Traffic permitting, pulse and glide or coast seems to work for the mpgs for those dreaded 1 mile trips on a cold engine. If no one behind, I'll just get off the gas and coast down the street, usually to the next stop light. Funny how often the light is red. If a bunch of ICEers are close behind, coasting not an option.
View 3 RepliesI am suddenly getting 8 mpg decrease both long and short trips. Rotated tires, checked psi and did an alignment but couldn't find cause. I remember my old car had an engine thermostat and when that was stuck open or close the mpg decreased a lot too.
View 19 RepliesMy wife drives a V-10 Ford Excursion. She drives tons of short trips (5 - 10 min)approx 600 to 700 miles per month. Is this type of driving worse for a large engine and more tolerated by a smaller V-8 or V-6? Her rig has 100,000mi. I use Mobil 1 and use a 7500 OCI.
View 12 RepliesTwo weeks ago we were driving across rolling hills in southern Ohio. I started to wonder, "What would be the perfect road for the Gen 3 Prius?" Is there a road shape that would allow the benefits of pulse and glide without the speeding up and slowing down?
Let's assume no net elevation change on an interstate highway and a driving speed of 60 or 65 mph. To stay in the most fuel efficient engine ranges for the ICE, we'd want down-hill stretches where the power demand shown on the hsi would be in the bottom 1/4 of the total Echo range, and up-hill stretches where we could stay in the top 1/4 of the hsi Echo range (just below Power).
Would the optimal ascent and descent angles be the same, or would the angle of decline be shallower that the assent angle? Would mileage (mpg) be better on this ideal up and down road than mileage on a flat road at constant speed?
Correct me if I'm wrong - Pulse & Glide is not really possible at speeds higher than, say 120-130km/h (74-80mph). I have noticed on my last trip that if you want to keep 130km/h average and you pulse up to 140km/h and glide down to 120km/h, when "gliding" the engine never shuts down, and the glide period is very short.
When pulsing back to 140km/h it takes a "long" time and the instant fuel consumption is "high" (e.g. 6-7L/100km) while when "gliding" you are actually at 2-3L/100km, which means on average you are at about 5L/100km, which is what I would get in any case if keeping speed constant with the CC at 130km/h.
My dad says hes stuck somewhere with his 2010 prius,, he says it wont start, and the signal is stuck on.
View 10 RepliesI have a 2010 Prius V that is honking the horn in the middle of the night and sometime in the middle of the day ( 5 short honks of the horn). This has been occurring over the last few months.
1. Only one key FOB and it is stable ( not in a pocket or something pushing a button)
2. Car is confirmed to be locked before this occurs.
3. No alarm issue from what I can tell ( I get up right away and no one or animal is around the car)
3. Cannot find root cause on a current thread although one person stated that it might be that the 12 VDC battery is starting to go bad???
No other issue with the car.
I'm having a very strange problem with my 2011 Prius.
About two and a half hours ago, I drove home and parked my Prius for the night. About an hour after I parked, my Prius started beeping, three short beeps, every couple of munutes. It's now been doing this for over 90 minutes. Because I can hear it from the house, it is very, very, very annoying.
I have checked all of the doors, and also took the car out for a quick spin around the block, in hopes of getting the beeping to stop. No luck. It keeps beep-beep-beeping every few minutes.
It has been unusually cold here the past couple of days, in case that has anything to do with it. That being said, it was a good 10-15 degrees colder yesterday, yet the car wasn't having this problem. It only started this evening.
My question is, what in the world could be causing this beeping? Is there any way to stop it?
Sometimes you have to put pedal to the metal to pass slowpokes blocking 2 line roads (I'm talking city/suburb driving here). but, i noticed that the smell follows. first couple of times, i thought it was coming from some other car, but this time, I realized it was me.
No, it's not burning tire due to the insane acceleration (not in this car). What else could be? should i worry about the car bursting in flames?
I recently just purchased a 2011 Lexus RX350 AWD... I would like to ask on the downshift while slowdown the car.... Every once in a while I feel the tranny down shift while slowing down... It's not harsh or anything, but just enough to have a slight feel. Like a backlash? Is this normal? I also have 09 GS350 AWD.. It's so smooth that I can't feel the downshift at all...
View 11 RepliesOk so my transmission feels loose, too much play between the coast and drive side of the gears. Makes enough noise now that my wife complained about it so I'm looking into taking it to the dealer. I pretty much expect them to pass this off and do nothing, but its getting worse especially in the last couple of months.
Noticed a lot of play in there gearbox? Can you hear the gears make noise as they shift from coast to drive side?
