Prius went into a quiet dark hibernate mode Dealer service Manager "never heard of that".Later I find press release 12 June 2019 Plano Texas [[ New model year 2020 will have automatic shutoff system]] U G H.

Any ideas on how to hack this will be welcome

 

Count me as one, even after 3 years, didn't know about the inside hatch recesses! Here's why I like them, having used them FOR THE FIRST TIME, today: when the rear of the car gets filthy dirty, due to an Idaho winter and living down a gravel road, the outside handle is dirty also, whereas the inside ones are nice and clean. At first thought, inside handles seemed pointless, what, you going to slam it and pinch yours hands?! Turns out, it's ergo correct, and quite....handy.

Just yesterday, I for the first time realized the little chrome doodad on my '13 PIP, is apparently to denote an electrical port. I of course knew that little hatch on the right rear side is where to plug the charger in, as I do it everyday. But it seems the Toyota engineers got a little arty with this symbol of a (oddly enough) 2 prong electrical plug, an unusual bit of whimsy on their part, either that or I'm just seeing things. Sorry for the crappy picture, it was a gloomy day, and the cat distracted me.

 

Whoa, now I have to go check mine for a cat.

 

I'm in the UK. Under the floor is a plastic tray about 6 inches deep. Lift that out and there is a full-size spare wheel with the jack sitting inside the wheel. Are USA spec cars different to this?

Where is the manual hatch release?

 

Hmm, on my 2010, I can hold the temp button down and it will scroll past 75. It stalls for a few seconds at 75, but then it will keep going until it hits HI.

 

Just for comparison, a Honda Fit, the lower level without touchscreen:

 

Visual aid:

 

I can overcome this by pushing my foot all the way to the floor but many people may not want to do that to their car. I will say however if you push it to the floor one time you don't have to leave it there. Doing so one time forces it out of the mode that keeps the engine from revving up as needed. You can just tap it to the floor one time to kick out of that mode. That said in your situation you probably already depleted the battery by the time you got to the entrance ramp because the car computer won't allow the engine to rev up so you were probably sucking down on the battery. This is the condition I hope to avoid and recommend others avoid by any means they wish because it cycles the battery and shortens its lifespan

 

Have you tried the Techstream computer yet?

 

If you hold both the lock and unlock door buttons on your remote, the car will switch from opening all 4 doors at one or 2. (Default is 2)

Maybe somebody knows this mystery...my 2017 Prius never did this. I was washing the 2021 Prius yesterday and just left the keys sitting in the front seat. After 10 minutes or so, the car made a very long beep. Then it stopped but then starting another long beep. I took the keys out moved them into the garage...the beep stopped.
So did my smart car turn into a smart-@ss car by telling me I left the keys inside?? (Which doesn't make sense...what if I left them in the car while running in the store? Someone walking by could say, "Hey the fool left his keys in the car...let's go for a spin!"

 

"the computer detects that the key is actually *inside* the car, so the computer generates the long beep."

True: I get short beeps all the time when washing my Prius with the fob in my pocket...