I officially hate my prius and toyota

If a Prius tech will check the operation of thermostats and check the condition of the HV pack, it sure sounds like something is wrong, keeping the ICE on far too much. Not that I would know; I've just read so many of these over the years, and this sounds like more than winter to me.

OP, very troubled by your experience. Shop ought not to rely blindly on DTCs like idiots. They have brains and should be taught to use them.

Best of luck in getting this resolved. Perhaps there is a good private tech shop in Seattle if not Vancouver, since there are so many Prii out there.

 

Stop being so defensive, nobody is saying you're imagining this...

 

It would help if you answered my followup questions and took my advice in post 58.

The ICE can run to provide requested cabin heat, even using auto, regardless of battery SoC. So, don't do it. Stop using auto w/a cold ICE at speeds <41 mph (~66 km/h) or in periods of light (when ICE isn't needed) acceleration. Also (if not using auto), don't have the fan on w/heat above LO in the above cases. Once you've done this, does a warmed up ICE shut down?

Just for kicks, I would really follow Patrick Wong's advice of disconnecting the 12 volt for 5 minutes from post 20.

 

Maybe also ask the stealership to reflash the latest HVECU firmware just for kicks. If there is a problem with the HV ECU, it shouldn't accept a new flash. Or if the problem was a corrupted bit somewhere in program space, then a new flash should amend that. You didn't drive through any severe EMF at some point did you?

 

don't just take their word for it, check the tire pressure yourself. get a good digital gauge and check them when they are cold. before you drive that day. are you using the heat or a/c at all? also, how old is your 12v battery? have you tested it? really, it could be any of a million things.

 

His 12V battery is new...he's going to freak out that you asked that lol

 

oh well, maybe he just needs to vent. and speaking of venting, if the cooling vent by the back seat gets clogged/blocked, can that reduce mpg's?

 

I'd imagine so...

 

Thanks for not freaking out LOL

 

Frustrating for you! It was like extracting teeth for me, but finally we have a (somewhat) straight answer to my specific question.

So that's a major issue, your car for some reason is failing to enter "hybrid stage 4". I can see nothing abnormal in your responses to the questionnaire so the ICE running all the time thing is definitely the key problem to look at here.

Re the "B" mode thing. I can repeat that here. It seems to be standard operation that in hybrid "stage 3" when the engine remains running during regeneration that it will cut off when you switch it to "B" mode. Actually the engine still spins in "B" mode but the fuel injection is cut-off so as to increase the amount of engine braking. When I switch back from "B" to "D" then the engine starts again (actually the fuel injection just starts again).

So that much is normal. What is abnormal however is that when my prius is in this mode if I come to a complete stop for 10 seconds then the ICE always cuts out and I enter "stage 4" (I mean that's normal, your prius not doing this is very abnormal). This is something very specific that you could show to the dealer and insist it is abnormal.

If you haven't already tried it then I'd do a "brain reset" first off. Just disconnect the 12V battery for about half an hour and then reconnect it. (this forces all the ECU's to reboot). If that doesn't work then definitely follow 2k1Toaster's advice of getting the Dealers to re-flash the firmware in case something has gotten corrupted.

BTW. Here's a useful link to the description of the stages of hybrid operation.
http://priuschat.com/forums/knowled...12919-five-stages-prius-hybrid-operation.html

 

you are already getting real assistance, this is not a problem that can be diagnosed for certain over the internet. You need to find a competent dealer tech. We are telling you which general direction to go

the purpose of a public forum is so that everyone can benefit, if you get info by PM only one person benefits.

If this problem turns out to be prevalent (doubtful), then all the time spent trying to help you might help someone else in the future without having to do this all over again.

lots of people spend lots of time on forums trying to help people, they aren't making any money doing so. You should try to be more understanding and stop bashing Toyota on a Toyota lovers forum. It's the dealer (privately owned) and a shortage of qualified techs. Few people want to work this hard at a profession that's become magnitudes more difficult in the last 2 decades for relatively little increase in pay.

Answer this question. You are online looking for free help, have you helped anyone else on this forum? Have you read a bunch of posts looking for ones you can provide a helpful answer to? I've found that it sometimes helps to have good karma when it comes to getting a difficult question answered.

 

I guess the next question is how do you know the engine "shuts off" in B mode and not D? If you have a CAN sniffer of somesort, then you could monitor the engine RPM and determine for sure. If you are going off of the L/100km reading, then "off" may just be no fuel but still spinning which is normal. But if off is actually off (0 RPM), then that is more curious...

 

It might be. When stationary, it's obvious if the ICE is running or not. At very low speeds, esp. w/the windows down, it's still pretty easy to tell.

At higher speeds (say >20 mph and <41 mph), esp. w/the window closed, it's not so easy to tell and looking at the instantaneous FE (iMPG for some folks) isn't necessarily right as 99.9 mpg doesn't mean ICE off (as far as I can remember). The MFD has no actual ICE on/off indication.

As I mentioned, since I have ScanGauge, I can see when ICE RPMs drop to 0. I've had it shutdown while coasting down a hill w/windows closed and would've never known it w/o my SG.

 

I think the thermostat is stuck open and the engine is running cold.
This is only my thoughts though. Is there a way to check coolant temps without special equipment?
If I am repeating what someone else posted I'm sorry.