Low Rolling Resistance replacement tires: Current List

Well somewhat, I made several changes at once so can't claim the tires being the main item. I was getting 35mph beforehand but also ended up replacing the inverter, cooling pump, a wheel bearing and some other items. It went up to 45mph shortly thereafter, but then back to 40mpg. This was due to my car getting hit and it breaking a battery terminal in the HV which caused 2 cells to fail. I rebuilt the pack after that and it went back up to 44mpg on average.

 

Why did you replace the inverter? Or did you mean the inverter coolant pump?
It's "best" to replace wheel bearings in pairs. But if it was because of damage from
the accident, never mind.
what kind of accident was it that it damaged the HV battery terminal???

 

I didn't know that was frowned upon - I just started a new tire post with a specific question that I didn't see answered using the search function. Perhaps that was my mistake as I've gotten little response...

 

The inverter was replaced because a friend tried to jump-start a car using my Prius and ended up blowing the fusible link assembly. My friend trying to fix it ordered me a new inverter, not knowing the link assembly was blown. Anyway while replacing the link assembly I replaced the inverter since I had it on hand.

The coolant pump was later replaced (3 years later) when a certain older individual (having new eyesight problems) backed into my car at slow speeds several times. I should have figured this out sooner, but it occurred over several days. Each day they push my car out of the way harder which resulted in the pin holding their hitch on poking a hole in my radiator. . After that, I decided to redo all the items as I didn't know what was damaged.

It turns out the front bumper is quite yielding under slow speed (they were turning and backing out at the same time and my car was in their 'new extended' blind spot). I wondered several times when in the morning my car was 2'ft back from where I originally parked it. While there was no frame damage, apparently at certain angles it induces a twisting motion in the HV battery pack, which caused the breaking of 1 terminal on battery #13. This could have been cause the battery pack was already hot and they hit me at low speed (1 or 2 mph) on the corner of my back bumper. If hot and charged there is lots of internal pressure as the cells try to swell some with elevated temperatures and charge status.

 

Sounds like you need a different parking spot!

 

Having a hard time picturing this, so the bumper on the prius was pushed in at low speed which caused a HV battery issue?

 

Why do new tires give less MPG? I just put on some new Continental tires and so far that’s hiding true. But holy cow I can’t believe how silent the car is now after taking off the snow tires

 

Yikes, don't ever let anyone talk you into using your Prius for a jump....no bueno. Why? Because we have no alternator so it probably wouldn't work, anyway, unless our 12-volt battery was pretty new. The power surge by jumping can mess up sensitive electronics. One question I've asked since 2017 when we got our Prius is, "How will I know when the 12-volt battery needs replacing?" Nobody could answer so I now have a good battery tester that tells me what % of the battery is left. (My Tundra is already down to 70% but it's 3 years old and sits in the hot sun...doesn't fit in the garage.)

 

great method, so what percent at minimum will the 12v battery soc be in order for the Prius to start up? And at what soc will you need to charge it?

 

Good question, Grit! My daughter has a sister-in-law in California who drives a very old Prius...I'll ask her how she knows when the 12-volt car battery needs replacing. (I'm assuming we'll get a check engine light since the ECM does monitor it and sends power to it when it needs charging.)

 

No, what typically happens is random dash lights, like it’s loosing its mind (which isn’t far from the truth).

an electronic load tester will check 12 volt battery health. One current prosumer option is Solar BA9.

 

Ha! So I wonder if there's a note in one of the Toyota Prius Service Computer: "When Prius lights go all wackadoodle, check the 12-volt battery!"

 

I bought a 2021 prius this month. A friend called who had no one else to turn to who needed a jump. They only had 1 vehicle and were stranded at their house.

I took my old prius (has "check hybrid system" warning on and I'm tinkering with it) to do the deal.

What I did was disconnect the positive lead at the 12v battery and then just let the little four hundred amp battery go at it.

It did get his 2006 Jeep Liberty running first second and third tries with no issues.... his battery was on the way out the door and he had to keep it at just over 2k rpm for 15 minutes before it would idle... so the first few times it died after he let off the gas.

I felt that well the 2010 is already messed up on hybrid system and if I disconnect the positive terminal there's little chance of doing any additional damage.

I don't think I would try it with battery connected to the car, but if you disconnect terminals from car I can't see why it wouldn't be safe to jump someone.

 

so what happened to the 2021 then since it was mentioned?

 

Nothing really I just had bought it a few days prior and hadn't explored it much yet.

I had been taking the positive terminal off and the breaker out of the hybrid battery to reset the system on my 2010 for a few weeks while I was searching for a new prius and had gotten used to dismantling the trunk a few times a day.

After I reset by disconnecting everything, the "check hybrid system it would run for several hours with both hybrid and ICE working... then the warning would pop it would keep ICE running constantly till I repeated reset of systems. Until I bought the new car I still needed to get around so I just kept a tool kit in the trunk and was ready to strip it down and reset a few times a day. Seemed a lot easier to just take the car I could tear down blind folded to get my friend up and running.

The 2021 is a bit of an odd duck. It's the 20th anniversary edition (total production of 2020 to ever be made) and has some unusual options from the factory including roof rack, door guards that fade from body color to black as they go down the car, special rims, blacked out badge instead of the usual chrome, special headlights treatment, different shifter knob (isn't blue but black) and a few other dash special items that are 20th anniversary edition specific, weather tech style floor matts that not only are on all floors... but run up the back of rear seats so when the seats are folded down the cargo compartment is completely protected. Also has some minor other things like a special set of "Prius 2020" leather keyfob covers and if I was to choose to take the weather tech matts out the cloth floor matts have the "Prius 2020" logo on them.... I'm just leaving all those sealed as the weathertech style fits my life better with a 5 and 11 year old kids.

in all honesty I wasn't looking for a 20th anniversary edition when I bought it, it just caught my eye as I liked the way it looked. I only learned after I got it home that there was a very limited production run of 2020 of them made.

 

In the States you can drive a new car around with just a dealership logo in the license plate holder, for protracted time, while the wheels of bureaucracy turn? Looking like you just hijacked it off their lot. This never ceases to amaze me lol.

 

My temp tag is taped inside the rear window and is flimsy enough that if placed on exterior it would fall apart first time it rains. I've lived in a few different states and some of those have robust temp tags that can take weather without falling apart but my current state is not one of those.

The plates are being sent USPS mail.... which has been getting worse and worse on any kind of speed. They estimated 3-5 weeks for my regular state plate to arrive via mail.

 

Here in BC, the dealership invariably has an auto insurance agent at the dealership, with the paperwork and a selection of plates. You just DON'T roll off the lot without insurance and plates.

 

Sounds like the alternator is not charging enough.
Did they test that battery? Maybe it's fine and the alternater is bad???

 

That does look goooood!
Maybe paint the Toyota axel nut cover red? And the Toytoa emblem also??