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I was today years old when I found out I have active shutters

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Main Forum' started by IamPrius, Sep 6, 2020.

  1. IamPrius

    IamPrius Member

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    Rained like crazy the other day in San Antonio, Tx. I hit a deep puddle doing about 30mph and thought , "oh crap!". Sometime later I noticed the check engine light was on. I scanned it with the Torque app and it was a P059F. Looked it up and read that it is for Active shutter control. "The hell" I said to myself, "my car does not have those". So I called Toyota and found out I do have those. Got home and looked for them. Saw them and saw one of the shutters had been knocked out of the frame. I had to remove the plastic cover under the hood that goes between the bumper and the radiator. I had to do a reach around and contort my arm a bit to grab the shutter and bend it so I could force it back onto the frame and the nub on the shutter back into the hole on the frame. Took a few minutes and have a bad bruise on my inner upper arm but the shutter is back in place. I then went for a ride to the post office to get the mail, 10 miles just to get there, about halfway I noticed the check engine light was still on. I opened the Torque app and cleared the code. A few seconds later I heard a loud noise, I'm not sure if it came from my car or not. Got to the P.O. turned off the car and got my mail. On my way home noticed I was getting 90+ mpg, whoa! Of course it went down as I was driving, when I got home after 10 miles it had dropped to 65mpg. Now for the past year I have noticed my mpg was rather low, in the upper 40's to low 50's. Never had a check engine light for anything in 231,000 miles. Perhaps that one shutter had already been off but was not in the way and the shutters could work properly except for that one. It was open and letting a lot of air to flow through causing the low mpg's. Will find out more this week when I start driving again.
     
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  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i'm amazed the shutters are that effective in a warm climate
     
  3. MichelleStone

    MichelleStone Senior Member

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    I've had mine for four years and have about 40,000 miles on it. My average MPG over that period is 60.1 miles per gallon. I don't know why I got such a cherry, but it sure is nice to not have to buy a lot of gasoline.
     
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  4. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    Good on you @ I amPrius and thanks for the heads up on the plastic cover for access. Was it the bottom shutter you needed to put back in place? I really need an old win10 lappy (one of these days) and techstream
    to double check to see if my shutters are actually working or if they were disabled during presale inspection.
    Not knowing if my shuffters are actually functional yet, I just put winter grilleblock in as I've been doing for the last 10 years. One of these days....
     
    #4 vvillovv, Sep 6, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2020
  5. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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  6. IamPrius

    IamPrius Member

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    Yes, it was the lower one on the drivers side. I have a knock off GoPro that I want to put behind the bumper so i can check if the shutters are actually working. I'm going to look into doing that tomorrow.
     
  7. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    if interested in some of how the things works This Weber University Automotive Colleges video
    describing the Prius cooling system and related components.


    or the specific shutter assembly is here in the video


    since you mentioned torque being used to erase the code, pay attention to the video at the 15 minute point where John references the trouble codes related to the dynamic grille block assembly.
     
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    and here i was all along, thing it was only about cooling :rolleyes:
     
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  9. IamPrius

    IamPrius Member

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    That's a lot of codes. I sure would like to have the scan tool so I could check if the shutters are working. Going to have to use a camera though. Thank you for the videos. Very interesting stuff.
     
    #9 IamPrius, Sep 7, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2020
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  10. Mambo Dave

    Mambo Dave Active Member

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    13:26 - isn't that interesting ... so people who drive Priuses in cooler climates get a substantial MPG increase between the more aerodynamic setting of having the shutters closed, and they benefit from having the cooler air charge (i.e. more dense air for better combustion).

    I guess I shouldn't feel so bad about my MPG, then, as it just won't get out of the 90's (Fahrenheit) here.
     
  11. IamPrius

    IamPrius Member

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    I could not find a way to install the camera to video the shutter. But I do know they work. Yesterday morning it was just a bit above 55 degrees out. When I started the car I looked and the shutters had just shut.
     
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  12. stevelawsn

    stevelawsn Junior Member

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    Just to add my experience with the Active Air Shutter system I have this information. My wife's 2016 Prius Four suddenly popped up a check engine light one evening coming home. I checked for engine codes and was able to retrieve P059F and P05A0 codes which were able to be cleared. The next day I looked at the shutters and did not find any debris or damage like is described in the TSB. Hoping that this was just a spurious alarm we continued driving the car and the next day received an alarm on the dash that the Active Air Shutters were inoperable and to see the dealer. No check engine light this time however P05A0 was stored in the ECU. The alarm appeared when the car reached 45 mph and then was cleared when the engine was shut down. The car is out of warranty. After a couple of discussions with the tech at the Toyota dealership we identified that the shutter on the drivers side was not closing completely due to a very slight interference at the bottom. The shutters otherwise were working as designed which he verified with the Techstream procedures. Long story short is that recently my wife had backed over a landscaping stone at the end of our driveway and the skid panel under the radiator area had apparently pushed against the shutter assembly just enough to misalign it in its opening behind the bumper. Two hours of shop labor later the shutters were working again. The front bumper has to be removed to access the shutter assembly otherwise it would have been a much easier fix. No parts needed to be replaced and all codes were cleared and have not returned.
     
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  13. Melkelrn

    Melkelrn New Member

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    Holy crap!! How do you get that kind of mileage? What kind of tires you riding on? I just got my 3rd Prius (a 2017) and it’s getting the best mileage I’ve ever gotten. I’m getting around 51-52 but the 2007 and 2011 I had only got 46.