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My Warm up Routine for the 2010 Toyota Prius all Original Parts

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by GoliathMV, Apr 13, 2021.

  1. GoliathMV

    GoliathMV Member

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    This sounds silly considering that the Toyota Prius does not truly need or have a warm up cycle. Once the vehicle shows Ready then off we go after startup. I begun doing this routine for a concern with my Prius traction battery and also the combustion engine not being used often. So here it is my warm up routine which I do parked out in the NYC city streets fighting the elements and the seasonal changes. I begin by starting the vehicle while in eco mode. The next step is crucial to get the combustion engine to start up so that it begins to send a charge back to the traction battery and fill up the traction gauge if not already full. I turn the AC on if it is hot out I run it cold Max if it is cold out I run it hot Max. This will get the combustion engine running usually long enough to get the traction batteries fully charged. I will usually sit in the vehicle for a few minutes once I hear the combustion engine turn off and the traction battery fully charged I engage my parking brake and turn the vehicle off. What do you do to keep the system running past a decade?
     
  2. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    You really don't need to do that. Once it's "ready", it means it ready to drive.
    The engine will kick in when it's needs too. If it's cold outside, the engine will start in a few seconds
    to get heat going.
    Contrary to what some people here say, Toyotoa knows how to make their cars work. :)
     
  3. bettergolf

    bettergolf Active Member

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    I agree you're just wasting time and gas doing that. The car knows what to do, just drive it normally.
     
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  4. Johnny Cakes

    Johnny Cakes Senior Member

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    Are you talking about getting ready to drive or are you asking about having a (precious) parking spot in NYC and long-term inactivity?

    It's confusing because you say that you "sit in the vehicle for a few minutes once I hear the combustion engine turn off and the traction battery fully charged I engage my parking brake and turn the vehicle off."
     
  5. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Just drive it.
    What you are doing makes YOU feel good......but likely does NOTHING useful for the car.
    :eek:
     
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  6. royrose

    royrose Senior Member

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    I have a 2010 Prius and never do what you do. It runs perfectly. What is the point of charging the battery that way?
     
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  7. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I use a block heater, before each cold start, for a couple of hours. Whenever practical. Appreciate not everybody has garage and 120 volt AC available; just what works for me. 2010 with 90k kms.

    one cool spin-off: the raised coolant temp allows EV mode reliably, say for shuffling the car from garage to driveway.
     
    #7 Mendel Leisk, Apr 13, 2021
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2021
  8. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    What if Goliathmv, or anyone else is merging onto the highway just blocks away from home overnight cold soak and don’t want to rev it to 4,000 rpm when ice is only 102F? And what happens to metals going one temp extreme to another?
     
  9. wheezyglider

    wheezyglider Active Member

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    That's why I do let mine warm up but only just enough for the ICE to turn off. Charging the traction battery to full at idle like OP is actually inefficient. The car will charge it to its happy place -- which is *not* full -- while you drive or idle at traffic lights. It wants to have some empty headroom so it has someplace to put braking energy.

    If OP has the same route every morning, he'll almost certainly see improved mpg by not charging the traction battery to full before driving.

    (Putting energy into a battery and taking it out both incur losses in the conversion to/from chemical storage. A Prius with a lithium ion battery gets noticeably better mpg than one with nickel metal hydride, because of improved efficiency in that chemistry.)
     
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  10. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    provide real world drive mpg data of lithium vs nimh comparison, not electrical and heat related efficiency.
     
  11. wheezyglider

    wheezyglider Active Member

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    Well I can see you won't be taking my word for anything :))), so check out the "eco" version of the gen4 in which Toyota specifically put the lithium ion battery and they provide the improved mpg stats.

    (At my house we have a regular gen3 and a PiP, which we sometimes drive without grid charging. In my regular driving I always get noticeably better mpg in the PiP. It does have an advantage for tire size and the ability to soak up more regen, but honest it just does better.)
     
  12. GoliathMV

    GoliathMV Member

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    So I have NiMH rechargeable batteries in my home that I use for my kids toys and other electronics in the home. After reading all of your comments I have come to understand that many of you have forgotten the old RadioShack days which I worked at for 3 years and recall how many customers would come back in and say HEYYYY. I bought these rechargeable NiMH batteries and when I tried charging them after not using them for a year they don't want to charge up and are giving a fault. I believe Toyota has already created a solid floating system for keeping all 10 of the traction battery cells level but yes I park my car in NYC and yes I can got days without using the car maybe even weeks depending on alternate side parking rules. I also own a Mustang which I love to drive during the warm months in NYC and she's a convertible which is not as MPG efficient but she's a 4 cylinder turbo so she tries. My situation is apparently different from many of you daily drivers who use the Prius much more than I do. The point of warming up the car daily for me is to prevent corrosion along with priming the traction batteries the way I prime my AAA, AA and other rechargeable NiMH batteries at home. I failed to maintain the charge of some D NiMH batteries in my home and guess what they don't work anymore and barely got any use.
     
  13. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    They are not the same batteries as decades ago.
    You do NOT NEED to do what you are doing. You are wasting gasoline, and time.
    But, it's YOUR car, do with it as you please...

     
  14. Johnny Cakes

    Johnny Cakes Senior Member

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    Don't let these guys get to ya. Anyone who worked at RS is AOK with me. Can I get my free battery of the month, please?
     
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  15. privilege

    privilege Active Member

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    this !

    it's a really good thing to DRIVE cars, circulate the tires, put HEAT into the drivetrain, knock the rust off the brakes , set and release the parking brake, open all the doors, etc and USE them.
    it's very bad to let them sit
     
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  16. GoliathMV

    GoliathMV Member

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    After writing this I was able to actually get those D batteries working again by finding a Youtube video on how to revive dead cell NiMh batteries by bridging them with a fully charge battery to shock the cells back and it worked on all 8 of the dead cells with one being stubborn but after a few shocks it started right back up again. Wonder if Toyota has a system that we can adapt to do the same to our traction batteries when dead cell occurs?
     
  17. GoliathMV

    GoliathMV Member

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    Just read an article concerning the return of 1 in every 5 PEV vehicles. What was funny to me was that the article seemed to be leaning on the Ford Mach E greatly which makes me believe it was some level of click bating. I digress apparently homes with a 120 V configuration can give your PEV about 3 miles after one hour of charge and about 36 miles of charge if left overnight. 240 V doubles those numbers while 480 V like tesla supercharge stations will full charge in little over an hour. What cracks me up is well Prii will give you 500 miles in 3 minutes, why didn't they mention that in the forum. We run on 10 gallons of 87 Octane for 500 miles. Full charged Tesla will get you 300 Miles on a full charge after several over night charges. After over a decade of owning a Prius I still feel this looming anti Prius thing shifting away to PEV but figured by now the populous would turn around and say wait a minute Prius is the outperforming manufacturer in terms of convenience and efficiency and overall pollution reduction. I think even the Prius PEV version makes tons more sense then anything on the market present day COVID. Whats everyone's thoughts this beautiful Sunday morning.

    Oh and if anyone wants to know how I fill my tank with 500 miles worth of gas free every month. I do it with Sticker.co revenue generation. They average about $23 bucks a month just to have some stickers on the large rear Prius window is a big win. If your interested I put the link been doing it for over a year and its paid for itself after a few months into the program with all the starting fees and stuff. http://stkr.co/dfzze
     
  18. AzusaPrius

    AzusaPrius Senior Member

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    I warm up my prius and let it do its thing.
    Since I cleaned out the intake manifold, egr pipe and swapped out the egr cooler, the warm up time is really fast.

    Takes about 2-5 minutes to get to 102F
    Thats when the ICE shuts off and its good to go, doing this is better than just starting and driving away.

    You want to get a nice coat of oil over everything before you drive and if you use anything other than 0w20 then you should really be warming up your prius before taking off.


    http://www.RedBullet.net

    http://www.ProjectLithium.com

    http://www.Pulstar.com

    http://www.PlugOutPower.com
     
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