How best to warm it up in winter?

Let it warm up, the car's computers will protect the battery. You'll take an mpg hit, but comfortably. If you have a place to plug in, an engine block heater might be a good idea.

 

I live in Canada and it gets damn cold here; last year I bought a $20 Canadian Tire seat warmer - instant heat and by the end of the drive to work I had to turn off the heat or open a window to cool down.

Low tech fix

Be well, JLF

 

Does that run off the...."cigarette lighter".....for power?

 

I'm curious,about why isn't the gas motor going to shut down while we are letting it warm up in the driveway?

 

That's the thing, unless the battery is down to two bars, the ICE will shut off after a minute or two.

 

The quickest way to get the car warmed up is to simply get in and drive.

Turning up the heat to HI will make the engine stay on longer, as will DEFROST.

Having all that on while cleaning the windows of snow or ice will mitigate leaving the car running for no reason.

I say do what you want. There isn't any reason to leave cars running unless you need the defrost going. I simply get in and drive. I'm cold for a while, but, hey, it's WINTER. It's always a trade-off between comfort and mpgs, but if you choose comfort who are we to browbeat you about it. You're still getting better mpgs that with other cars.

You're paying for it, enjoy it as you wish.

 

A car sitting outside in below freezing temperatures is the worst start up scenario. Is there a garage filled with stuff in the picture? If you can get the car into a garage it will help imeasurably: the windshield will likely not fog up at start-up, and you'll have security and nearby electrical outlets, for a block heater. Plus, even an unheated garage tends to be warmer than the outside.

If no garage, could you run an extension cord to the car? A block heater will speed warm up. And a windshield cover will help: you're pretty much stuck until the windshield clears.

 

Ok I had to throw my $0.02 on this topic.

With any car regardless if its hybrid or not, in a cold temperature its good to idle the engine for few min before driving especially in winter. There are several reasons for this.

#1 oil viscosity changes when its exposed to low temperatures. There are videos on youtube where u can see how oil looks like at -20 celsius. Synthetic oil is better because of that but even with synthetic it needs to be warmed up a little to get its proper viscosity. This means that the oil wont be able to lubricate the engine properly until its at its proper viscosity. When you start, the block is cold the oil doesnt lubricate well and you obviously have to rev it up to pick up speed from 0 which increases your chances for engine damage. Thats why people recommend block heater, In the yaris the block heater heats the oil so when you start the car up its properly lubricated, oil pressure can b created and through the oil the entire engine warms up.

#2 your fuel efficiency will be improved because the emissions system will be warmed up so you wont be burning lots of fuel. It has been prooven that a cold start and drive burns more gas than a start idle and drive.

#3 With automatic cars (not the prius cvt) the transmission fluid needs to warm up otherwise there is a large drop in efficiency between the engine and the wheels (torque converter efficiency for the transfer of energy)

I hope this clarified some things to many of you. I'm trying to help in this forum as much as possible since I will be a owner of a C soon (saving up some $$ since I hate large loans )

Cheers

 

^^ Yes and no. I personally prefer to let the car run for a minute or two during winter, before taking off. However, in the Owners Manual of most European cars you will find a statement which is saying that the engine warm up is not required. One more thing related to prius, while the engine is in the second warm up stage S1a, it doesn't really matter if you are driving or standing still, since the wheels spinning by HV battery power anyway.

S1a:
when the start coolant temperature is below 40C, the warming up starts and continues for approx 50 seconds after S0. you can not enable theEV-Drive Mode during this S1a. the ignition timing is very late, after the top dead center. therefore the engine does not have enough power to drive Prius or charge battery. basically, Prius can not use the engine power when you drive. Prius is driven by battery power and the battery is discharged. it is good idea to drive slowly or stand still warming up in this stage. when the start coolant temperature is between 41C and 60C, Prius is in this stage, but the engine does not start automatically. when you press the accelerator (including driving), the engine starts and runs for approx 50 seconds or until the coolant temperature reaches 65C. the ignition timing is very late too.

 

It's really simple. Everything will warm up faster if you are driving down the road than if the car is sitting in the driveway. Oil will. Trans fluid will. Coolant will. And the heater will. More RPMs = more heat over a given time. Buy a scangauge and see for yourself.

Remember, we have 0w-20 in the car. Cold oil flow is not an issue. -20 is not an issue. I personally don't care whether you waste gas or not, but sitting at idle in the driveway is only a comfort factor for the driver and not the car.

Just don't play Speed Racer until you see 188* and you're good to go.

 

Yep. Agree with you. The good thing with prii is actually within the reasonable limits it doesn't really matter how hard you will push the gas pedal within first 60 seconds, the ICE RPM will be the same and the acceleration will be from the traction battery. That is the only time when on instant mpg screen you can see MPG going up during acceleration, once S1a is over, you'll not see it until car is cold again.