Rishar's 2010 Prius Mods

[Xist]

Originally Posted by Rishar

From a little driving around I will say it seems to have helped in coast downs. From one light I'd normally be at about 14mph at the next light, today I was at 21mph by the time I reached it. Unless I'm just crazy, which is possible. :P

Is your MPG display showing any difference? Greatly reducing friction seems interesting, ten-second glides, and fifty-second EoC, but when I see that a light half a mile away will be red, I shift to neutral, and recently, I have been killing the ignition, but I do not think that I can plan for lights two miles ahead.

[Rishar]

Originally Posted by Xist

Is your MPG display showing any difference? Greatly reducing friction seems interesting, ten-second glides, and fifty-second EoC, but when I see that a light half a mile away will be red, I shift to neutral, and recently, I have been killing the ignition, but I do not think that I can plan for lights two miles ahead.

Killing the ignition is a good way to save on gas. Does cause a little extra wear and tear on the starter though. I used to do that all the time in my 96 Sunfire...until the transaxle (i think?) started making grinding noises after too long of a engine off coast. Says not to tow in neutral at any speed...figured I'd see what happened :P

In the Prius, it's good about turning it's own engine off after letting off the gas pedal below 41mph.

I am noticing a slight difference between the built in MPG and what my fillups tell me. I'm going to do a few cruise control tanks to get a better idea how off it is.

After the alignment and having the fronts aligned to 0 I'm noticing that coasts last a good bit longer and cruise control 55mph is getting about 59mpg average where before it was 56.5. Need to do some more runs to verify though. Also keeping an eye on tire wear as I was warned it might wear on the inside of the tires from doing the 0 alignment.

[Xist]

I always bump-start unless I come to a complete stop. I would rather turn the key when the light turns green than bump-start and have my engine run during a red.

Are you familiar with DFCO?

[Rishar]

Long time without a post, this one is minor.

I'll be undoing the 0 alignment. With putting mostly highway miles on it is apparently a bad idea. Since I did it I've gone nearly 2,000 miles and the insides of the tires are showing noticeably more wear.

[Daox]

Do you have any explanation for this? Inner tire wear would suggest you're toed out a bit.

[Rishar]

I don't really. Other than that the Prius has the adjusters in the back rather than the front? And as the tires get more pull on them it pulls them out? I was told any time any amount of acceleration or the like would cause them to toe out a little. As best as I can remember what the mechanic said when it was done.

[radiantthought]

When my lease runs out next fall I'm planning to get a gently used gen3 prius, so this thread is very interesting to me. I have a few questions though:

What sort of techniques do you use most when driving this? What sort of mpg improvements have you seen from the mirror delete and the pizza pans? What OBDII sensor are you using? How did you mount the nook color?(since I have one too and was considering doing exactly this with it)

Love the thread, can't wait to see what else you've got coming.

[Rishar]

Originally Posted by radiantthought

When my lease runs out next fall I'm planning to get a gently used gen3 prius, so this thread is very interesting to me. I have a few questions though:

What sort of techniques do you use most when driving this? What sort of mpg improvements have you seen from the mirror delete and the pizza pans? What OBDII sensor are you using? How did you mount the nook color?(since I have one too and was considering doing exactly this with it)

Love the thread, can't wait to see what else you've got coming.

There's another thread by Vmann who I give a bit of credit to in this thread who has done much the same things. The nook color I took a shelving bracket and just screwed it into the plastic cover on the steering column. It's connected to the OBDII port via bluetooth and an Elm327 adapter.

From the pizza pans, mirror and wiper delete, using cruise control at 55 I was seeing about a 5-6mpg improvement. Going by a tank to tank fill until click method.

Around town I always use Pulse and Glide techniques and if I've got time I'll set it at 45mph on the highway as you will get just about as good mileage doing that as you would with Super Highway Mode. You just go a little slower

Anyway, good luck with it should you get one. The Gen3 is still a testing ground though. There's a lot more info available for the Gen2 which also has a smaller engine and can more easily get the higher MPG's. (or so I've read)

[freebeard]

Do you have any explanation for this? Inner tire wear would suggest you're toed out a bit.

I thought that the whole purpose of toe-in is to compensate for the slack in the tie-rod ends when they are acted on by the leverage from the wheel offset (centerline of wheel to kingpin). Maybe.

[radiantthought]

I'm pretty sure I've read about some cars where if they were aligned without a weight on the interior to simulate passengers their alignment would end up being off. Possibly something like that?