I have just got a 2004 Prius and recently the engine has been running while stopped and with a full battery showing. Is that a normal result of it being colder weather or is something else going on? I also note the battery only goes between fully charged and one bar lower in use whereas when I test drove other Prius the battery meter seemed to vary a lot more. Great site by the way and great tips. Thanks
It is a result of colder weather, and you having the climate control set to AUTO. The green-nes of the battery bar have little to do with it as it depends on engine (and cabin) temperature. Many of us have found blocking the front grill with pipe insulation to work wonders in cold weather as it allows the engine to heat up faster/more. This makes the engine shut down more often (but it still take 10-15 minutes before it starts doing that) /Robert
Thanks Robert. One other question, the "current mpg" display tops out at 99mpg. When calculating the average consumption does it use the 99mpg figure or does it internally have the correct and higher figure. It would seem that the former would give an unduly pessimistic average consumption figure.
The majority of people seem to believe that the MPG calculator is slightly optimistic but fairly accurate. I'm sure it doesn't use the "current MPG" readout but measures something else. I think you can trust the per tank reading even if it will be a little high. For me it's been consistently high with 4-5% /Robert
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyR @ Feb 9 2007, 11:38 AM) [snapback]387622[/snapback]</div> Another reason is that the Prius doesn't like being at full green, so it may spin the ICE for a bit to drop the battery down.
You can verify it's the heater by turning off heater when stopped . In my case the engine goes off too as long as car has been warmed up for 5 min, otherwise it will stay running. I noticed this when pulling into garage and I always turn heater off , gas goes off and I quietly drive in . If I leave heater on, the gas always stays running especially when <20deg .
