Coastal EV mod is a winner!

This Mod from Coastal Technologies cost 45.00 and makes it to where when you pull the cruise lever towards you as to "cancel" for more than 2 seconds, the EV mode is activated!
If you ever try it when the car cannot go into ev mode, you get at the top of the MFD a notice advising you that EV mode cannot be accomplished right now... this is truely already built into the car and fully functional... the US cars just dont' have a switch to activate it!

This is great!.. you can activate EV mode when you first turn on the car and the engine will never come on.... or you can do it once you get rolling. You have to be under 34mph to activate it and if you punch it "like in an emergency when you need lots of power" it immediatly disengages as the ICE comes on to give you that needed power.
Also if the battery gets to 3 bars it will also disengage to preserve the battery.

When activating EV, the MFD screen will automatically go to the energy screen to display the battery status.


I was amazed at the easy installation!... the total install took me about 15 to 20 minutes from teardown to put together.
I was astonished at how Toyota has made thier car so user friendly to work on!.. I needed no tools at all other than slight pressure from the edge of a screwdriver to get started.

The Coastal Instructions are wonderful and simple. Just make sure you read them all before starting. "including the last tips page"

It does really help if you can get your hand into the air vent opening to manipulate things. The Glove box easily comes completly off "the lower" to access easily. This is also how you access the A/C filter.

Basic Instructions:
AT NO TIME SHOULD YOU POWER ON THE VEHICLE IN ANY WAY WHILE INSTALLING.

1. Everything popped off by hand per the instructions. ie" the vent trim, glove boxes etc.

2. The thing you squeeze to release the plug from the computer is facing outside....just squeeze and wiggle the whole connector while squeezing the side clamp and it will come loose.

3. When appying the connectors per instructions.. make sure the wire stays seated in he metal part of the clamp that will wrap around the wire when you squeezed together they can move easily since its a bit awkward. You can use your fingers to squeeze together, but it will take the power of some needle nose pliers to make the final "snap" to ensure its totally together.
Again, having your arm down through the air vent hole helps to access in all of these stages.
If you are a big man with big arms, you can still do it, but it will take you longer if you can't find some skinnier arms to help you!

4. Putting the orange wire from the kit with the metal pin into hole # 27 is easy if you follow the instructions. Take a tiny screwdriver or the tip of the knife blade and slip the little plastic pin to release the white holders. You only need to do the side your working on. And we are talking about a fraction of an inch... not even 1/8... maybe a 1/16th.
Then look again at the last tips page and orient yourself again to how the metal pin is to be positioned and slip it in to hole # 27.. You can push it in about half way with your fingers, then use the needle nose. Grap very close to the plug so as to not "bend" the pin and just inch your way in. Finish by grabbing the insulated wire itself to continue advancing until all the way in. You can finish with the tip of a small brad nail or similar to see if you can get it any farthur.
When done you shouldn't be able to see any metal any more of the pin.

5. Now fasten your two remaining wires "purple and white" to the connectors you have already clipped on the two appropiate wires "per instructions".

6. Put your trim back together and your done!

You now can do the golf cart thing without worrying about feathering things to keep the ICE from coming on! There is a fair amount of power you can use to accelerate.... more than without the kit! Of course if you punch it, it will disengage as discussed.

My hat is off to Coastal Tech for taking the time to give good instructions. In my book thats one of the main issues to whether I want to purchase or not. There nothing more frustrating than having everything all apart and to get stumped on what to do next.

Good job Coastal!....

If coastal is listening.. the only thing I saw in error in the instructions was on page #2 the lower picture shows what looks like dark blue, light blue and orange wires coming out of the kit.
The orange is still the same, but the kit now has a purple wire to correspond with the purple on the plug and a white wire which goes to the while and black striped on the plug.
This is only noted in the picture... all the wording is updated perfectly.

I do like the fact that the cancel on the resume is what activates it. I used to think I would like a button just to make it obvious to friends... but its far more convienent using the cruise lever than reaching and finding the button on the dash... especially at night. And its much more stealth when taking to the dealer for warranty issues etc.

 

Wow!.. when my wife got home today... I rushed out to put her kit on her car.

Since I had already done mine this morning.... from start to finish.. it only took me 10 minutes!...works perfect!

If there is anybody in my area that needs help, Ill be glad to assist or install for you.... PM me.

 

Sorry I'm so enthusiastic... I normally expect things to have crappy instructions if any at all. From buying a bicycle to a desk.. they always have piss poor instructions and you usually have to figure it out yourself.

I didn't want to do that with the prius... its far too complex and techno.

I originally ordered the button ev mod, until I found it had no instructions at all and the guy told me to look up how to do it on the internet. I immediately cancelled my order and ordered Costals.

I'm sure many other share the same apprehension as I did and can benifit from my testimony.

Many do not do mods because they are afraid of trying.

Anyway, I went from that, to the Coastal mod with pictures and detailed instructions.... that combined with my first attempt at tearing into the dash of the prius to find I literally didn't need any tools to get the dash apart!

Sorry I am so excited, but you have to understand I am comming from over 30 years of driving american made cars to this. I"m amazed at how much easier it was than I expected. American seems to go out of thier way to screw you up and make it as propietary as possible to ensure job security for thier service mechanics.

I was expecting a mess!.. this instead was delightfully user friendly.

 

Ok.. I know this is childs play to you..... I'm still monitoring the Can-view thread which still has me totally intimidated still...... Ill get there someday.

 

Hey.. 360.. without it engaged.. everything is totally normal as without it.

