Neutral in Car Wash

We had to figure out a simple solution for that in order to do alignments. On our Hunter laser type alignment machine, the vehicle must be rolled backwards and forwards during the course of measurements. Running the engine in neutral without someone behind the wheel is NOT my idea of safety. Here's what we do for Prius: Turn Power off, without stepping on the brake, press the power switch twice to activate "ignition on/engine off" mode, (just like having key on/engine off in a normal car) then step on the brake pedal and hold the shift lever to N. The Prius will be in neutral and can be rolled but the engine and HV drive systems will not activate. No worries of the car suddenly moving of it's volition.

 

why would you power off? I almost think of that as the equivalent taking the key out of the ignition.

 

The Prius doesn't really "stall" -- after all, it's designed to shut off the gas engine while you're still moving. If the gas engine won't run, alarms will go off but the car won't go into park and you'll still have a limited amount of power from the electric motor.

You can't normally shut off the Prius while it's moving. If you force it off (by holding down the power button), it will go into neutral. It will also go into neutral if you press the Park button while it's moving.

It's possible the speed in the car wash is below the threshold for the Prius to consider itself "moving", but I wouldn't worry about it. You'd have to have multiple serious failures of the hybrid drive to get it go to into park unexpectedly.

 

Ok... that happened to me.. The car sucked all the power while on N.. I think I was halfway throght the car wash. It sounded the alarm and displayed the alert... but I just waited until the end and got on D.. and that's it... They cleaned it inside while it still was on so it charged itself.

 

Best way to get through a car wash:

Turn off everything. AC/Radio/Headlights. Then you can probably stay in neutral for at least an hour... I think

 

Or you can wash it by hand.

 

Hand? What's that?

 

Hmm... that made me just think of something...

Normally, when the car is powered off, it will automatically shift into Park no matter which "gear" you are in (R,N,D,B). However, if you are rolling and hold power to do the emergency shutdown, it remains in N. Therefore, the car is mechanically capable of doing this. I wonder if there exists a hidden way to do this while the car is not moving?

Perhaps holding the power button to shut off? I've never tried it... Hmm...

 

I am not certain, as I have not tried this, but if you press the Power or Park button while the car is moving, I do not believe it shuts itself off. It JUST shifts into Neutral. You can then recover by shifting it into Drive (if you are moving forward) or Reverse (if you are moving backwards).

The inability to go into Neutral while off, for towing, is in my opinion a flaw in the design.

 

If you hold the power button down while moving, it goes into ACC mode, but in Neutral. You can only shift into Park from there (once it's stopped).

 

This is how you should think of that. Also, if the hybrid system malfunctions (the only way the car is going to "stall out;" remember it's DESIGNED to turn itself off), it will remain in neutral or electric-only drive mode, which means it is STILL safe to take through that car wash (the block seems to be sealed against water or otherwise unable to accidentally crack -- this has to be something they thought of and engineered out safely).

~ dan ~

 

I just put the key in the "hidden" compartment and let the car wash people take care of it. You would think that Prii are common enough now that they would know how they work. Usually they put the emergency blinkers on, but I think they do that for cars that stall (engine not running) and are in neutral. Darn, my car stalls all the time! I usually lose a couple bars on the battery, but gain them back right away.

 

A very risky assumption! Even if most of them do in your area, there's going to be that one kid who thinks he's smart enough to figure it out just by looking at it, and he's going to get out of the car while it's in Drive, and it's going to roll off and bump something.

 

I believe you can get it to shift into neutral if you go into the non-ready mode (push the power button 2 times without pushing the brake). Then remove the parking paw fuse (or something), apply the parking break, then proceed to turn the car off.


Read somewhere on hobbit's prius tech training manual.

 

Car wash sounds like it could be trouble.

I think I will just wash mine by hand too!