Does the yellow "snowflake" outside temperature light really mean anything to me besides that it is below 37 outside? I could tell that when I got into the car, why have the light?
It's just a caution light to remind you that ice may be forming on the road. Sort of a heads-up. Enjoy your new car! I've put almost a thousand miles on mine, and I love it more every day.
Dave's right, but I think it's a good question and wanted to elaborate. Remember that some people keep their cars in a garage and might not realize how cold it is. Other times you may be on a longer trip or going up a mountain to a colder area and not appreciate that it's getting colder. Black ice can form at 37 degrees, particularly on bridges and overpasses and it's a good bonus to be alerted to the fact that extra caution is warranted. Certainly there are situations where the light is a little silly...winter in Minnisota or Alaska comes to mind, but it's a good thing for those of us in areas where black ice can form from precip in the warmer daytime hours and then freeze as the sun begins to set.
I communicated with Toyota via Email about this. Here is its reply. "The Low Temperature indicator light is designed to make sure the driver is aware that the vehicle is being operated in cold temperature. The hybrid battery pack has thermal limitations at low and high ends. If the battery is extremely cold, energy cannot be extracted, so the Low Temperature indicator light may turn on indicating total power output is limited. In this case, the gasoline engine runs longer until the pack warms up."
Thanks for the feedback. That is pretty much what I figured. I am just used to the old school thought that any light glowing on the dashboard is a bad thing.
I picked up my car from the dealer on a cold night. I drove 25 miles home worried and distracted by that yellow warning light. I had no idea what it was. When I got home and looked it up in the manual I was relieved, but wished someone had told me about it before I left the parking lot.
The correlation between the light and the battery doesn't quite make sense to me. While I understand that the battery is less efficient in colder weather the light seems to be strictly tied to the outdoor temperature. I've never seen the light go off when it's colder than 37 degrees even after driving for an hour or more. In fact, now that I think of it, the gasoline engine is nowhere near the battery pack so how would it warm the battery up?
The engine doesn't warm the battery, the cabin does. There are vents at the passenger edge of the rear seat that go to the battery. DON'T BLOCK THESE VENTS. At leat that's what the manual says. Cabin air is circulated though the battery to warm it in the winter and cool it's charging.
