Most Obscure Gen III Facts (way out there)

1. When starting up a Prius cold, normally the gas engine starts up and runs for a few minutes to warm up the coolant/catalytic converter. By shifting immediately to Neutral within the first one or two second of the startup (i.e. when the "Prius" logo appears on the HSI display screen) you can delay the running of the gas engine until the transmission is shifted back into park or drive or reverse. Somewhat useful when you are trying to save gas.

2. When the state of charge of the High Voltage battery is over 75% ( 7 or 8 bars on the HSI display) the cruise control is disable and cannot be turned on. When the Prius HV battery is over 75% the Prius aggressively uses it electric motors to drive and may go up to 60 mph in all electric mode. I've experienced this going on long stretches road going steep downhills in the mountains. Once the SOC drops to about 68% cruise control is re-enabled.

3. The power accessory plug (cigarette lighter) is good for about 80W. The 15amp fuse for the power accessory plug (which is under the steering column) will blow if there a power surge - load of over 100w.

4. The Prius will beep if you leave it (move away from it) without turning it off and the door lock switch won't lock if the Prius is still powered on.

5. To promote itself - Satellite Radio *Sirius* is sometimes broadcasted for brief periods of time for *free*

6. The most efficient level of gasoline engine acceleration/throttle is often under the "ECO" capsule on the HSI display, i.e. the center of the HSI display appears to be when ICE Load is from 70 to 80 percent.

7. If driven gently - the Prius brake pads should last several times longer than a normal car.

8. covering up the High Voltage battery cooling intake vent which is on the right side (passenger side) of the rear seats - will harm your High Voltage battery system. It is the Achille's Heel of the Prius' HSD system.

 

Another option to keep the ICE off is as soon as the Ready light comes on is to press the EV button. Then you can put the car in Drive or reverse and drive up to 10 MPH until the battery gets down to 2 bars. I do this when backing out of the garage or when driving in the parking lot at work.

As far as the CC, I have never seen a time when in Drive & above 40 MPH that the CC wouldn't work.

 

I have been doing #1 all this week to avoid burning gas while having my car sit still while I record Trip A/B data in my log book for the Cleanmpg.com (forum daily grind - reporting daily results for the 2013 Summer Fuel Efficiency Challenge) before getting the car into reverse and moving out for my morning commute. Putting the car in Neutral at startup does not automatically switch my Prius into EV mode - the throttle mode setting stays the same as before.

I experienced #2 several times. It occurs when I am on a +600 mile road trip from MD to PA (which I normally do once a year) going up the mountains and then down the mountains (Rt 70/76/80 TSL is between 55mph to 65 mph) going toward the Westbound PA turnpike - usually I'm going +55 mph at the time. As the vehicles goes downhill some go in excess of +75 mph. Some of the down hill segments are greater than 1/5 of a mile and the elevation drop can get pretty steep. If you have a plug-in prius - you'll have extra battery capacity to absorb the electric charge going downhill so you might not experience the same effect. However, if you have a Prius liftback/V/c which has a smaller HV battery capacity - you should see the same effect. My regular prius HV battery tops off pretty quickly at 78% and then cruise control doesn't work and the ice shuts down and then the electric motor whines really really loud trying to burn off the electricity in the battery before it goes bust. The first time it happened to me it scared the dickens out of me. Seeing the ICE automatically shutoff at +60 mph is scary... I think this is a safety feature to protect the HV battery from overcharging over 80%.

 

You make your child pay your car payments. SMH

SCH-I535

 

I think it would be a great idea t have a sticky post describing the differences between models and model years. It's hard to get that information from Toyota websites and my salesman could only show the obvious differences based on listed options when I was comparing my Prius IV with the Persona edition

I also noticed other tactile cues in my instrumentation (2013 Prius IV). The temperature and fan controls have a depression for lower and a raised button for higher settings. I believe the steering wheel volume control does too.

 

I think number 4 is only true when you have the fob with you when you leave the car. But it's another neat feature.

 

What about the red hazard lights button and what year did they switch to red? It's black on my 2010.

 

Are you sure you weren't in B mode at the time? Being in B will disable cruise control. Doesn't matter what the SoC is.

I haven't explicitly tried it myself, since usually the roads that fill a battery are not the same kind of roads I'd want to use cruise control on - steep and windy! But it seems unlikely to me that this would be the case.

Also, the loud whining you're hearing is really the ICE, not the electric motor (which is pretty close to silent) - it's taking power from the wheels, funneling some of it from one MG to the other, and using that electrical power plus the mechanical power to rev the engine fairly high (I think up to about 5,000 rpms) without using fuel. It's just like shifting into low gear in any other car.

 

So far, I've done this three times in Drive (D) mode -- however, I only get to that section of road about once a year but each time I do - I try different things to see what happens. It's very strange - it only happens in the westbound direction from Maryland to Pennsylvania and never in the eastbound direction(going home)... Next time I go there - I will record the exact location of that segment of road and post it up here on Priuschat so anyone who want to try it out can also do so. I don't have an OBD2 data logging scanner to record what the car is doing so you could be right about the ICE transmission causing the loud whining noise. The first time it happen to me (2010 May) -I had just bought the car a month ago ( I didn't have a Scangauge2 either) - so it did not occur to me to use the "B" mode to go downhill or that the battery state of charge was never meant to go over 80% - I sort of learn those things after the fact. LOL. At first I was thinking that the downhill would be a great way to recharge the HV battery and it would be cool to get 8 bars on the SOC display - It did not occur to me there was any risk of overcharging or harming the HV battery .. that was a real surprise.

 

LOL...teaching her early about life.

SCH-I535 ? 2

 

Don't worry, there's no risk of overcharging. The car won't charge over 80% ever, under any conditions (short of a malfunction). This contrasts with discharging, when (for example, by leaving the car in N for a long time) it is possible to drain the battery below 40% and the car won't/can't avoid it.

To further protect the battery, the car will sometimes limit the SoC even lower than 80%, typically if the battery is warm. Most commonly, I see this when on mountain roads such that I charge the battery down one mountain, go up another, then charge it a second time. The second time, it might only charge to 75-78%, to avoid heating the battery up too much.

 

I just noticed a change in the rear window defroster wires. On the 2011 they appeared even across the glass, from my memory. I was surprised to notice my 2013 IV has about 5-6 inches of additional defroster wiring up to the top of the rear window on the driver's side . The passenger side's defroster wires are lower, so more of the driver's side should be defrosted (at least more rapidly).

 

What you're looking at is probably the radio antennas. They're built into the window.

 

I thought maybe the extra wires on the driver's side are to melt off the area the wiper sits. My 2010 has the extra wires.

 

From what I understand, the 1/4 glass antenna was added in 2012 because of complaints about reception.