Terrible Mileage 2013 level 3..third prius

The weather plays a big part of my fuel rating on a 2011 with 55k miles.
Warm weather 50's, 40 mile commute, high speed 55-65ish (cough, cough) I get 52mpg on Scan Guage II.

Cold weather 30's, same commute I get 45mpg with lower/bottom grill blocking.
I do warm up the car on cold, below 32 degree days.

my2cents.

 

Bob, I've seen this chart before and always find it a bit confusing. There seem to be triangle and diamond data points with more than one meaning and those meanings aren't defined. Is the blue MPG what you would expect get or is it the PC cal? Perhaps that's the difference between HSI and actual. Its nice to see a little bump at 60 mph compared to the trend since that is a good highway speed. I suppose the car computer could be doing something different at that speed but the physics, drag etc, wouldn't be expected to have a sweet spot.

 

I believe the blue curve is the indicated mileage, the green curve is calculated. Not sure about the other points.

Rob

 

The actual mileage is usually 2 to 4 mpg lower than the HSI display.

 

bs.

 

Just a note, unless the engine air filter is extremely plugged, it doesn't make a difference.

Remember that with small tanks, you're increasing the margin of error. If the pump stops a little earlier or later than usual on a 2 gallon fill, it'll make a lot bigger difference than on an 8 gallon fill.

 

• Dark blue line - connects the indicated MPG on the original tires on the first tank of gas from the dealer. There was no effort at any optimizations but the car as handed over at the dealer.
• Light green line - this was put in later that year, within a few months, after we had enough tanks to figure out the calibration offset.
• Other points - were spot checks from other credible Prius owners and subsequent tests by myself to see if the points were reproducible . . . quality spot checks.

Now the car has 50,000 miles and on a second set of now, well worn, Sumitomo T4s at 51 psi. The transaxle oil was changed at 5K, 20K, and 50K miles.

Using information gleamed from that chart, I made a thread-log, July 2013 over a three week period:

Using GPS for the calibration constant, 100.4 miles (GPS) / 100.0 miles (indicated), gives a 100.4% calibration constant. So the true values were:

• 1,004.8 miles
• 92.2 MPG

To the best of my knowledge, this was the first, 1,000 mile tank reported in PriusChat by a member who announced the goal, documented, and achieved it solo. Not the first with a 1,000 mile tank, our Japanese friends have a 1,000 mile club with a dozen or more members. Other USA, Prius, 1,000 mile tanks have been team efforts and often as one continuous effort. This solo, three week effort was terribly boring but mistakes were made:

• 1.3 gallon, shorted fill-up - the indicated MPG shows only 10.9 gallons burned but I have gotten 12.2 gallons in the tank with a proper fill-up. In a hurry, I had inverted the nozzle when I filled up. I should have filled up, driven a mile around the block, and topped it off properly for this effort.
• increase to 1.5-2.0 hour minimum drive segments - the key is to normalize the warm-up costs by driving more than 10x longer than the warm-up interval.
• Costco E10 - Shell, Chevron, and Exxon have measured higher energy content in our area before the area was E10 captured. I have access to E0 gas but I have not done a proper energy content study to select the best fuel.
• Tighter cruise control, 25 mph - I was often running 26-27 mph to provide margin on undulating routes.
• Cheats (some could be cited) -
  • max sidewall pressure plus 10% in the tires
  • partial radiator block
  • moon-cap wheel covers
  • rear-wheel well covers
  • aggressive tire "mud guards;"
  • remove wipers in dry weather and use rain-X or equivalent
  • space heater to pre-warm windshield for dew control
  • strip interior of anything with weight (keep spare, jack, tire tool)
  • reduce driver weight
  • stow side mirrors in low-profile mode with after-body taper
  • headlight with cabin current dimmer
  • detail exterior with quality, low-drag polish
  • oversized front tires
  • taped, front seams
• Bragging - vanity tag: "1000-MI", "IOOO-MI", "IK-MILE", "C92-MPG", "IOO-MPG"

 

The last photo in your previous post shows the car was turned upside down:


Bob Wilson

 

It's not BS on any other throttle by wire car i have or had. If i unplug my battery in my 2008 impreza and plug it back in it will constantly stall the engine coming to a stop for the first 20-30 miles until it learns the enginespeed vs fuelinjection mapping and adjusts the table accordingly. I'd say, for the first 50-100 miles it's still remapping and learning.

 

both my '04, '08 and now pip, drove the exact same, and got the same mileage today and the day i sold them, as they did the day i drove them out of the showroom. perhaps i'm misunderstanding the question, "does the computer really learn how you drive?" i suppose i don't even know what that means.

 

I haven't seen an update from OP on the above suggestions, specifically:

1. Size of tires vis-a-vis the 2010 (s)he had.
2. Jacking up the car and making sure the rear wheels turn smoothly.