Today's Crappy MPG

mfd says 40 mpg? 93 degrees, is the a/c on? might need a new 12v.

 

You may be driving it too easy and using up all of the HV battery charge which will then cause, the engine to run to recharge it. Combine that with short trips, AC usage which will also cause the engine to run when it would otherwise be off will ruin mpg.

You should spend more time reading the sticky threads in this forum and in the Genii section.

 

something definately going on. how does it roll when you are in 'glide'? and what were your mpg's on the first few tanks?

 

Could you have been in "B" mode?

I did that once without noticing for 20 miles or so and the results were certainly similar; "draggy" performance, horrible mileage etc.

Just spent the day driving a manual for the 1st time in 20 years and kept shifting into 3 when I wanted 1, so the thought came naturally to me......

 

I've heard if the hybrid battery is overheated the car may avoid using it and run the ICE more. Any chance this happens after being parked in hot sun for a long time? Have you checked your tire pressure to make sure you're not driving around with any severely underinflated tires?

 

it's the A/C. no joke. if you leave it on when your car is stopped, it drains the battery quickly and you'll lose fuel economy.

 

And when the HV battery is drained you will definitely lose power and the car will feel sluggish.

When I proposed you may be driving too easy I was referring to slow take offs and using the HV battery too much. Try just driving it like a regular car for your first few tanks and see how it does.

 

Spcalan even with AC on there is no reason for a Prius over 40 mph on flat ground to get that sort of mileage. Sorry to say since I know you recently got the car, but something is not right. Dabize has a good suggestion, you are going into D (left and down) and not B (down) with the shift stick? Also, since your battery was dead, it might be as simple as replacing it, but you already said it was at 12.6 in the morning, which is fine.

More questions to pepper you with

Within the first minute of starting the car, are you accelerating up to 40 mph/highway speeds, are you driving up a hill, or are you going slowly around a neighborhood before getting to a main road?

The bars that you showed us, were the second and third bar going pretty constantly 40+mph? I see you must've had at least one nice downhill or a lot of stoplights...were there a bunch of lights?

Just to let you know where I'm going with this, the performance would be very sluggish if you have to speed up a lot or go up a big hill within the first minute. I can't imagine, though, that it would be so bad as to hamper performance to that extent for the next 10+ minutes.

Also, have you ever hit "reset" on the consumption screen you show us since you've owned the car? Holding down the ODO/button doesn't count for this purpose, I mean the touchscreen reset button. Have you manually, hand-calculated your mpgs on any gas fill-ups, and what were they?

When you look at the "Energy" screen at different points in your trip, how many bars do you see filling up the battery icon? Are they fluctuating a lot or holding steady around 5 or 6 blue bars after you've been driving awhile? If you never look at that screen, give it a try tomorrow and let us know.

 

Can you describe the kind of driving you do to get 41mpg? Short trips? Long trips? Low speeds or high? Hilly or flat? Lots of stops or few? Plenty of things can contribute to poor fuel economy but it's hard to know which to look into without knowing how the car is driven.

 

Easy stuff first: check the tire pressures and the oil level. Accelerate briskly and as much as possible avoid using the brakes by coasting and gliding.

Do you spend a lot of time parked with the car ON? That's the same as getting 0 MPG. That's perfectly fine, but unlike other cars the Prius is telling you explicitly how much that costs.

Note that the battery system gets its cooling air from the cabin. *Not* running the A/C on a hot day can decrease MPGs by impairing battery function. If you're sweltering then so is the battery.

 

This may be a bad idea. If you are hearing the Battery fan running near the passenger backseat, then the HV battery is overheating. (Make sure the vent is not obstructed) Turning off the A/C cannot help this, and should make it worse. You want lots of cool air folwing though that vent. (if you have pets or extremely hairy friends* you may have clogged the fan to the battery) If the battery is overheating you are only using the engine, and it is not powerful.

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...-fur-dirt-causing-major-battery-problems.html

*He's the hairy, hairy gent, who ran amok in Kent.
Lately he's been overheard in Mayfair.
You better stay away from him, he'll rip your lungs out Jim.
Huh, I'd like to meet his tailor.