I'm very puzzled by how prius (2008) decides whether to use gas when I coast with neutral (I only do that if there is a long stretch of the road that is going down the hill). Same roads, same driving style, but sometimes, the gas usage goes to 0 but sometime it continue to use gas. Sometimes if you just let it in the gear a little longer or just press the gas pedal, it would go 0 after switching to neutral. There is no consistency that I can come up with the best method to get it to not to use gas and just slide using the gravity and momentum.
I can understand if it has to fill up the battery but when it uses gas at neutral, no transfer of energy among all parts. The diagram (wheel, engines, battery) shows standstill but it still uses gas. I don't have air on and turn the fan to the lowest and it doesn't make any difference.
A few conclusions I had:
It will always use a little gas at highway speed (55 to 70mph).
It appears to use gas at higher humidity (not sure but the MPG is higher when it's humid).
I'm still getting used to my prius and hybrids in general so there are a few things that I still don't know about them. But what what makes that cool whirring sound you hear when accelerate from a stop or coast? It's got a cool scientific buzz.
View 6 RepliesI have great success doing pulse and glide in city. I once drove 32 miles non highway at 90mpg in a single trip using this technique. But it seem that it is impossible to do so on the highway, speed goes down too fast during glide. I found that too many pulses on highway actually decrease mpg. How to greatly improve mpg in highway driving?
View 19 RepliesWhile pulse and glide, is it better in Eco mode or normal mode with Prius c?
Eco mode will take more time to pulse, it may lower mpg?
Nexus 7 ?
As I understand it pulse and glide should work at pretty much any speed. I'm trying to adopt pulse and glide but I drive on mostly 55 MPH hilly roads. If I'm in HV mode and have some EV range I find I can only get ICE shutoff below 42+/- MPH. However if I switch to EV mode as I back off the pedal the ICE will shut down at speeds up to 62+/-MPH. Switching from EV to HV while gliding at speeds above 43 MPH causes the ICE to resume turning. So I've tried accelerating to my desired pulse speed in HV coordinating releasing the pedal with selecting EV mode to begin the glide then beginning the next pulse by simultaneously pressing the pedal and mode button. Alternatively I can stay in EV mode for the glide then floor the pedal to restart ICE but that risks getting an undesired higher less efficient ICE power level and doesn't allow lower power pulses to allow glides to begin on downgrades.
View 15 Replies2003 PT Cruiser won't start immediately after short trip with a short stop. Always does start after turning the key and holding it to start position. The check engine light is often on and the code is for a cam shaft sensor or resistor sensor. A companion problem is the cruise control. If the check engine light is OFF and I use the cruise control, it works fine for a while and then the check engine light comes on at the same instant the cruise control turns off. Are these 2 issues connected? How much should it cost to have the sensor replaced? The car always stays running once it starts and the problem occurs randomly. What are the consequences of not repairing it?
View 1 RepliesWhen I first bought the car I was resetting the trip/mpg every day and getting a daily reading. Then I started to realize that wasn't accurate as a per tank reading. So now I judge my weekly trip/mpg. Currently I am getting 57-59 mpg on the MFD(I do not have a scangauge yet) - so i guess that would equal 54-57 actual.
My commute is 43 miles one way. half of it is mixed city driving a mile of low speed out of my neighborhood to a 55 mph with two 2 mile 35 mph zones and then the second half is interstate.
I have been working on keeping the SOC high for the 55 mph so that i can most of the time slip in and out of high speed "stealth" mode. Usually with the MFD around 69-75? and not drop speed too quickly. maybe a mph per 2 miles depending on the grade.
I try the pulse and glide in the 35 mph zones. coast in, then glide as far as I can and pulse back up. I have been playing with a couple ways,
OPTION 1: use in electric only-takes longer and kills SOC.
OPTION 2: Pulse hard into el+ICE and its crap mpg for a small amount of time. Pulse gently into ICE and decent mpg for a little longer amount of time.
I am a new 2010 prius owner and I am very interested in obtaining the max MPG in my new car I have read and seen video with regard to the pulse and glide method. My question is
1. can you shift into neutral on the glide
2. can this do any harm to the car.
I am new to the Prius and have noticed that when cruising the car seams to surge or pulse while driving. Is this normal?
View 3 RepliesI own a Prius C 2013. I read about Pulse and Glide, and I also watched youtube about it. I somehow have never seen a situation where there is no arrow in the Energy Monitor. The best I have ever seen is arrow coming out of the battery only which is EV mode. Some people say 35-45 is the best speed for P&G, but I never see "no arrow". What speed makes the car run without arrow?
View 19 Replies