What did you do to your PRIUS today?

Replaced the 12V battery on the wife's '17 Prius. She called and needed a jump. Said she had the low 12V message and the car wouldn't boot up. I went to where she was and jumped it with our Noco lithium booster. The she informed me that she'd had that message before. "Now ya tell me." I told her to not shut it off while taking her elderly friend home. When she got home about 20-30 minutes later, I checked and it was only 11.4 volts. After the $10 coupon, a new Truestart from the dealership two miles away cost me $172.69. The job took about 15 minutes total, not counting going to get the new battery.

 

Scanning with ODB2 with the car switched on (not Ready). Position lights stayed on as there's no way to turn them off in the dark. The 12v battery ran down to 11- volts, traction battery showed 2 bars. The scanner app stopped a while later and suggest the car battery is low. Readied the vehicle by hitting the brake while pressing the Power Switch. What a surprise, the traction battery gave 6 bars! Should I be worried?

 

No, but I wouldn't recommend running down your 12V like that very often. Not good for it. Especially if it's the original 12V since it's getting a little aged. But even if it's new, you're reducing its lifespan.

 

Some new tires I hope to use year round. Nokian WR G4 all-weather tires. I've noticed a 2-3mpg decrease so far but slowly getting better as they're breaking in. Stock Dunlop Enasaves barely lasted 30k so hope these last longer at least. Less than $500 installed.

Also, posting up my reverse lights. I'm using the VLEDS 921 extreme bulbs in the housing as well as their LPR (license plate reverse light). Maximum brightness reversing

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Your Enslaves were a slightly larger diameter (836 revolutions/mile new) than your new Nokian WRg4 tires (851 revolutions/mile new) so that will affect your MPG calculations by about 2% (~1 MPG lower for the Nokians). The difference is even more since the Enslaves were worn by about 0.25 inches in radius which accounts for another 2% so you need to adjust for about 2 MPG due to the difference in tire circumference when comparing tire MPGs.

Note that your Nokians are stronger tires (H-rated vs S-rated) and have a max sidewall PSI rating of 51 so you can increase your air pressure (I run mine at 42 front and 40 rear) to get still better MPG.

JeffD

 

Wow those backup lights are amazing! Even lit up the house that was back there! I did replace all interior bulbs with LEDs and really like the white light a lot more than the yellow.

My 2021 AWD Prius is on Day #35 of being repaired after hitting a deer. But repair shop is saying she should be done next week...we'll see. This morning, on the same drive to work I took when I hit the deer, saw another big buck crossing the road so definitely slowing down and looking out a lot more from now on.

 

Yep I've been keeping an eye on my wife's 12-volt battery in her 2017 Prius. So far, the battery tester is saying it's healthy so will just keep testing often. From my experience, 12-volts that are going bad give up the ghost right around this time as we enter winter and the temps are colder.

 

Wow. This is a lot off good info. I didn't think about it like that. I guess the slight variation would of course affect it.

There are actually two types of the Dunlop Enasaves, the 89S and 91S. The the 91S are what came stock and have the max 51 PSI as well and I've always ran them at 42/41. This to me was the perfect amount where the car doesn't feel punishing at all (and I'm on coilovers).

It's been colder as well here in NJ so that's another reason I assume could account for the mpg variation. I think the tires are fine for a LRR and hope that when it's warmer, that the tires will continue to last. I was just about to jump on the Bridgestone Ecopia ones and use the Michelin X Ice 3 tires for the winter but Nokians sound like they might be the best of both worlds as people rave about using them all year and because they have the 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake certification, they're just as good as the X Ice 3 (from people's reviews)

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

The 91s Enclaves are the LRR ones that you had and those are the ones that are rated at 836 revs/mile (it took some searching on the internet to find that spec). I have run 4 sets of Nokians now (WR, WRg2 twice, and WRg3), mostly in my 2004 Prius. They have all held up well for 55 to 60 thousand miles, but at the end of life their snow performance weakens.

JeffD

 

EEEK - how legal are those reversing lights - they appear not to have any formation to the beam - just blinding anyone within a long distance.

 

It was down to a bone numbing 50º here this morning. So far, the battery in my 2017 Prime is behaving almost like new. I think that trickle charge it gets while charging the traction battery probably helps it.

 

lol...yes Tampa is known to have a huge amount of snow plows, huh? My older brother doesn't live far from you, he's in Valdosta, Georgia. He told me when it's in the low-60's there you can see people wearing parkas and winter hats!
But I remember when we lived in the Philippines and didn't have air conditioning anywhere except at work. Temps were 80-90's year round with just two seasons...a wet season and a dry season. There's a scene in Forest Gump where it's pouring rain and all of a sudden it stopped...just like that! That's not far from the truth! Anyway, when it would get down to the low-70's at night we were freezing cold...amazing how the human body adopts to the weather we live in. (And I've lived in Central Alaska and remember about a 4-week spell of -40's--50's it warmed up to 20 degrees and it was, literally, t-shirt and shorts weather for us!

 

At the risk of further digressing from the original topic: we lived on a Caribbean island for nine years. The lowest temperature we ever saw was 68F. My island friends were wearing everything they owned. I'm sure that, had they fallen down, they would have shattered like a tennis ball soaked in liquid nitrogen and dropped on concrete. Now, northerner that I am, I admit to wearing a light jacket when it gets down to 60º if I'll be outside for a while.

 

I respect that amount of light, but at $120 for the reverse lights? Have you tried the less expensive versions at all?

My windows are tinted for this area, and that makes backing up problematic. I'm considering changing out the reverse lights.

 

I wanted whatever was the brightest. Ive used tons of different bulbs in the past and the one below was almost just as bright as the VLEDS. Was it worth $85 more get the VLEDS? Absolutely not. This was just as close in performance and very very bright but the VLEDS was just a little brighter. I wanted the best and figure I would just pay once for it. I also did the VLEDS Extreme 7440/7443 amber for the rear turn signals and those were even more costly but super bright as well

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Do you believe that that AUXITO Error Free 912 921 T15 LED Bulbs 2000 Lumens Bright CSP 9-SMD Plug and Play for Backup Reverse Lights, 6500K White size and type fits the Gen4 Priuses?

 

Yes. I was using it right before I swapped to the VLEDS. Side by side they looked almost the same. I don't have pics or videos unfortunately

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Thank you. I will order them then.

 

Let me/us know how it turns out. They are super bright and I'm sure you'll be happy with them

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Just an FYI. VLEDS have a sale going on for Black Friday. You could essentially get the V6 Triton Extreme turn signals and 921 reverse signals together for $225 instead of $300 (25% off $300+). That's a great deal for the absolute best from a very well known company.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.