=this is my first summer to own a prius, and I noticed this last week that my fuel economy seems to be slipping. I am averaging around 42 MPG instead of my usual 49. Only reason this worries me is I've noticed the car is charging the battery a LOT, and it's not uncommon to have my MPG drop down to the low 20's on a flat road if I am lightly accelerating.
View 8 RepliesGrill blocked today for the first time and have a couple questions.
Temps have been dropping more these last 3-4 days and have noticed my MPG dropping as well so I thought I'd try grill blocking.
Tempts have been and will be high 30s-low 40s in the morning and upper 50s to mid 60s for the high.
At first I just wedged the pipe insulation and drove one trip. I didn't feel comfortable that it would hold for the long haul so I added zip ties.
I used two pieces of pipe insulation 1/2 inch copper / 3/8 inch iron. Up close it looks like 2/3 or 3/4 of the grill is covered.
My two questions:
For fWT, at what temperature should it not exceed?
At what outside temperature should I remove the pipe insulation? In the Phoenix area, temperatures rise in March and sometimes we will have a short period of warmer than normal temps in February. I just want to make sure I do not cause overheating.
While most of the emphasis I've seen on improving fuel economy seems to focus on warming the car up quickly in cool/cold weather, I seem to be experiencing significant mpg drops at the other end of the spectrum.
View 8 RepliesI am the owner of a new 2014 Prius Two as of three months ago. I have really been enjoying the car, and it is certainly more friendly at the pump than my old Chevy Tahoe. I have a question as to why my mpg has been getting worse of late.
View 19 RepliesSo I bought a used 2010 Gen 3 with ~26,000 miles on it in July 2013. I started out getting 48-52mpg depending on where I was driving. I live in Raleigh, NC and I did notice a drop in drop in MPG over the winter ranging between 44-48mpg but the mpg never rose again as the months warmed and I averaged 44-46mpg for most of the summer. After changing my tires a few weeks ago I've dropped to about 40mpg regardless of where or how I drive. I bought Pirelli P4 Four Seasons 195 65R15 91T and have them inflated to the levels recommended by Toyota. 35/32 or something like that. Is it the tires or is there some other possible issue?
View 19 RepliesWinter temps are dropping my mpgs from 51-53 mpg to the 44-47 mpg range. Snow, rain, slush puts drag on the car, as well as temps in the 20-40s causing the ICE to run more during warmup and during the 15 mile trip I make daily. Also mpgs in town on 1-3 mile trips are dropping into 29-33 mpg range. I guess the Prius isn't made to thrive in cold temps. I don't know if there is much I can do about it. I did remember to raise the pressures in my tires which has dropped also.
View 19 RepliesHave had my 2011 Prius all of 4 weeks. Followed PC for months before the purchase, practice pulse/glide regularly and have really change driving habits to increase MPG. First tank was 51 MPG, than 48, 46 and now 45. each one was 75% city driving, 25% freeway.
View 19 RepliesMy 2007 Prius (72k miles) has been dropping in MPG steadily for the last 6-8 months. Where we would get a strong 42 mpg, we are now experiencing 34-36 mpg. After a 400 mile trip to the coast, we just experienced a 34 mpg average. 1 year ago, we would have seen 42-45 mpg on the same trip.
I had the dealership check it out, only to tell me the computer says nothing was wrong. This is the 2nd time I've voiced this concern about the car in 12 months. They told me to replace the tires. We did. No change.
I checked the 12v battery through system check on the display screen (method I found on this website). It was showing 12.4v for an unloaded battery. When i put a load on it, it dropped to 11.7v. Once I had it charging, it raised to 14.0v.
I am having an issue with my 2006 Toyota Prius. The battery seems to be fine, but when I turn on the headlights the battery suddenly starts dropping sharply and the lights quickly dim. I turn them back off and it starts charging properly again. It only does it when I turn on the headlights. Weird part is if I hit a bump just right sometimes it goes back to normal for a while, but then starts discharging again.
