Coastal EV mod is a winner!

The savvy user may get some additional milage, I installed mine today and the car acts as I expected from reading the many threads here.

I think the reason the EV is not available on NA cars is that there may be a bit to high level of expectancy for EV mode. Without a battery modification EV mode is nice but limited. There are some Americans who do not have the words "limited" "restricted" or "in moderation" in their vocabulary... obvioulsy its not prius chatters!

My main reason for wanting EV is that I live in a high elevation area. theres no way I can go anywhere without encountering a long steep hill. I am constantly charging my batteries to 2 green bars and sometimes overcharging where the motor starts up to discharge the battery to a safe level. Well today I foiled that nasty 'ole hill. I pulled my battery down to 3 bars in EV mode before one of those hills. At the bottom of the hill I was at one green bar. nice!

I may get a gain in my mpg because these hills are potential energy which I can more effectively use now. But thats yet to be seen.

 

wow. a little overestimate on the price of the battery? geez.

and you're spreading misinformation all over the place. there is no definitive info that toyota will void your warranty over an ev switch. everything you're referencing refers to the PLUG IN MOD.

 

Ok , I must have gotten my wires crossed here, I was responding to the plug in modifacation and the EV button modifications.

I was informed by a dealership here in central Fl that doing these (electrical) mods could / would void the warranty on the car. "yes the EV button is avalible outside the US" but is disabled here in north america.

Here is an article from autonews it can be found here:
http://www.carbuyersnotebook.com/archives/vehicles/toyota/

brief excrpt.

Actually, the $45 kit, which takes 25 minutes to install, permits North American Prius owners to access an option that is standard on the car in Japan and Europe.
But the feature is disabled here and Toyota is warning Prius owners that installing this doo-dad will void their waranty.


That being said, I think its great that these Mods are becoming availible tried true and tested and are affordably priced...

It just should be thrown out there that it may void the warranty and the comsumer may want to check with the dealer or toyota corp. before modding a brand new car..

P.S. changing the valve stems is apples and oranges

Thats all I have to say

I have deleted all my other posts under this topic..

 

sigh....

again. you're highlighting the wrong words. it MAY void the warranty. and the source you're now citing is citing the same info you were originally citing- it's like the telephone game.

there is no definitive statement saying that your warranty will be void if you install an ev button.

DH talked to his regional rep, and the guy said it shouldn't make a difference really. while he didn't explicitly say that the warranty would be completely intact... you think he would have at least warned about it becoming an issue.

batteries cost less than $3k now, and shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours of labor at whatever the going rate at the dealership nearby costs.

 

and don't forget the $250 you get back from Toyota for recycling the battery. That may well pay for the install! Toyota wants these batteries back. If one fails they want to know why. Also it is entirely possible that the batteries can have defective cells replaced and the battery returned to service. The battery is very modular.

 

I can't even get by step 2. The plastic cover isn't coming off with a fair amount of force. I'm afraid I will break it. I may be prying in the wrong place, hard to tell from the small supplied pictures.

I don't want to break my dash up. I sound pretty lame consdering I'm a former elec. engr.

Whats the trick?

 

Has anyone with the Coastal EV mod seen a significant increase in mileage? I have noticed that the Prius is least efficient when going a short distance in cold weather. I drive about 1 mile to work, so I would just drive in EV mode to work, and perhaps drive home in reg mode, saving one cold start. I am pretty sure that for my driving (lots of short trips), that this mod will save me quite a bit of gas.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(o2cool @ Sep 9 2007, 01:57 AM) [snapback]509412[/snapback]</div>

It will if you live uphill from work. I've had mine for 2.5 years. On a flat, 25 MPH road without stops you can probably make a mile or a little more IF the battery is all blue bars. BUT, if you drag it down to 2 pink just as you stop (the ICE will start at 2 pink) the ICE will be doing all the work on the way home while it charges the battery so you have gained nothing. Never had green bars on my sample road to test distance. I use mine (for gas savings) when I am on a road I know the car will go into electric on its own, but I have not had to stop long enough for the ICE to shut down. In the same area, if I stop at a stop sign and STAY stopped until the ICE shuts down, the car will do EV on its own. So, I am saving myself (and those behind me) the 10 or so seconds needed to stop the ICE. Note that I have to have gone at least a mile or 2 (current temps) before the car will let me force EV since the ICE had been running. In the winter, it can be cold enough that you can NOT force EV.

