Rishar's 2010 Prius Mods

[gone-ot]

FWIW, "zero" toe-in WILL result in straight-line twitchiness, because the road "crown" is constantly trying to 'pull' the car down toward the side of the road.

[Rishar]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

FWIW, "zero" toe-in WILL result in straight-line twitchiness, because the road "crown" is constantly trying to 'pull' the car down toward the side of the road.

Oh yeah, I did notice that, just saying that the "in spec" toe seems to be worse than the zero toe felt...both for how it follows lines and in windy conditions. The car just feels less stable in spec than it did at zero. Which seems really weird to me. It makes me wonder if the shop did it wrong or something.

[radiantthought]

So, I did a little bit of reading on the ECT spoofer, and see lots of descriptions of what it does (spoofs the engine coolant temp sensor to say the vehicle is at ~170F when it's between like 112-170F) but the thing nobody is talking about is why you'd want to do that. I don't know enough about the prius hybrid system to know why these numbers matter and why you'd want the ECU to think that it was at these temps. Anyone care to shed some light?

[Rishar]

Originally Posted by radiantthought

So, I did a little bit of reading on the ECT spoofer, and see lots of descriptions of what it does (spoofs the engine coolant temp sensor to say the vehicle is at ~170F when it's between like 112-170F) but the thing nobody is talking about is why you'd want to do that. I don't know enough about the prius hybrid system to know why these numbers matter and why you'd want the ECU to think that it was at these temps. Anyone care to shed some light?

The idea behind doing this is that the Prius has different stages of warm up. At low temps the engine constantly runs to reach the running temp of 170 - 195. By using the temperature spoofer, it helps to skip a big part of the warm up and allows for higher speed EV running earlier on. This way, you can perform a P&G technique at 112F instead of having to wait until the vehicle is fully warmed up to 170+F.

That's the basic idea anyway.

[Daox]

Its also very helpful in winter to allow additional heat usage. If the coolant temp gets too low (~155F on a 2nd gen I think), the engine won't shut off.

[Rishar]

Originally Posted by Daox

Its also very helpful in winter to allow additional heat usage. If the coolant temp gets too low (~155F on a 2nd gen I think), the engine won't shut off.

Didn't even think about that.

[Daox]

The 3rd gens might not have as much of an issue with that because you guys have the exhaust heat exchanger. I definitely have that issue with my 2nd gen. The ECT really helps out a lot.

[Cobb]

Most insight owners just mod the suspension, get better tires, adjust tire psi to compensate. My sidekick IS all over the road, so Im use to twisting the steering wheel like a mad man to maintain a straight line.

Back in the days of carburetors cars didnt run right til they warmed up. Second, nor has the emissions system and cats warmed up. Your mod to save fuel is likly adding to the SMOG of our nation.

Originally Posted by Rishar

Ever since the alignment it has been all over the road...slightest wind and I'm nearly pushed into oncoming traffic. I imagine this wasn't by design. XD

[Rishar]

Originally Posted by Cobb

Back in the days of carburetors cars didnt run right til they warmed up. Second, nor has the emissions system and cats warmed up. Your mod to save fuel is likly adding to the SMOG of our nation.

Fortunately, the way I end up driving, it actually does the opposite.

See, when I head out for work, I have to get across town and then get on the highway for a good number of miles. So before, I was spending the entire time to get across town with the engine running and then have a warmed up engine by the time I got on the highway. Now, the engine barely runs in town and very quickly gets up to temp a few moments after getting on the highway.

Now if all I was doing was around town, then maybe yeah. Though still better than my sunfire which had the cat removed entirely :P

[Rishar]

Yeah...so I did this.