View 7 RepliesUp until my last oil change at 105,000 miles, I didn't notice any oil usage. When draining my oil, it didn't look like it was quite 4 quarts. After the oil change, I ensured that I had the engine exactly topped off to the upper mark on the dipstick. Around 600 miles later, I parked in the same location and have noticed that the oil level has dropped enough to notice. I am guessing that I will lose well over a quart between oil changes. Before I resign to the normal mechanical reasons (rings, cylinder wear, etc.)
The loss doesn't seem to be gradual which has me looking for other explanations. I also had a Toyota mechanic go over the car and replace the other fluids and filters at 100,000 miles (coincidence I think ).
Just noticed my level is about an inch below the full mark, it was fine at the last oil change, no leaks that I can see....nothing on the ground.
View 8 RepliesJust traded in a 2012 Nissan Sentra SR on a 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport and have a question about the gas mileage.
My Sentra always read 28+ MPG, but it was a known issue that the reading was almost exactly 3 MPG off; thus, I was hitting about 25 MPG most of the time. I could typically get by for a week and a half, sometimes two on a single tank (which was about 11 gallons).
I took the Santa Fe home on Thursday night, filled up from the dealer and reading a range of 384 MTE. As of tonight (Saturday), my fuel meter is reading two notches over the halfway mark and the range has dropped to 232 MTE. I haven't driven anywhere near 150 miles since Thursday, FYI.
The MPG on the Santa Fe started t a measly 12 MPG when I left the lot, most likely due to sitting and idling and lots of stop-and-go driving on test drives. I've since managed to get it up to 22.2 MPG (and feel confident it should eventually read about 25 MPG, about the same as my Sentra). Even though the MPG reading is going up, I feel like I'm going to be filling up the tank again without hitting a full week of driving (and this is a bigger tank than the Sentra). I'm not getting the difference. Is there an issue that I'm missing here? After checking in with the dealer that the previous owners used for service to ensure there were no red flags, they did tell me that it had an active bulletin for a software update. I've read in other places here that this update can have some effect on the MPG. Any thought on if these things are connected?
Been having a problem with fuel pressure dropping under acceleration intermittently. Normally runs around 65psi, sometimes at idle or normal driving is only 55-60psi lately. Most of the time it has done this it dropped to 50 and I let of the pedal and it will slowly go back to around 55. Then I just baby it and it will slowly creep back up to 60 or maybe 65. A couple times it has gone below 50 after letting of the pedal and wouldn't go back up, so I actually pulled over and shut the engine off and cycled the key to get it back up. Once this happened while towing up a hill, I could only get to around 35mph really had to baby it and at the top I pulled over and cycled the key and it came right back up. At the time I attributed it to the steep hill, 11k trailer, and the tank only being about 1/4 full.
Since I put the fuel gauge on way before any of this started happening, it has always fluctuated 2-3psi at idle. I always thought it was kind of odd, maybe pointing to combustion gasses entering the injector through a bad seal or something weird like that, but a couple of people have told me that fluctuation is normal.
I'm thinking there's either a restriction in the fuel pickup or the pump is going bad. This problem happens even when the tank is full, but seems worse on a low tank. I change my fuel filters every 10k mi, I'm at about 9k right now so I guess it could be dirty filters? Got lots of towing over the passes coming up as fishing season is just starting and I'm sure we'll be spending as many weekends we can at the beach camping.
I took my 2008 Prius to Jiffy Lube to have oil changed. When driving away, I made it about one block and all warning lights came on: Master Warning, Hybrid System Warning, Brake System Warning, Malfunction, etc. I pulled the car over and stopped. I started the car again, lights still there - drove 2 blocks back to Jiffy Lube and lost momentum about one block away, with pedal to floor, I could drive about 5 miles an hour into the bay. They looked at it for about 30 minutes and claimed I had bird seed that dropped under the air filter.... I said "goodbye" called AAA and had it towed to my dealer. They said it was because air had entered the system due to my being low on fuel. I have never heard of being low on fuel and it causing the car to shut down nor did I ever get a warning of low gas, still on one bar. Each time I restarted the car at Jiffy Lube, it started fine, drove forward or backward, then lost momentum again. Still no warning of being out of gas. The ticket from the dealer states:
"Vehicle low on fuel causing ECU to shut down fuel injectors when engine started to misfire. Found codes P0A0F, P3190 in system. Added 5 gallons of fuel and reset ECU."
