Warmup effects don't seem to be written in stone.

[David Beale]

Whew, busy weekend, with the 2010 preview on Sat. and a "Hypothermic half marathon" on Sunday (I help with the amateur radio club to make sure nobody dies ).

So I was chosen to be the course watchdog, driving along with the runners/walkers (because I wouldn't use as much fuel as others, I guess). Of course this ruined my mileage average, but oh well.

I tried to stay off the course as much as possible, so was parked for half hour intervals often.

Now, Pearl will run the engine constantly IF the A/C system is calling for heat AND the coolant temp is lower than about 63C. Been watching this for two years now. But this time I got the car -fully- warmed up, or at least as warm as it can get in -15C ambient temps. So I saw the engine shut off at 50C and restart at 46C while parked, waiting for the next time I had to cruise the course. I left the car in "ready" all the time, and left the A/C on and the temp set to 22C.

This is the first time I've noticed this, and my conclusion must be the temp sensor the car uses could be different than that displayed on the Scangauge, or there is more to the programming than I was lead to believe.

Anyone know which?

BTW, average MPG went from 6.5 l/100 km (cold spell just ending) to 7.5 l/100 km. Gas guzzler!!
It's already dropped to 7.2 after driving 20 km after the race.

Oh, and Bob, I did have to be very careful, as the runners/walkers wouldn't hear me creep up behind them.

Fun with Prius!