I DID use EV coming home from the Y yesterday after my daughter's swimming lesson. The first mile is down hill with lots of stop signs and pedestrians, the next .5 mile is flat or trending up again - 3 stop signs 2 signals. I did EV from the start, made it past the signal at the 1.5 mile mark, then cancelled it. At the 1.5 mark, the road slopes up more. If the car was in EV by itself, it will cancel at this location so I do too since I know it only gets steeper for the next 1/2 mile. I started at 7 green and ended at 4 blue. In this case, I definately saved since the ICE would have been running at all the stop signs and pedestrian crossings but I didn't drag the battery down to the point the computers would use the ICE to charge it.

UPDATE: The trip yesterday was on a fairly cold engine, off for 1.5 hours. I just took my older daughter to the Y. 61F ambient, car not driven since yesterday. I stopped to let her out, at this point, the ICE had JUST warmed to the point it would do EV, Here are the numbers:

BTW - 30 and 25 MPH roads.

Where Tank miles...MFD MPG
Home.........272.5.........52.5 - More up than down on the way to the Y
'Y'...............275.5.........52.1
Forced EV - 6 blue bars
1.5 mile mark - 4 blue bars, cleared signal, cancelled EV
Home.........278.5.........52.3 - 4 blue bars

5 minute bars (approx) 23, 35, 100, 90
(given the hill, I suspect the 5th 5 minute bar would have been a fair bit lower than the 4th but I didn't pay attention to how many minutes had gone by since bar #4 popped up

This 6 mile round trip cost me .2 MPG when the tank already had 272 miles on it. I'm hoping the block heater I installed today will improve those first two 5 minute bars.

As you can see, IF you have a downhill trip, you can make that mile without using the ICE nor dragging the battery down too much. If it is all dead flat, I wouldn't do it, not even a mile with no stops, unless you start with 8 green bars, and even then make sure you can do it with at least 4 blue remaining.

I didn't check where you live prior to responding. For a mile, I would ride a bicycle Of course you might have to travel a death defying road at rush hour. Not so appealing then!!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bruceha_2000 @ Sep 9 2007, 02:42 PM) [snapback]509664[/snapback]</div>

I carry a very heavy laptop and a Chocolate Labrador (Coco) when I go into work, so the bike would not work very well. But, I agree with the sentiment. When the car was at the dealer, Coco and I walked to the office
I average around 44 to 45 mpg in Northern California during mild weather. Last winter when it was in the 40s and 50s in the mornings, I could see that the mpg was way off. There is not enough time to heat up the interior, so if I set the heat to off, I hope to be able to EV all the way to work on those cold mornings. If I save only a few $ a month in gas, it will be worth it. Of course, we all look forward to the day when we can buy a pluggable Prius.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(windstrings @ Feb 9 2006, 06:34 PM) [snapback]206638[/snapback]</div>

Does any one know if this voids the warrenty on the car? and whats costal web site

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(o2cool @ Sep 9 2007, 07:51 PM) [snapback]509758[/snapback]</div>

OK, so get saddlebags for the dog (and maybe a lighter laptop). Balance the computer with your lunches on the other side If you don't do the saddlebags, you can get a rear rack for the bike. Coco would probably love a morning run to work! Better than you carrying both the dog AND the laptop He/she should be able to lope along at 7 MPH easily enough. You would be at work in less than 10 minutes and not even break a sweat.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bruceha_2000 @ Sep 18 2007, 12:52 PM) [snapback]514380[/snapback]</div>

Well, I did the install this morning on the EV switch. Except for a few scratches on my right hand from working in such tight places, it went pretty well. It took 1/2 hr, not including the time spent reading and rereading the instructions before I began. The directions have LOTS of good photos, without which, I would have been lost. It was not easy, but not that hard, even for a first timer. I have medium sized hands. Anyone with big or pudgy hands might do better letting someone else do the install.

I cruised towards my office (1.1 mi), but, to my disappointment, I was down to 2 bars on the battery half way to my office. So, the ICE started, and this means that I am unlikely to save as much gasoline as I had hoped. Most of my ATM, store, office runs are about 1 mile. I thought that the battery would carry me that far. Maybe tomorrow it will work better. The air temp was around 60F when I came in.

As for Coco, she usually runs with my wife in the morning, often before dark. My wife would not feel comfortable running without Coco. However, I do need a new bike, and I will look for one that can carry the computer comfortably, if not Coco.

Too bad the Prius is not yet pluggable. When Toyota comes out with that, the sales will skyrocket if the system is good.

 

o2cool, you would be better off to use the ev switch to force ice off after stage 1 is finished. get up to speed with gas engine, then hit the ev and coast, turn ev off to accelerate, ev on to coast. This is what some do until engine temp is at stage 4 levels.