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Should I be worried ?

Discussion in 'Prius c Fuel Economy' started by Gerry miles, Sep 13, 2015.

  1. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Divide either value into 235.2, yields the other.
     
  2. Gerry miles

    Gerry miles New Member

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    I went out tonight for a drive, started my car to let the engine warm up, and at the same time the battery charge builds up. My fuel rating is showing 15.0/100, I get it , I have not moved yet, but I start driving on the city streets making my way out of town, the rating has changed to 8.4/100 at about 6 blocks away from home, I get out of the city doing a average speed of 70 kph, my rating is now at 4.6/100 I'm happy because the rating did not get stuck on 4.7/100. I come up to a nice windy road posted at max 50 kph, I put the car on cruise after a short couple of minutes my rating changes now to 3.8/100 mostly because I have the cruise on. But now I leave this area to turn on a different hwy to come back home, speed limit is posted at 100 kph. I have my cruise on 80 kph all the way my rating has changed now to 3.6/100. Now I'm back in the city driving 50 kph. And just getting home and my final fuel consumption rating is now on display at 3.5/100. Temp outside is 6 degrees Celsius. I drove about 65 km total distance just over a full hour and ten minutes. This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about , since most of my driving was very long consistent speeds the ratings did not change often, .my point before was I have times while driving the rating will get to 4.7/100 and stay on that number for the full drive, no matter what my speed is ,100 kph or even down to 50 kph in the city at 30 degrees Celsius summer time. Until or unless I pull over and turn the car off and back on .to reset that stuck rating number.which usually works. One day I had to turn off and restart the car 5 times to finally get my fuel rating below 4 into the 3.3/100 and without changing my driving speeds or habits.
    I have had times coming home from work with a still warm engine, got back into the car and drove 5 blocks to the grocery store without paying much attention to the ratings yet stop the car and noticed that I got a rating of 2.7/100, now explain that when sometimes I need to drive a full half hour in the city to get into the low 3's/100 ratings. Yes with a warm engine you can achieve good numbers. I'm strictly talking about a fuel rating over /100 that constantly changes based on your style of driving light foot or heavy foot on the gas while driving or starting. My original complaint is that all my plms started after my first oil change, I think the dealer hooked up to my computer and it screwed with something, I have since now already had my second oil change ,my car is 6 months old and I have almost 18,000 kms on my odometer.having my current fuel rating to show up accurately has been a hit or miss everytime I get in my car. It's hard to show someone when it works fine, then times it gets stuck on 4.7/100 I have given up trying to convince people that my car has this little glitch. When I know so well how to handle this car at its most fuel effient ways, my front grill is covered with foam piping, zip tied on, my tires are at 42 lbs for less resistance, I try to keep my green power band at the half mark all the time, I can now reach a constant 62 kph on ev, until the power level drops, I use my engine breaking in traffic so not to have to come to full stops and help keep momentum.every fuel refill I work out my mileage based on litres put in and total distance travelled , I average every fill at about 63-65 mpg. Yes I convert my fill ups .and I reset both my trips until next fill up, and I also input the price of fuel into the dash computer. I do not watch the stupid bar graphs changing all the time especially when it does not show precise numbers like the current fuel consumption rating shows like 3.8- or 3.7 or 3.6 the graph will not say exactly but those small fractions are as simple as dropping your cruise control by one kilometer speed, that active fuel consumption rating changes or I should say updates every ten seconds no matter how fast you go or how long you drive. Hello does anyone understand how their cars work ?
     
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    not unless they are toyota engineers, and i'm not sure they have a complete grasp...
     
  4. Hambones

    Hambones Junior Member

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    Gerry, do you get that the fuel economy number you're talking about is an average for your drive, since you last started the car? In other words, once you have been driving for 20+ minutes it is common for that number to change very little, or not at all unless you have a long sustained extreme change from the average established on that drive thus far, like going up or down a huge, long, steep hill which would make the number go up or down just a little bit. Short of that your average for the drive will level out and change less and less the longer (further) you have driven since starting up the car.

    Now, if you know this and have made extreme changes, sustained for a long time and distance to try to shift this number up or down after it get's stuck, then I would say there is a problem. If that's the case I would just push on the dealer hard with your warranty and don't be a pushover. Get it fixed while under warranty, if you miss that window you're pretty screwed. Say "Look, there IS a problem, I WILL show it to you, and I expect it to be FIXED, whatever it takes!"

    Example of the extreme change, sustained for a long time: (when the number gets "stuck" try driving VERY aggressively for a long sustained period, like just about flooring it as much as you can for several minutes to see if you can get the "stuck" number to go UP, I know this isn't desirable but would be the easiest way to troubleshoot this problem and possibly prove it's legit if the number doesn't move after a LOT of economy devastating driving. Just keep in mind the longer you've been driving when it gets "stuck" the longer you have to deviate drastically from your normal driving habits to get it (or force it) to change. I hope this helps.
     
  5. InPriusLove

    InPriusLove Member

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    I am getting a sense of what you mean. Your fuel consumption rating is x number of liters per 100 km while Americans use x number of miles per gallon. You say you are looking at the top. I know the area you are referring to. I can say that your experience seems consistent with mine on current consumption, as the initial start of the vehicle is the heaviest in its fuel consumption. Over the course of a trip it shows the average overall which is more like you would expect. The short answer, no, you should not worry. But it does seem odd in general that you had not noticed it until now. After work is done we tend to be hyper-attentive to little things. I would say that you never paid attention to the early operation statistics before.
     
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    agreed. it's interesting how things can appear different at different times.