Howdy everyone! So here I am fairly new to the Gen 3 prius. I've got a 2011 package II, recent successful head gasket swap. I've been playing around with the different driving modes, and to be honest, I don't see any difference between power, Eco and none in terms of mileage or acceleration. What is supposed to happen?? Thanks
It really is psychological.... of sorts all you feel is more or less pressure on the 'gas' pedal... I think there are some A/C factors but really push whatever button you want!
As ReDave said, it's largely just a tweak of how the go pedal feels (though it doesn't have to do with you feeling more or less pressure on the pedal). It's just about changing the way your pressure on the pedal gets translated into 'go'. Think of some graph paper. Across the bottom, label how far down you press the pedal. Up the side, label how much 'go' power the car produces. Now draw three different paths from the lower left corner (no pedal, no go) to the upper right (full pedal, full go). All three paths start and end at those two points. The first path is just a straight diagonal line. As far down as you press the pedal, that's how much go you get. That's the "no mode" mode. Grab that path by the middle and bend it up some. Now you've got a curved path, where in your first little push of the pedal there's an extra strong 'go' response, then it levels off and doesn't respond very much in the later portion. That's the PWR mode. Bend the straight line path down a little, and you've got the ECO mode. It responds in kind of a leisurely way to your early pressure on the go pedal. Then after the midpoint it has to get steeper and catch up, so it ends up at the same (full pedal, full go) point as the other two paths. There you have it! Psychology. There are also a couple other things ECO does. It locks out the electric supplemental heat that otherwise is there to give you slightly quicker heat when the engine is cold. And it puts a slight limit on the maximum AC power that will be used in hot weather. And it always switches the MID to show the "hybrid system indicator" page, so you have to press DISP again if you prefer any of the other pages. That's maybe the part that annoys me the most.