The Coastal Mod is really nice. It protects the battery in several ways.
1. If you punch the gas too much, it will disengage to let the ICE come on. this also prevents too much drain at once on the batteries. Note you do have more acceleration abilities than without the EV switch however.
2. If the batt gets too low, it will disengage to protect the batteries "just don't leave them that way"
3. If the engine needs to warm up it will not engage EV mode and will actually give you an alert message above the MFD window that says it cannot engage right now.
4. If you are going over 34 mph it will not engage, or if you are engaged and you go over 34, it will disengage.
In the act of disengageing, you will hear 3 quick beeps.

What people need to know, is they can't come dragging home and end up with an almost drained battery and leave it that way all night. That type of usage can lower the lifetime of the battery.

But if you don't abuse it and use it wisely .. like coming up on traffic at long lights etc its ok, because you will be taking off again soon and it will charge the batt back up.

You can go about a full mile before hitting two bars at which time it will automatically disengage so the ICE can charge it back up.

It will not let you engage at all if you are at only 3 bars.. you must be 4 or more.. but once engaged, it can take you down to two bars. This is the only time I've ever seen the purple/pink bars is when using the EV mode.

I dont' see this as a necessary mod, but since the cars computer is already set up for it.. its really cool to be able to access it for 45.00.

I wonder how long the warranty for batteries are in Japan?.. there has to be a good reason why they did not enable EV for the US market. Maybe they figured we are not as tech savy, or that we are more wary of hybrid technology and so they had to give us a really good warranty to make us buy it and so the EV may jeapardize the lifetime of the battery if abused and Toyota didn't want to foot the bill?
I'm only guessing here... but its like anything else... if you use it right.. it won't hurt the battery... NiMH like to be excercised......although they don't have a memory problem, they do just fine being used.

At any rate... I like the stealth of this mod. I don't want some guy looking for something to blame if I ever have problems.
Plus its very convienent to use rather than trying to find a button on the dash in the dark.

 

Doing anything is hard to do while turning the wheel.. especially trying to push a button on the dash.

No I just believe to give credit to who credit is due. I've heard some slamming in the past about Coastal, but I put my order in one day, it shipped the next and I recieved it a few after that.

I am in the medical field.. have been there since 1982... was a fireman before that.
I'm used to having to be exact and accurate and depend on people who have to say what they mean and mean what they say.

Because of that, I have extreme frustration and no patience for companies that fly by the seat of thier pants and give you the run-around.
I almost expect it anymore.

When someone performs well, it really catches my attention and I feel its good to give them credit for good performance.

If we don't praise good performance, there will be no incentive to do well. I really get tired of the attitude most companies carry that the customer is thier slave and when they get good and ready the customer will be there thankfully awaiting their service with open arms..... Bull Cp!

When a company goes above and beyond to serve, they should be praised so others will take notice and use them too.

This is the only way to spank the hands of the companies that take customers for granted like they will always be there.

 

I believe your right in respect to the the # of bars... normally when it hits the third bar the ICE kicks in. But with EVmode activated it goes one more bar "if I remember right" and you will then see the purple bars "only 2 bars left when that happens"
But it must be safe or Toyota would have caused EV to disarm sooner.

I can't remember If I have anything that really spells that out. But we have so many cells connected together in series to get to the specified 201.6 volts that if they are low for very long the voltages could get abit unstable as the weaker cells would be considerably lower in volts than the strongest cell. When charged near the top of the range, the cells are much more normalized and equal.
Also since NiHH has a sucky shelf life and lose 2 - 5% a day just sitting there. If you brought the voltage down really far and then let it sit for long.. there would be even more danger that the weakest cell could drop low enough to even reverse polarity if it reached zero volts.
This is what I've read.. however I don't completely understand it, but since the weak cell is connected on both poles by another cell, that means the + pole is connected to a negative pole of its neighboring cell, and the negative pole of that same cell is connected with a + pole on its neighboring cell. So concievably if the cell got weak enough it would reverse polarity and take on the voltages of its neighboring cells on both sides thus effectively reversing polarity.

Once that happens the total volts of the battery "201.6" would drops in volts since it just effectively lost a cell.
I could be full of beans and someone can correct me if they like. I am familiar with lead acid much more since I used to be off the grid, but the NiMh and the prius all carry a balance with the computer too.

I figure it can't be all that bad or Toyota wouldn't have it integrated into the system already. The have already place the proper failsafes to keep good battery life.

The car has no way of knowing what is coming down the road next like you can see with your eyes. If it did, it would do, what you can do manually with the EV switch.

I'm on the same page about wanting to baby and take care of my battery. Thats why until I hear otherwise, I will not come dragging home on a dead battery figuring I can charge it up tommorrow when the ICE warms up. ..... Good idea.. but maybe a bad one too!

If would be fun to find some documentation of actually "why" japan didnt include EV in america.. that could answer some of our questions.

 

I kinda have a feeling that if the battery is healthy you can get away with alot more.. but if its weak, then you risk more.

the real question is does doing EV mode to a healthy cell or battery promote it becoming weak?

Thats why I figured as long as you get the cells back up for storage, you would have no risk.

P.S. there is a similar thread running about this too.
http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=1...=0&#entry207159

 

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Well I'm gonna use mine modestly and have a good time. It sounds like tons of veterans have been using it without problems on this forum.
The worst that could happen is my battery peter out some day and I have to get another... My switch is hidden.. but even if they wouldn't warranty it.. buy the time that happens NiMH batteries will be cheap!... I'm sure there are many more batteries available in junk yards due to wrecks than are needed due to them going bad.

There should be a hugh supply in a few years!

And besides that.. maybe by then there will be a cool LiIon upgrade available for for a reasonable price.