I have a 2008 prius. Usually it gets me around 52-55mpg, I've had it since January. Since a couple of days ago its not giving me anything above 49. I know thats a normal number, but considering the fact that its usually quite a bit higher I'm wondering what the cause of the drop is. Also around the same time, when I pull out of my driveway I notice what appears to be a bit of water leakage. Its under the vehicle in the front center, and it only happens when I start the car for the day and pull out of my driveway (its on an incline).
View 4 RepliesI have noticed over the past few months that my gas mileage is dropping (from about 29 to 24) on the highway and I seem to have lost some power. I know the car is getting older, but where do you think I can get some of it back? The plugs are only 20K old and the air filter is new.
It is a 2004 1.8t with 109k on it.
I have a 2004 Chevrolet Tahoe 2WD with the 5.3L V8. Tahoe has 134K. At about 125K miles, I replaced air filter with a K&N, new OEM spark plugs and spark plug wires. The Tahoe has been running great and was getting normal mpg until recently. 15mpg in town and 17mpg on the road is what I normally get. The last 3 fill ups my mpg has been below 13.5mpg. Car still runs great but at 13mpg it's starting to hurt a little financially. Weather here in NC has been normal, my driving conditions or habits have not changed, etc. What could be causing my mpg to drop by so much while the suv still rides smooth and straight?
View 4 RepliesI just bought a 2010 salvage Prius. I have another 2010 I have been driving for 3 years so I am pretty used to the mileage I can expect under different conditions.
When the car is totally warm and I measure the mileage for 15 miles or so I get normal readings of mpg. But with a lot of 2-3 mile trips during the week I am getting about 10mpg less than usual compared to my other 2010.
2007 model Prius with 74k miles.
I was getting 45.6 mpg on the trip computer. MPG dropped a couple of tenths pretty quickly. Got fuel and put in some Techron fuel treatment. Checked 12v battery, was a bit on the weak side, so I replaced it . Checked voltage and everything was good.
While I had the battery out I let the car sit for 10 minutes to reset the ecu. Now after 40 miles I'm getting 35 mpg on the trip computer, and the ICE kicks on any time I press the accelerator pedal, even if I'm going down hill from a stop.
There is no difference in driving style, tire pressures (40 front, 39 rear), I bought the fuel at a place I normally get fuel.
I am very disappointed with my Toyota Plug-in because I have only had it 2 months and have 1400 miles on car. When I first charged it up with the 110 volt charger supplied with the car, I got 13.5 miles to use up before the car went off battery. Then on recharges, every two or three times when the battery recharged the usable mileage dropped by a 1/10 a point. I now have only 9.5 miles to use before I go off battery. When I first got the car I could go to work and have 3 miles extra to go home on. Now I cannot get all the way to work. I wonder how low it is going to go? I took it into Gladstone Toyota and had the service department look at it. They said after they recharged it and found it to be only 9.5 and that there is nothing they can do unless the red warning light comes on saying that the battery is defective. I asked them how low the battery would go and still considered normal, and they said they did not know. So I guess I will keep loosing free electric miles.
My getting progressive lower usable mileage has nothing to do with my driving habits as they have been the same since I started driving the car.
So, I got stuck in standstill traffic for about an hour due to bad weather and wreck up ahead, and barely inching along the highway, I was surprised how fast the battery was dropping and having to turn on the engine to recharge it, killing the MPG; normal drive home I get around 50 MPG, it dropped to 38 due to all the idling. In such situations, just place the Prius in "Park" in order to shut down the electric motor (I'm assuming that's what park does) so it doesn't idle to conserve power? Would probably be an annoying way to drive regularly, but if you know you're gonna get stuck for awhile, I may try it next time...
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