Finest, greenest, & safest taxicab in the world. The story of cab 2545

I wonder if it's connected with the rough idle on start up issue. The weather seemed similar to that experienced on that issue too. Wonder if small drops of water that cause that issue had built up to more than a few drops and then they were sucked in causing the issues.

Have others issued similar issues? I'm sure they have.

 

I had a similar experience with the engine misfiring on acceleration and I had noticed that my fuel mileage was decreasing. My first thought was that I should consider new spark plugs. Rather than proceed on my own, I decided to take it to a mechanic friend of mine, Although he didn't have Prius experience, he was pretty good at diagnosing problems.


He listened to the engine and then asked me if I had noticed anything unusual about the car. When I told him that I had seen feathers in the tailpipe, his response was, "That's it, undoubtedly your plugs are fowled!"

 

I believe the manifold condensation issue would only affect you right after start up. I wouldn't expect it in the middle of a drive.

 

I had just filled up from a different petrol station to usual. Wonder if there was some contamination in there as the car runs sweet now and has since that one time even with other damp and cold mornings.

Back to the cheap petrol again eh

 

it burns gas so its not the greenest in the World. I met a guy who owns a LEAF taxi fleet in Copenhagen.

 

Well I'd seriously like to know how he makes that work, even with $8.50 for petrol in Denmark.

He must be having some significant support from Nissan or a Government department. My Prius barely hacked the taxi job, the Leaf I doubt will. I did the sums on the Leaf time and time again and just couldn't get it to pay. It's not just the petrol savings, it's the much higher cost to buy, the down time whilst charging, the restrictions in range and the possible short life of the vehicle if it needs a new battery at 100,000 miles.

I defy someone to show me how it can pay.

 

I'd say it's tuned for Japan, as we're the largest market, and have the traffic patterns the car excels in. With almost half the population of the US, but less space than California...it's tight. We also have high humidity, high temperatures in summer, stop and go to stand-still traffic, very steep up and down mountain terrain... This place beats cars to death.

On that note, I'm sorry to read about the problems you've had, but it's not representative of the Prii we have here. I own a repair shop, and we specialize in hybrids (you can't throw a rock and not hit a Prius here); we use only OEM fluids, follow OEM service intervals, and find these cars to be very reliable. Taxi companies and driving schools in Japan are switching to the Toyota Hybrids in droves.

 

Yeah I've seen traffic in Japan and the conditions are very similar to here. Not sure why European taxi drivers are having issues as I've heard of other taxi drivers near me with issues too (though with nothing documentary I appreciate this has to be taken with a pinch of salt).

My car has the full dealer service history and use of the correct fluids. Could it have been the factory making the cars that's causing issues? If I recall, there were 3 factories making the gen3 and one of them was renowned for poorer quality. Could one make the Japanese and Asian cars, the other the US variant and the 3rd making the European versions, because seriously, my car has been very poor for reliability and quality. Certainly not what I thought I was getting!

 

Presumably because Denmark is an a country with huge taxes on conventional cars and high fuel taxes.

 

This is something I've wondered about for quite some time. Obviously there are some differences, RHD, LHD, and all that. There are also software differences. For instance my US based scan tools will not communicate with the Japan Prius because it uses a different protocol, even though it's the same 16P DLC. I have to use the Denso DST2, which is the Toyota factory scan tool here in Japan, or the G-Scan, which has excellent JDM vehicle coverage. The Prius C is the first "international" Prius I've found (Aqua), where it appears to be exactly the same as the US version (software-wise). Many recalls in the US don't affect us here, and the base cost of the car is generally quite a bit higher. Strange, for sure. It's very possible that cars for different destinations get different parts that have to comply with the destination country, but mechanically, the different Prii seem identical, country to country.

One of my customers has a 6 year old Prius that just passed 200,000 km. While that's not much for the US, it's a marathon for Japan. So far, it's been fluids and regular maintenance only.

 

I'm not even sure if the parts have to be different, just not put in the vehicle shell at the factory with the same passion perhaps? In Europe I remember the Ford Sierra was made in the UK and Belguim (or Germany) and that the UK versions were pigs, but the high spec version built abroad was a completely different beast. Same parts, same design but one was nailed together and the other wasn't.

I'm sure there's something similar with the Prii judging by the various experiences in various parts of the World.

Wonder if Ken or others in the know could comment? It might all be complete fud too.

 

There's a Tsutsumi #1 and #2.

 

I believe so. When you check service bulletins, sometimes you have to determine which plant the car was assembled at, Tsutsumi #1, Tsutsumi #2 or Toyota Body. I believe Toyota Body is also called the Fugimatsu Plant.

 

Grumpy what is your VIN number?
Mine is JTDKN36U3050514xx
J - Japan
T - Toyota
D - Passenger Car
K - 4DR Wagon 2WD
N - Engine - 5VZ-FE, 2ZR-FXE
3 - Series ?
6 - Manual Belts w/2 Airbags, Side Airbags, Curtain Shield Airbags, and Knee Airbag (Driver Seat)
U - Prius
3 - Check digit
0 - Model Year, I think this is Europe specific, manufacture year is 2009, in US should be A for 2010
5 - Plant - Toyota Auto Body, 0 - Tsutsumi #1, 1 - Tsutsumi #2
0514xx - Sequential number

So the main question is what is your plant number and start of your sequential number? Mine has no problems so far, but I have only 46k km and very little city driving.

 

JTDKN36U50506****

I wonder if we're onto something here as it appears both LHD and RHD European versions are made at the same plant? I'd be curious to see what Socrates has for his chassis number and also which plant makes the JDM and US variants.

Now at 74,000 miles/119,000km

 

^^^
The PDF at NEW!!! Service Bulletin for Engine Knocking at Startup T-SB 0012-10 | PriusChat has some VIN ranges for US ones, but it's not necessarily complete.

 

Auch, mine was apparently build around 1000 cars before yours in the same plant, will try to baby my car as much as possible.
It would be interesting to see how many hours a car is in ready mode, my average speed is almost always around 40 km/h, if I translate this into hours this is around 1200 hours of ready time. A taxi on the job for 10 hours a day will have this time in 120 days of work, I have done this in 3 years and probably cycle my battery way less per hour than taxi standing still.