I just bought a 2010 prius with 125,000 miles. So far I love it, but it didn't come with the owners manual and I have a couple questions. 1) The hybrid battery indicator seems to be very non linear. I'll start the day with 8 bars and it'll take quite a while to drop to 7 and almost as long to drop to 6 bars. But once it hits 5 bars, it'll rapidly plummet to 2 bars. Is this normal? Or is this an indication that the traction battery is nearing the end of its useful life? 2) The MPG display has pretty terrible resolution -- is there a way to change it? The gauge reads from 0 to 100, but I spent almost all my time around 50mpg and the bars don't tell you whether you're at 52 or 49... Thanks!
congrats and welcome! a sign of the battery going south is the display bouncing up and down from high to low and back. not sure what you are experiencing, because it is hard to measure the terms 'quite awhile', and 'rapidly plummet'. i can say that it is not linear, and depends on current draw based on a number of factors including gas pedal position and hvac, etc. the current mpg is not that accurate, and not really worth paying attention to. use your trip meters for average mpg, and keep track of your fillups and miles driven. all the best!
I suggest you look into a ScanGauge or other OBS reader. They can supply way more information than you need, but it will be more accurate than the car's readout.
