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How long can I idle in maintenance mode?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by mattbatson, May 3, 2019.

  1. oil_burner

    oil_burner Active Member

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    my advice (I've done the sleeping thing a lot)

    -you must have a CO alarm, battery powered. Don't kill yourself for the sake of sleeping in a car to save a few bucks. they're $10-15. Exhaust 100% makes it into your car through leaking exhaust joints, wind changing direction, etc. If you think there is no risk then go ahead and play Russian roulette to save 10 measly bucks.

    -I always park facing the wind. The air intake is at the windshield you do not want the wind at your back. Check the exhaust is clear.
    -new engine mounts help tremendously with the start/stop judder, as does putting in marvel mystery oil in the gas to clean the injectors and smooth out the idle.

    some other info:
    -AC runs off traction battery not the 12V, so hooking up extra 12V batteries, or putting a charger on the battery does nothing to prolong the start/stop intervals from personal experience.
    -strangely enough maintenance mode allows you to rev the engine, but after about 3 mins of this the engine will shutoff, presumably because it thinks there is a fault with the drive by wire gas pedal.
     
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  2. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    Really?

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.freep.com/amp/1058296001
     
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  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Looks like I mistakenly gave Gen 3 info in #7. Gen 3 has two different inspection modes, one for nonstop idling, the other for trac inhibition. But checking the Gen 2 manual, it's just one mode that does both. Sorry for the noise.
     
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  4. mattbatson

    mattbatson Member

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    So I bought a CO detector
    Still camping till Friday...

    Have it sitting on the dash

    I went back to running it in normal mode and seems to be ok for now

    Believe it or not I find less movement with it in park but no parking brake on

    I would think tighter engine mounts would transfer more vibration to the chassis ?

    I have been using MMO for decades

    Thanks for all the responses
     
  5. landspeed

    landspeed Active Member

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    Glad it is working out! Another reason to get a CO alarm that I thought of; if you were parked up and asleep and an old car, without a cat, parked in front of you idling, you could get a dose of CO if the wind etc was just right / wrong; this would even be the case if you were using the mod by Hobbit where you run the interior fans with the rest of the car off!
     
  6. oil_burner

    oil_burner Active Member

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    new engine mounts prevent the engine from rocking when the starter motor turns over, I filled my lower engine mount with PU glue because I couldn't find one locally, it made a huge difference. My car used to rock backwards several inches each time the car started.
     
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  7. mattbatson

    mattbatson Member

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    I actually used to fill the engine mount voids with urethane on my other cars in the past...street and race

    Good to know

    I’ll put that on my list
     
  8. Briana Giselle Jauregui

    Briana Giselle Jauregui Junior Member

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    ----USA----
    JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!
    THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
     
  9. Surge Lord

    Surge Lord Junior Member

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  10. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Funny ... between 4:54 and 5:02 he spends 8 seconds mentioning A/C use while parked, then moves immediately on to say "the most common reason batteries can wear on anything from cell phones to cars" is to "let a battery sit for a long long time and don't charge it." Which is true, and there have been a lot of pandemic-battery threads about that,but he kind of moved right on without finishing the thought about parking and A/C.
     
  11. Another

    Another Senior Member

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  12. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    On second thought I don’t think the G2 charges the hybrid battery in inspection mode.

    It disables traction and the battery charge meter disappears on the mfd so a
    Little suspicous it may not be charging the battery. Not sure so it should be tested if it’s not charging if you plan on using it for a long time.

    I never ran it more than a few minutes in inspection mode.
     
  13. ws309

    ws309 Junior Member

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    I was in maintenance mode for 3 mins and it stopped running and stalled out. I dont get it