Idle Check

Hi from Japan,
We've never heard the reason of the idling check from Toyota officially, but unofficial words from a Toyota engineer was the idling condition has to be checked periodically because of contamination in the throttle body.

The original NHW10 Prius does not have the idling check program, then it need routine throttle body cleaning for stable idling rpm, say once a year. The NHW11 and later model do have the idle check, and they don't need the throttle body cleaning so often, maybe once every 5 years.

Ken@Japan

 

What is the definition of 's3' and 's4'?

 

They are warmup stages for the Prius. See this for a thorough discussion.

 

Hi Ken

Sorry about asking this at a later stage.

I have Prius 2007 (JDM) model. I have had the same situation where most of the time it want properly jump from S3 to S4 (as for the idle check). In my daily commute, I rarely get a chance to stop (turn off) the vehicle.

My question is - what are the other ways to jump from S3 to S4 (Will it happen if I stop and park the vehicle for 5-10 sec, or costing without the accelerator for say 20 S?)

Regards

CWA

 

On the following two cases, you can suspend the idling check ceremony during driving.

1. Accelerate above 62km/h, then you can coast without the idling check.
2. If you have enough battery charge level and driving below 60km/h, press the EV button on coasting.

These procedure are just for suspending the idling check.
Prius needs the idling check at later time (read no magic to jump S3 to S4 during driving).

Ken@Japan

 

Thank you KEN. Therefore for optimum FE, we have to stop the car for 5 Sec (to go to S3 to S4).

Regards

CWA

 

Is there a way to know we are in S3 without any special external meters (like ScanGuage/Supermid)? If we know the S3 status, we can stop/turn off/5-10Sec/Start process should put us on S4.

Appreciate your valuable inputs.

Regards

CWA

 

During idling check coasting, the engine runs using small volume of gasoline.
Then, the energy monitor screen shows approx 75km/L instantaneous fuel consumption number.

Ken@Japan

 

Hi Ken. With my Prius the coasting "threshold" seems to be 56 km/h. If I start a glide from 56 km/h or above then the engine cuts out, whereas if I start from 55 km/h or less the engine continues to idle (unless it's already in stage 4).

Also the EV button here doesn't work above 44 km/h, so there's an annoying "dead zone" between 44 km/h and 55 km/hr where there's no avoiding the engine idling unless you're in stage 4.

 

Hi cwa. The easiest way to tell that the car is ready to move to into stage 4 is by the very fact that the engine continues to run if you start a glide below 56 km/h.

While the car is warming up I'll typically test it by just backing off the go pedal for a few seconds when the speed is 55 km/h or less. If the instantaneous fuel consumption goes to zero (zero L/100km) then I know that I'm still in stage 2 (assuming here that we're not still in stage 1 or already in stage 4). If on the other hand the engine keeps running then I'll see that the fuel consumption is non zero and then I'll know it's reached stage 3 and is therefore ready for the idle check.

BTW. Do you use MPG or L/100km there in Sri Lanka?

 

BTW CWA. You might be interested in the following thread I recently made. There's some useful extra info on this problem here : http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...solved-transistion-s4-without-idle-check.html

 

Thank you uart.

Here in Sri Lanka we use km/l. Best was 36 km/l (No A/C, only me). Current average is 24 km/l (With A/C, bump to bump traffic, 4 passengers).

 

That's really good cwa. I'm also averaging about 24 km/L (4.2L per 100km) here.

BTW. You might be interested in the little converter program I wrote if you want to compare results with others here using different units. It's simple and free and I've uploaded it to the file library here.

See : http://priuschat.com/forums/file-library/69451-simple-fuel-consumption-converter-calculator.html

 

Thank you. It is a little beauty.

 

We are talking about cwa's JP Gen2 Prius.
It seems your Australia models is same as UK's.

Ken@Japan

 

Ok I get it, so the "JDM" model is Japanese model. So ken do you also use km/L or do you use L/100km ?

 

JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market.
We only use km/L unit.

Ken@Japan

 

Ok I've got it. :thumb:

Thanks Ken

 

Has anyone found a fix for this idle check?
I am getting really frustrated with this stage 3 idle check every single day
When I drive to work I have a 5 minute downhill at 30 mph and my engine is constantly on and it actualy burns fuel not a lot but it does
I usually stop for the damn idle to do it's thing but not every day I can or have time