I'm getting only 27-33 mpg, even when purposely driving very conservatively. I changed plugs, coils are good, air cleaner is new, PCV valve is new, there are no engine codes. There are no codes for the hybrid battery, charging system, etc. The traction battery status is blue 99%+ of the time and pretty much the only time I ever see it green (and 1 or 2 of the top bars displayed) is when I go down a really long downhill and I'm able to coast down with no-one behind me. When the battery is green, the car says I'm getting at least 46 mpg in the city (for a short time, of course). I got a scanner XTOOL D7S (primarily to scan my brakes and turn off the brake dash light, which it did). The scanner sees 14 battery blocks. My dream was to see one or a couple of battery blocks with lower voltage than the others, but no such luck. The voltages for all of the 14 blocks are very close to each other. The scanner lets me log 8 parameters at a time, which included lowest and highest battery block voltage. The average difference from lowest to highest was 0.14V during the run I looked at in a spreadsheet. I have experienced the "Triangle of death" at least 3 times in the past. However, the scanner reported no stored codes due to this. I don't know if these are erased when 12V battery is disconnected. All I know so far is that I don't have any obvious engine problems, the regen system and the hybrid assist motor clearly function (to at least some degree), the scanner shows current going into the traction battery and coming out of it, the battery does not appear to have any obviously faulty blocks based on the scanner. The scanner shows a lot of different parameters, all of which apparently can be logged. Which ones should I be focusing on in this situation?
I should add that I did have a pretty bad intermittent engine vibration. plugs were so new that I didn't suspect them. I rotated through a new coil and that didn't change anything. I took out the injectors and sprayed carb fluid though them while exercising them with a battery with all of them having a spray pattern that looked pretty good. After that I went and bought 1 more plug to rotate through and while doing that, one of the fairly new ngk plugs came apart in my hand. The center electrode is deformed/broken and needs to be turned only a tiny fraction of a turn in order to pull it out and completely separate it from the rest of the plug (termnal nut end). Lesson learned, always save at least 1 old plug to rotate through for troubleshooting, just in case. So I think the engine is fixed and not the cause of the mpg issue.
One other thing, when changing plugs and or coils on a 2009, the ONLY thing that needs to be moved out of the way for access is the relay box held in place with 2 10mm bolts, nothing else. No wipers, no plastic trim, etc. Super easy job. I used a magnetic swivel plug socket which made it even easier, but was not necessary.
Yes nothing out in gen2 for plugs that the next models sounds like ya had fake ngk plugs possibly . Brake lights on to be resetting ? Maybe brakes or hub drag? Look at fuel trims .
how many miles on her? get critical parts from toyota dealers only. chinese counterfeits are everywhere.
I got the set of plugs that included the broken plug from rockauto. Either way, the engine misfire is now gone and there are no engine error codes. Car rolls freely when in neutral with brakes not applied, so should not be brake or hub friction. Will log the fuel trims. Although, to get only 27-33mpg, it seems like it would have to be spraying quite a bit of extra fuel. Car does report good mpg whenever the battery status VERY rarely hits green.
Around 320,000. if does use some oil so rings probably aren't in the best shape (but as I wrote early, car reports fine gas mileage during the VERY rare times the battery status hits green).
While your battery is healthy in the sense of delta voltages, it is likely suffering from lower capacity than when it was new. There is nothing you can do about that except replace it with all new modules, preferably from the dealer, as nobody sells new modules that are anywhere near the performance or reliability of OEM new NiMH. You might be tempted to try experimental alternate battery chemistry if you have the early adopter proclivity, but I would urge caution. Claims made are not verified by properly accepted research methodologies.
