Shutting car down without putting it in Park

Very good point! Turning the wheels into the curb when parked on a downslope, is one of the first things I learned in High School driver's training. And likewise, turning the wheels away from the curb (and letting the car roll back against the curb) when parked on an uphill.

I worry about young people now days. They eliminated all driver's training classes in the high schools around here. (That was my favorite class! And the only one I got an A in. ) And when an emergency vehicle is coming with lights and siren, about 98% of the people just slam on the brakes, and stop in the middle of the lane! Blocking everything! Nobody pulls over to the right anymore. Boneheads!

And back on topic, I use my parking brake always... it's the first of my "3 P's"... Parking brake, Park button, Power Off button.

 

I would need an extremely accurate level to determine up hill from down. I can drive 154 miles here and only gain/lose 100 feet of elevation.

 

This morning, I was stuck in a long drve-thru lane at the coffee place. I always hit the "P" button during those long waits so I can take my foot off the brake.

A couple minutes later, the ICE motor comes on and the car suddenly surged forward a bit and rocked back & forth. Just FYI, in case it startles you as it did me. (That never happened before.)

 

Oy vey, how about "the engine starts".

 

That's funny, Mendel. When I first started typing, I just said "motor." But I thought I had better add the word "ICE" for all the techno-nerds.

(Give me back my EDIT BUTTON and I will gladly change it! )

 

Yeah, to muddy the waters the Brits call it "motor", but in north America that implies an electric motor.

I have a personal vendetta against ICE, and a lot of the other acronyms... purely OCD I know.

It's gone for you:



Weird.

 

On a serious note, now that I think about it I've had quite a few "surges" with this Prius. Is that normal?
The traffic signal will turn green, I take my foot off the brake, and before I even touch the gas pedal the car will lurch or surge forward. (Just hybrid power; engine not on.)

It also sometimes happens at first start, in the morning. (Engine not on.) I let off the brake, and my Gen4 surges and is off to the races! That Lithium-ion battery must be really strong.

 

Don't get that with 3rd gen. There's a slight "transmission creep" built in, ie: the car will slowly move forward, but no strong surge.

 

Don't understand how you get anything resembling a "lurch" merely by taking a foot off the brake, unless you're already headed downhill---when the effect of the hill adds to the normal "creep" tendency in "D".

Anyway, whatever that is, it has no relation to the jiggle or lurch that normally occurs whenever MG1 starts the ENGINE while "P" is engaged and brakes are not applied. The start-up jiggle is inherent in the way the planetary HSD gearing works. As with any planetary gearset, the torque on any one of its three shafts determines the torque on the other two. When MG1 briefly applies torque in the "backward" (relative to normal driving) direction to the engine in order to crank the engine, there must be a corresponding backward torque on the wheels.

 

Thanks CR. No, I was not on a downhill slope. It doesn't occur too often, but when it did it definitely got my attention. (It's stronger than the normal "creep" you described.) Now that I'm aware of it, it won't startle me as much as the first time.

 

I'd mention that to the service dept.

 

Actually Mendel, we call it the ICE the "engine" the electric motor the "electric motor" and the transmission the "gearbox".

 

It has a Park Button?
Hmmm.

I guess they did that in case somebody wanted to place the car into 'Park' mode without shutting down the car.
I can't remember the last time I did that, but for me it's much more efficient not to expend energy and wear and tear on the car by performing extra-redundant steps.

For me it's pretty simple.
There's exactly a ZERO point ZERO percent chance that I will accidently leave the car powered on if I power the car off immediately after parking it.

One Button.
Done.

In other words......efficient.

The parking BRAKE is different.
I very seldom use parking brakes in my personal car because it's flat where I live.
My Prius isn't a personal car so as far as anybody in the studio audience is concerned (wink-wink!) I ALWAYS use the parking brake in my Prius!
The parking brake is a YMMV thing, but since Natural Selection has a VERY poor track record with humans I always advise people to use them if they're not sure whether or not they should use them.

 

Excellent and simple solution, especially for dumb Prius rookies like me that has already forgotten to turn the power off a dozen times!

 

Any know instances of a Prius creeping down a hill with no one in it?

BTW/Got my free two cups of coffee again at SAMS CLUB. Just say you are a Prius chat member.

 

My Son-in-law's boss's BMW M3 has a smashed back ¼ window - he had to smash it because it allowed him to lock it with BOTH fobs in the boot. BMW couldn't help apparently.

 

I also have a problem using ICE (gets hung in the chute at times). It is not intuitive as to what it means to most of us.

But I use more acronyms than anyone. MIJ/OEM/BTW/YMMV etc