Most Obscure Prius Facts (Way out there)

This my my theory on that:

When giving a jump start, you are connecting your battery to the dead car. This puts a big drain on the jumper's battery, since it's not only trying to start the other vehicle, but the dead/low battery is also putting a drain on the circuit, as it tries to charge itself.

With the Prius, its 12V battery is very small, since it only needs to power the ECUs and other basic components until the solenoids close so the HV battery takes over. Then the 12V power is supplied by a converter that runs off the HV battery.

The Prius doesn't have a 12V starting system like most cars have, since the ICE is started with the MG using the HV circuit. If you look at the starting circuit of most cars, the wiring for that is the heaviest of any of the wiring, due to the huge load the starter puts on the electrical system. Since the Prius doesn't need the 12V starting circuit, it doesn't have the heavy-duty wiring required.

If you try to give a jump start, all that sudden drain is going to be putting a big load on the small 12V battery, the converter and the 12V wiring. So you could damage the converter, kill the 12V battery, or melt your wiring.

Anyway, that's my theory. Anyone want to put it to the test?

 

This may have been mentioned before, but my search didn't find it.....every car now-a-days, has a little arrow on the fuel guage (or somewhere near) that will be pointing to which side the gas cap is located.....
For those who didn't know.... :car:

 

finally read all of these comments.....thanks y'all for posting all these techno-marvel features of our Prius!!!

 

My call:
When you are jump starting another car, your car needs to be running when you connect the cars and before any attempt is made to start the other car, your car needs to be getting some revs since the alternator in a conventional car usually doesn't charge the battery when idling. Since the Prius has a relatively small 12 volt battery and doesn't idle or rev up like a regular car when the accelerator is pressed, jump starting others is discouraged.

 

Yeah, it's about overloading and popping the voltage converter (much $). When you jump from the engine compartment the long run of cable from the battery adds to the problem, and most of the load comes from the converter.

FWIW, I gave a guy at the airport a jump on his Volvo without any ill effect - guess I dodged a bullet on that one. I even tried to tell him to wait and let his battery charge for a minute or two but he hit the starter pretty quickly and was running before I could protest.

 

The DC to DC converter is protected by a 100A fuse. The positive terminal of the 12V battery has a 120A "MAIN" fuse inline.

If the recipient vehicle's battery is marginal, then only a slight additional current is needed to make the car start; this is why you dodged the bullet.

Suppose the recipient vehicle's battery was completely dead. The full starting current must come from the Prius, and the current draw could be several hundred amps esp. in wintertime. That will blow the fuses, and the 100A DC-DC fuse is pretty expensive to replace since the fuse link box has to be replaced.

If you want to look for the 2G fuse link box, open the main relay/fuse box located near the inverter and look for a 5" long box with a clear cover and white plastic base.

If you connect the jump cables directly to the Prius 12V battery terminals, then you don't run the risk of blowing the fuses - as long as the Prius is IG-OFF.

There's also the risk of improperly connecting the jump cables with reversed battery polarity. If the Prius is the recipient vehicle this can cause permanent damage to the DC to DC converter which will require replacing the inverter, a four-digit repair bill.

 

The following was posted to the GenIII forum. It applicable to GenII also.

 

I did a search for this but cannot find any reference, and it may only be the Australian models, but the driver side side mirror is larger that the passenger side mirror.

I first spotted the difference when I visted the local dealer to have a look at the Gen III, and noticed that the side mirrors on that model were different sizes. Mentioned this to one of the salesmen who confirmed my observation and commented that he had never noticed the difference before, and it certainly was not in any documentation he had seen.

I then climbed back into my Gen II model and checked my mirrors - the same - the passenger mirror is smaller than the driver's mirror. The difference is more noticable on the Gen III, but they are still different on the Gen II.

 

Hmm, so read the entire thread and noted with interest the relatively low power draw to "jump start" the car if the Aux Battery is dead.

Rather than using the under hood option for jumpstart point, could one make a jumpstarter that plugged into the dashboard power connector (assuming 10 or 15 amp fuse on the line)

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

Okay, so I finally read through this whole thread, and I've got a coupla things:

Is this true? No one else seems to have commented on it.

I, too, have a Garmin. This difference seems to be at least partially speed-related--the faster you're going, the bigger the difference. I see no difference tooling around the city. The difference is there on the highway. Rounding error? Legal liability? do not know...

I LOVE the name "refresh mode."

My little bit of obscurity, that it took me lots of time to figure out. It is possible to leave the car running and lock the doors w/ sks system. (I wanted to do this to leave the a/c on when I had to leave my dog in the car...someone pointed out to me that I needed to also leave a sign on the car saying it WAS on, so no one would break into the car to rescue my abandoned dog.) Anyway, if you lock the car with the mechanical key, you can leave it running, and you need to use the mechanical key to unlock it again--sks doesn't work the doors in this case, but it's a toggle--you don't have to push the button inside the car to turn it back on, just lock it next time w/ sks and you're good to go.

 

To shift from P to N, you must be in Ready or IG-On, therefore you can't do it if there is no 12v power. In addition, the parking pawl motor is powered by the 12v battery. There is a way to place in N and then disable the parking pawl, but that is beyond the scope of this post.

 

Legal requirement in some jurisdictions.

All measuring devices for analog quantities will have some error. Because some jurisdictions make it illegal to sell new cars with speedometers reading lower than actual speed, manufacturers cannot center the production error distribution right around the actual speed. Doing so would leave some cars reading low, violating the law. So the meter displays must be biased high.

An engine monitor such as ScanGauge-II, using the same information source as the car's odometer, displays a more accurate number.

 

So, if a Pri's 12v batt dies and can't be jumped for whatever reason, you just have to leave it there and say, "sorry for littering?"

 

I think it's flat bed time.

 

:redface: d'oh...

 

or lift the front, like you were going to do even if you did put it into neutral....
d'oh

 

OK, read 'em all. Couldn't find these:

1. Back up beep beeps *inside* the cabin (v. outside, where it might actually serve a useful purpose). At least they kept the horn outside.

2. It's easier to drive off without your fob than it is to accidentally lock it in the car. (Corollary: if you've packed a spare fob in luggage located inside car, you cannot use the little black buttons on the outside to lock it even with your primary fob in your pocket).

3. A 13 pound cat can depress the panic button on the fob whilst traversing your dresser top (where said fob is located, button side up, amidst other unloaded pocket stuff) thereby setting off alarm on car located in driveway at any time of the day or night (though wee hours of the morning seem their preference, thereby alerting all slumbering neighbors to the paranoid, hybrid-driving moron who lives on their street.)**

**This last one happened so frequently before I diagnosed the cause that I was about to take it into the dealer because I thought there was something wrong with the car.

 

If the spare fob is located in the luggage inside the car and you wish to lock the car, just use the lock button on the fob which is in your pocket.

When you return to the car, the SmartKey system will not work when you touch the front door handles. However it will work when you touch the rear hatch button release.

 

Inside door lock buttons. The drivers side is button lock icon is towards the drivers seat, the passanger side the unlock button icon is toward the passenger seat.

Looks like they try to save money by using only one button type for both doors.

 

The Toyota logo on the front is 1/8" wider than the one in the rear.