Engine doesnt turn off

Whether the engine shuts off at a stop is dependent on a lot of factors.. In most instances, if the cat is at temperature and the engine is hot and you're not asking for engine heat for the heaters or charging of the batteries, the engine should shut off about 10 seconds after you come to a complete stop. In some instances, it seems some other internal criteria is not met and it keeps running, but sometimes you can still force it for example by turning the climate control or A/C on and then off..

 

Watching the video, it appeared as though the ICE wasn't running at all... instead, you were first getting regen (either from braking or coasting without feathering the accelerator), then getting power from the motor (maybe you pressed the accelerator ever so slightly?).

This goes back to the basic operation of the car. At very low speeds (i believe it's 7 and under, someone correct me if i'm wrong), you switch over to using the physical brakes and dont' get any regen. Additionally, there's a "creep" feature in the car, meaning that, if you're stopped and take your foot off the brake, the car will creep forward like a normal car does. In addition to full removal of the brake, only lightly pushing it will allow the creep feature to work too. This happens by running the electric motor, which is what i believe we were seeing in the video.

 

My guess is you were only in stage 3 operation then. I don't have a link to the stages handy, but essentially in stage 3 the ICE doesn't turn off until after you stop (no mater how long you're cruising at low speed, once it's on it'll stay on). Honestly, it's impossible for any of us to tell you what may or may not be wrong with the car based on a 10 second video clip. If you're concerned about it, take it to the dealer and allow their tech to take it for a test drive. He'll be able to tell if the car is acting appropriately or not.

 

Unless the weather outside is 180 degrees, the engine/cat/O2 sensor may not be up to operating temperatures, in which case ICE can remain running to warm things up even when not being used for power. Other posters, such as Evan and C4 did address this.

However, sometimes the car does seem to have a mind of its own.
I've had a situation where I drive the car for 40 minutes to a co-worker's development to pick him up. When I reach his development, I have about 500-1000 feet I drive at 15 MPH. Many times the ICE would not shut off until I stopped to let him in. What I started doing when that happened was activate EV.

 

The video just gave me a headache- it was bouncing around all over the place and didn't stay focused on one spot long enough to tell what the heck was going on..

In any case:
1) The graphic display is idealized and does not reflect the exact behaviour of the vehicle systems at all times; in fact, if you had a CANview or similar device that could monitor the raw data signals, you'd see that quite often, the graphical display is in fact *wrong* (or perhaps just time delayed or oversimplified)..
2) The car does not necessarily turn the engine off at all opportunities, again, there are a complicated set of criteria that is used to determine when to shut the engine off. The car is very sensitive to temperature, so even if you think it's still warm, just a degree or two drop may cause the car to want to run the engine more.. This happens with my Prius in the fall as well: one day, I'll notice that the engine just doesn't shut down as easily as it did in the heat of summer, and that's my cue to start adding in the engine compartment insulation: the hood-liner first, which resolves the problem for a few weeks, then the first half of the first stage radiator blocker, then the second half, and finally the full front blocker when winter really sets in.. However, even in hotter weather, sometimes the engine still doesn't want to shut off for whatever reason, and you can generally try the trick of playing with the A/C or environmental controls, or if you're still moving, and you don't have EV, sometimes giving it a brief pulse of the accelerator pedal and releasing will also trigger the engine stop.. In the video, although the engine may still be running at the early stages, it is definitely off by the time you come to a complete stop, so as far as I can tell, the car is operating completely normally..

 

By then, I am sure ICE was providing power. However, at 15 MPH with nominal SOC, using ICE is very inefficicient and should have been shut down. Even while stopping to pick up my passenger, ICE was still running about 10-20 seconds before it shut down, sometimes with a slight shudder. As I approached my passenger, I was braking, so I was in regen, which also was the case at various points of my travel through the development. They have speedbumps there, so my speed varied from 10-18 MPH. During acceleration, I could see ICE might be used, but I also slowed down at points, long enough that ICE should have shut down but didn't. There is a traffic light about 1/2 mile before entering the development where things might have cooled down some, but then I accelerate to 45 MPH for the 1/2 mile before turning into the development, so all systems should be sufficiently warm.

But remember, it all has to do with emissions, and we can't always tell when conditions are not sufficient for proper emissions control

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DanMan32 @ Oct 5 2006, 09:58 AM) [snapback]328401[/snapback]</div>

Gee, you must be having a worse problem with global warming where you live. 180 degrees is pretty warm!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Sep 30 2006, 11:33 PM) [snapback]326332[/snapback]</div>

Question about this specific to my situation. When I'm driving local roads to get to the highway before/after work, I've been able to deadband (complete with impg of 99.9). But when I get to a stop light, the engine shuts off.

So, is the engine running, but no gas being used? I'm confused. http://www.thehealthymom.com/wp-content/plugins/more-smilies/maidacollection/do not know.gif

 

Finally found a place to link to... check out the 5 stages of prius hybrid operation:

http://priuschat.com/lofiversion/index.php/t13519.html

It's clear that you're in Stage 3: