Daox's 2004 Toyota Prius Build Thread

[Daox]

When you first power up the car, the engine automatically kicks in for about a minute to warm up the CAT. This is unavoidable unless you have the EV switch. This is where the switch can come in handy. Right when I took that first corner, I floored it. Flooring it kicks in the ICE. Now it wants to warm up for that unavoidable 1 minute. I had to power it down to reset things so I could get it back in EV mode and avoid the 1 minute. If I had waited for the 1 minute to lapse, I could have just stopped (you must stop to engage EV mode) and pressed the button to go into EV mode.

From my little amount of driving around so far, its not that hard to keep it in EV mode once it is warmed up really. If the engine does kick in, all you have to do is let off the gas pedal and it will kill it.

[alohaspirit]

thats pretty awesome. you must be having a ton of fun right now.


i would love to get one
(used cost around 11k for me, which i cant justify as my crx cost me 1k)
charge it up and down my hill, then EV everywhere i go


wheel covers next?

[Daox]

I'll probably be looking into grill blocking next. Close behind that would be a belly pan.

[Daox]

The more I dig into this car, the more optimization I see. Its great to see what they've done with it.

Tonight I was digging around the front grill looking at how I'll be blocking up the front and eventually doing a belly pan. The first thing I noticed is they already did a mod I did to the Paseo a while back. They have foam stuffed around the radiator to force more air through it instead of around it!

The black plastic (top) is the radiator fan shroud, the grey bottom is the lower frame member.




Here is a shot on the left side of the radiator. There appear to be no gaps that haven't been plugged.




So, as I dug a bit farther, I find out they did the mod I wanted to do on the Paseo, but was a bit too complex. They sealed the area between the grill inlet/bumper cover and radiator to flow air only through the radiator! Good stuff. Left side is the radiator, right side is the lower grill.




At the same time, it kind of makes me angry that they don't do this to conventional vehicles. This is by no means a hybrid specific modification...

[alohaspirit]

looks like they went all out

too bad it didnt come with factory wheel skirts


i think one of the reasons why they dont do stuff comes from the
pain of removing small panels/blocks to replace/service something

[Matt Herring]

More fodder for the "Great FE isn't magic" crowd. I haven't dug into my Prius as much as you have been doing but I'm not surprised to see the attention to detail by Toyota. I think you'll find more examples of top-notch design in there as you work your way around the car.

[alohaspirit]

hmmm

does it make that constant chime throughout your ev mode?

using the ev mode will probably run your battery down more
ive heard they need to be replaced after about 100k miles at around 4-5k


edit:
i almost forgot
coasting down a hill doing around 40-60
the gas engine will always be on huh?

[Daox]

I'll have to watch the video again, I don't remember a constant chime except for when I'm in reverse. That happens no matter if you are in electric or hybrid mode.

Using EV mode doesn't discharge the battery any more than normal driving will. The computer management system for the Prius is incredibly strict. This strictness is what gives the Prius such incredible battery pack life (less then half a percent have been replaced last I read). One guy on CMPG ran his 1st gen Prius to 350k miles before he got t-boned and the car was totaled. He was still using the original pack. They definitely do not need to be replaced @ 100k miles. The warranty on them is for 100k miles.

[alohaspirit]

ah ha


what about the downhill coast?

[Matt Herring]

At 41 mph the ICE kicks...but...

A little trick you can do on a downhill coast is to pop it into neutral at 40 mph and ride the coast down...

This accomplishes two things...

1. SGII reports max mpg by going from EV mode into neutral coast before 41 mpg.
2. Neutral coast gives you max roll on the downhill

If you go from EV mode to ICE to neutral coast SGII will report around 200 mpg. So going from EV mode to neutral before 41 mpg gives you max mpg and max roll on the downhill.

Note: Neutral coast is not recommended beyond 60 mph as the engine could potentially overspin. In heavy downhill cases brakes must be used while in neutral coast to avoid approaching the danger zone for speed on neutral coast.