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How I hypermile a 2nd Gen Prius

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Fuel Economy' started by Chuck., Oct 31, 2016.

  1. Chuck.

    Chuck. Former Honda Enzyte Driver

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    It's a different experience from my 2000 Honda Insight or a conventional car, but a constant on all cars is pedal pressure. Also found that completely releasing the accelerator, then depressing almost to where it was is more effective than slowly letting up. Sudden releases are more important on full hybrids.

    At stop lights, I tend to look when the light turns green, then immediately tap the accelerator very gently to move in EV mode. In traffic, other drivers are not going to like me creeping for long, so I give it the gas at 10 mph. If there is no traffic, I'll consider getting up to 35 or so.

    When starting a trip, I might power the car off at seven seconds just before the ICE kicks in - I don't have an EV switch installed yet. I made the mistake of powering off in the middle of a trip like a conventional car - does not save gas. Even warmed up, the ICE will idle for 20-30 seconds.

    My ScanGauge can give some, but not all the MFD info. The SG LoD function is zero when in EV mode. Would be nice if I know of a function on SG that tells me when the electric motors are engaged or charging.

    The weather is cooler, so don't need to use the A/C. Since this is about hypermiling, I won't go into various mods.

    I do look at the State of Charge and let up on hypermiling if I get close to 50% SoC (losing the top two blue bars on the MFD.)

    Unlike my Insight, getting 75 mpg is hard - I'm either at 100 in EV mode or have a good load on the ICE at 50 mpg or less.
     
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  2. Rmay635703

    Rmay635703 Senior Member

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    I can relate I kept my gen i insight.

    Nothing compares to the original insight on the highway.

    Prius takes a lot of patience and skill to hypermile correctly, also to get over 75mpg in any prii requires ssslllooowwww average driving speeds.
     
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  3. Data Daedalus

    Data Daedalus Senior Member

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    IMG_5054.JPG

    This was my commute to work between 5.30am and 6.00am 20th October this year.

    UK Prius T spirit 2nd Gen, late 2008.

    The conditions were just right; one mile warm up to petrol station, refuel, then 15 mile drive to work, keeping to the 40-50mph speed limit where dictated by average speed camera zones along part of the route.

    Very, very dry atmospheric conditions on the day (for the UK, this time of year). Light to non existent traffic. Went faster on some roads, wasn't slouching, but definitely hypermiling where possible.

    Used momentum to swing though two underpass tunnels and even climb a shallow hill. Feathered the throttle and gained momentum whenever going downhill.

    Arrived at work with the above result on the MFD.

    And on the 4th August, under similar conditions, straight from the petrol station to work, I also got the reading below.

    Observations from the two pictures above confirm the theory that driving somewhat slower produces a higher MPG for the trip; in August, I took 30 minutes to drive the distance.

    In October, the same distance was covered in 25 minutes, so, yes I was not only driving faster, but wasn't even trying to set a record - the 69.8mpg came as a complete surprise!

    IMG_4627.JPG


    iPhone ?
     
    #3 Data Daedalus, Nov 1, 2016
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2016
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  4. valde3

    valde3 Senior Member

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    You can use battery current gauge. » X-Gauge Categories » TOYOTA – LEXUS – SCION It will tell you if hybrid battery is charged or discharged. I use it to keep the current under or about 20A when accelerating without engine running and very rarely to monitor braking keeping the current under the speed in km/h.
     
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  5. Chuck.

    Chuck. Former Honda Enzyte Driver

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    I tried battery current function for Prius 2004-2009 and nothing happened. :( Was that the right command?
     
    #5 Chuck., Nov 5, 2016
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2016
  6. valde3

    valde3 Senior Member

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    Yes that’s the same one that I use. What happens when you put BTA on the display? Do you have other X-gauges programmed? What do you have as refresh rate in settings? Recheck that you didn’t make any mistakes in spelling.
     
  7. Chuck.

    Chuck. Former Honda Enzyte Driver

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    My best guess then is other X-gauges programmed are the problem....maybe too many of them. I need to delete them somehow.
     
  8. valde3

    valde3 Senior Member

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    What happens when you put BTA on the display? Just try to change all the other gauges into standard gauges?
     
  9. Chuck.

    Chuck. Former Honda Enzyte Driver

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    BTA is blank but the other 3 functions operate normally.
     
  10. valde3

    valde3 Senior Member

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    Did you try to change all the other gauges into standard gauges?
     
  11. Chuck.

    Chuck. Former Honda Enzyte Driver

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    I have attempted add X-Gauge functions. The state of charge function works. I don't use the others. There is a lot I don't know about SG. My best guess is I put a bunch of junk x-gauge commands to crowd out the ones I want to use.

    I have some homework to do.
     
  12. valde3

    valde3 Senior Member

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    You didn’t try to put other three gauges to standard gauges? As I tried to tell you three times already. Battery current and battery state of charge can’t be displayed at the same time because they are basically the same command.
     
  13. Chuck.

    Chuck. Former Honda Enzyte Driver

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    Sorry I missed that. :oops:

    I have mainly used SG for the pre-programmed gauges and did not use the trip features as the results on my previous car would be bogus.

    So I have to choose between using SoC or battery current as one of the four functions?

    Was not aware some functions would be treated as the same command.
     
  14. valde3

    valde3 Senior Member

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    X-gauges that have same TXD can’t be displayed at the same time. But there’s a way around this. You can program state of charge as:

    State of Charge 03C3 010382CB0000 2010 000A00020000 soc

    instead of:

    State of Charge 07E321CE 056186CE0000 3008 000A00020000 Soc

    that you have now

    Notice how later has the same TXD as battery current:

    Battery Current 07E321CE 056186CE0000 3810 0001000AF333 Bta
     
  15. johnjohnchu

    johnjohnchu Active Member

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    FYI: 1 US MPG is 1.2 UK MPG
     
  16. Marbe

    Marbe New Member

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    Proper hypermiling done with engine temperature spoofing a 400ohm rezistor connected with a switch
     

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