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What's your starting (MG1) amperage

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Frank Hudon, Mar 19, 2006.

  1. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    formatted screen as the MG1 amperage. The wifes car registers about 73-6 amps to start it up. How about some of you other users? What are you seeing?
     
  2. storm petrol

    storm petrol Member

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    Frank,

    Soon I will be able to respond to such arcane inquiries as this!

    storm petrol
     
  3. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    I know....arcane.........it's a question we all should know!
     
  4. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    I see blips of well over 50, but it's hard to tell because in my
    case I'm seeing a certain amount of meter-needle inertia. That still
    seems like a lot just to spin up a relatively friction-free ICE...
    .
    _H*
     
  5. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    probably only 60% of the amperage required with a conventional starter on a Echo. So your reading it with an analog meter are you.
     
  6. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    yup, see http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/imeter/ and some of
    the other hacks I've written up for public consumption, which I
    assumed you already knew all about. One reason I've been holding
    back on the whole can-view thing, since I'm already able to see
    most of the important running parameters in an amusingly retro way..
    .
    _H*
     
  7. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    first time I've seen it, man that's quite the "Kludge" as you put it. I used to think that vacuum readings really ment something but fuel flow is more important and on a Prius more so than a conventional Otto cycle. Neat thing about the CAN-view is the ability to save the high and low readings for any trip. But I've got to hand it to you you don't give up easily.
     
  8. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    I can't speak for my Prius, but for an average car with a 4 cylinder the starting amps are usually 150-200 amps. My 1984 Ford F-150 with 302 V8 the starting load is usually 350 amps.
     
  9. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Retro is COOL
     
  10. hdrygas

    hdrygas New Member

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    You must be tall to see over the add on dash!
     
  11. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    Nope, actually -- there's almost 4 inches of height above the left
    end of the dash panel before it starts to stick into my sightline.
    Noticed that the first time I test-drove a prius, in fact, and my
    first thought was "hmmm, that's where various hacks can sit"!
    I'm not particularly tall, and I think most people would see quite
    a bit of empty space there.
    .
    _H*
     
  12. storm petrol

    storm petrol Member

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    Frank,

    Doesn't MG1 spin the ICE up to much higher RPMs than a conventional starter?
    Like 1000+? It seems like that could account for an amp reading higher than you and hobbit would expect for an engine of this dispacement and valve timing.

    What do you think?

    storm petrol
     
  13. hdrygas

    hdrygas New Member

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    My low was 69, most values 73,4,5 high 77amps.
     
  14. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    well MG1 only has to spin to about 3600 RPM to get the ICE to 1000RPM so I'd think that mid 70's is probaby about right.
     
  15. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    My guess is 69 when it's warm and 77 when it's a cold start. Is that correct?
     
  16. hdrygas

    hdrygas New Member

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    Goodness... Yes you are right. The rest were around 150-170 F.
     
  17. Frank Hudon

    Frank Hudon Senior Member

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    If we had a few more we could start to do a list of normal ranges for a Prius. That way if someone has a problem we could just use the "nomal range" results as a guide.