SSC50P like a new car!

[tomdeimos]

Got my Prius updated with the SSC50P today. Dealer took under 2 hours.

Just driving to work from the dealer it was like having a different car. No longer had to work
really hard to get battery mode operation, or use the EV switch! It did it a lot and it was 32
degrees this morning. I got more battery mode than I ever saw before without workking at it for temps under 50 degrees.

Otherwise car seemed to run as before.

(My car was an early 2005, so other era cars may not change so much.)
.

[andyprius]

Originally posted by tomdeimos@Dec 5 2005, 12:53 PM
Got my Prius updated with the SSC50P today.  Dealer took under 2 hours.

Just driving to work from the dealer it was like having a different car.  No longer had to work
really hard to get battery mode operation, or use the EV switch!  It did it a lot and it was 32
degrees this morning.  I got more battery mode than I ever saw before without workking at it for temps under 50 degrees.

Otherwise car seemed to run as before.

(My car was an early 2005, so other era cars may not change so much.)
.

[snapback]168030[/snapback]

After the recall the only thing I noticed was two 5 min graph bars of 75MPG on a particular route I take often. But I also had the dealer replace the aux bat. Am now monitoring aux bat on diagnostic screen. Working fine. andy

[tomdeimos]

Starting to notice the specific differences with my updated Prius comuters:

1 Temps have been getting colder, so mpg is hard to compare, but I think it is holding up around the same or a little better when driving slow roads.

2 Temps in 30's and I am getting more engine off operation without the EV button than I used to get on 50 degree days. Electric mode is coming on by itself on some roads going up hill where I never got it before at any temp.

3 Car used to stop engine during warm up starting around 130 deg coolant. Now it holds off till engine gets over around 153 degrees. Then I get tons of battery mode without really trying. But at these temps the car cools very fast and all the battery mode stops when the coolant gets to like 146 degrees.

I used to get full stage 4 at about 163 degrees F on the coolant, but seems like I have it at the 153 degree point now.

4 Sometimes I accelerate with engine off without trying to. This never happened before except going down hills, or when I was really trying to do it.

Can't wait for summer now to see what this all does to my mpg. I've never gotton over 60 mpg no matter what speed I drove for a tank. I could see this change might make it possible.

5 Car goes into engine off mode much faster and easier, once temperatures are OK. Seems like much less delay.

6 Battery seems to go even more up into the green. (Some green is normal here at winter temperatures.)

7 Some places where I go uphill approaching lights I know I will stop at I used to click the EV button, but now don't seem to need to!

8 Accelerator is different. Seems less touchy. Also feathering etc has less effect. Car decides more when to switch modes.

[hobbit]

Wellll... what do you think is making up for the perceived longer
times on battery-only, since SSC50P isn't free energy? Does the
update increase charging current when the engine is running, or
something like that?
.
_H*

[Tideland Prius]

Hmm, I wonder if this is the TSB that my technician was talking about. Could someone explain what this does? or rather what SSC50P is about?

[NuShrike]

Originally posted by Tideland Prius@Dec 6 2005, 05:30 PM
Hmm, I wonder if this is the TSB that my technician was talking about. Could someone explain what this does? or rather what SSC50P is about?

[snapback]168977[/snapback]

I'm surprised you don't know more about this considering how long you've been around on this board, and with your Prius of 2004.

This was something already being performed to all qualifying Prius over a year ago (2004), and only recently became "big news" in the news channel as well as a voluntary service campaign after the American Highway Safety board investigated that 30ish (quite a few were unrelated running out of fuel states) complaints about the car randomly stalling on the road.

The investigation closed without much fanfair, and this SSC-50P began. More info on this page: http://www.ocprius.com/ssc50p.html .

iirc, it's an ECU flash that kept the engine running longer instead of thinking it was in some out of fuel state. This translates as lowering the MPG for some of you 2004-era hypermilers. The other was application of some dielectric grease to some cabling to prevent water/moisture from causing the similiar stalling condition.

Now my only issue is I haven't been able to this page to recognize any VIN; even the ones in the 'known' range.

[tomdeimos]

Originally posted by hobbit@Dec 6 2005, 07:30 PM
Wellll... what do you think is making up for the perceived longer
times on battery-only, since SSC50P isn't free energy?  Does the
update increase charging current when the engine is running, or
something like that?
.
_H*

[snapback]168976[/snapback]

Only thing I notice is more battery current period! More battery power used during times when engine is going but not warm enough to switch off too. It's like a new warm up stage way past the time the car used to favor the battery. It will go into a mode running on battery power with to 20 amperes drain, but engine still going around 1300 rpm. Even sounds like it is running on battery power! this is while driving around 30 mph. I have not had my can view long, but never noticed that kind of fairly sustained current before with engine on.

Charging seems about the same. MPG remains at 99 with engine off, and like 35 to 45 with engine on while charging so the combined average is just fine, with a 50% duty cycle or better.

I'm not really getting longer engine off due to the rapid cool down. In summer I expect I will. I just get engine off in lots of my route to work where I never did before, or had to do it with the EV button, or really work at it with feathering.

The engine cool down starts the engine up long before I have any significant drain on the battery.

Definitely getting engine off on some slight upgrades where I never would have pressed the EV button thinking it was too steep and inefficient for battery power.

With the new code my mpg seems to be holding up fine with some of my commutes breaking out above 52 mpg again. Typically get 48 mpg commuting in these temps on my 12 mile trip.

[hdrygas]

Anyone with ScanGage, Can View or other monitor done this and can report on engine temps, RPM and other data? I am going to get mine done at the 25K service. Hopefully I will have a CAN View by then!

[Tideland Prius]

Originally posted by NuShrike@Dec 6 2005, 06:45 PM
I'm surprised you don't know more about this considering how long you've been around on this board, and with your Prius of 2004.

This was something already being performed to all qualifying Prius over a year ago (2004), and only recently became "big news" in the news channel as well as a voluntary service campaign after the American Highway Safety board investigated that 30ish (quite a few were unrelated running out of fuel states) complaints about the car randomly stalling on the road.

The investigation closed without much fanfair, and this SSC-50P began.  More info on this page: http://www.ocprius.com/ssc50p.html .

iirc, it's an ECU flash that kept the engine running longer instead of thinking it was in some out of fuel state.  This translates as lowering the MPG for some of you 2004-era hypermilers.  The other was application of some dielectric grease to some cabling to prevent water/moisture from causing the similiar stalling condition.

Now my only issue is I haven't been able to this page to recognize any VIN; even the ones in the 'known' range.

[snapback]169046[/snapback]

Hmm, actually it's a 2005 model year. Also, if it was a year ago, I never got a letter.

[tomdeimos]

Originally posted by hdrygas@Dec 6 2005, 10:05 PM
Anyone with ScanGage, Can View or other monitor done this and can report on engine temps, RPM and other data?  I am going to get mine done at the 25K service.  Hopefully I will have a CAN View by then!

[snapback]169060[/snapback]

No big changes to any of these things. Current limits remain about the same. Just the new warm up mode current looks bigger but still in range of what battery mode did before: allowing current to 20 amps at these temperatures. (35 degrees) When it is warmer I get more like 30 amps.

My temps today with my 50% engine radiator block was 186 peak on highway and typical 146 to 168 F cycling on roads at 30-40. Only difference is more cycling low due to more engine off mode.

Battery got to 70 degrees end of trip.

SOC ranged 46% to 75% min and max. Mostly at the high end, as before when cold weather.

RPMs about same as before, high for warm up then lower.