vskid3's 2005 Prius - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

vskid3 · 10-20-2013, 09:09 PM

Bought a 2005 Prius with 85k miles on it a few months ago, decided I should make a thread about it now that I've started doing mods to it. Almost immediately after getting it home, I pumped all the tires (Goodyear Viva Authority) to the sidewall max of 51PSI. I decided to drive it as-is for a bit to get a baseline of what the car is capable of (or maybe I was lazy and figured 60MPG was good enough

).

We sold our Escape about a month ago. I took the headunit from it and installed it and a subwoofer I had into the Prius. Difference was night and day. This is one non-ecomod I highly recommend for any Prius.

Now that its getting cooler here, I have renewed motivation to do mods in order to maintain my 60MPG average. I started off with a grille block as I already had all the materials. I got the plastic from the back panel of a broken pink 32" LCD I found in a dumpster. After a week of my coworkers asking why I had pink on the front of my car, I painted it today. I haven't really noticed any gains in MPGs or warm up time, but it at least shouldn't hurt anything.

Planned/potential mods include a block heater, coolant temperature spoofer, smooth wheel covers, and rear wheel skirts.

MetroMPG · 10-21-2013, 02:08 PM

Subscribed.

I still say that the Toyota hybrids are among the most entertaining ICE cars to drive (if you're an efficiency nerd). I say that even with their "automatic" transmissions -- I'm a manual shift die-hard.

vskid3 · 11-03-2013, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I still say that the Toyota hybrids are among the most entertaining ICE cars to drive (if you're an efficiency nerd). I say that even with their "automatic" transmissions -- I'm a manual shift die-hard.

I agree. My previous cars had to be manual, but the eCVTs of the Escape and Prius are engaging enough to keep me interested.

Grille block seems to be helping. I'm getting about the same mileage despite it being 45-55F in the morning. I'm going to be adding this cheap coolant temperature spoofer within the next couple of weeks. Same concept as the one Daox has on his Prius, but this one has to be manually adjusted.

Daox · 11-04-2013, 11:02 AM

I've really been liking my spoofer. I do a lot of shorter trips (most are less than 10 mile jaunts) and I do think it has improved my mileage. I also run a full grill block and a block heater to help negate the cold start penalty.

vskid3 · 12-14-2014, 11:51 AM

I forgot I even made this thread...
No updates in the mods department besides taking the grill block off during the summer and putting it back on a few months ago. Replaced the extremely weather cracked tires a couple days ago with Bridgestone Ecopia EP422's. Pumped the fronts to the 44PSI sidewall max and the rears to 42PSI. They seem to be quieter than the old tires and grip is much improved. Traction control liked to kick in when I had to punch it from a stop, that's a thing of the past with the new tires. Too early to tell how my mileage will be with them, but it should be about the same.

vskid3 · 07-05-2015, 05:17 PM

Another update, but not quite as long of a gap as before.

Over 10k miles on the Ecopias. Still running the same pressures, 44/42PSI. Looking at my Fuelly log, it looks like they've cost me a couple MPGs. Hard to say for sure, driving has been different (probably worse for MPGs) since just after getting them.

Ran the full bottom grill block til a couple weeks ago. It was fine on flat highway, but temps would get pretty toasty on hills (coolant) and stop and go (intake). I removed the left half of the block and it seems to be doing much better even on 100F+ days.

MetroMPG · 07-06-2015, 12:56 PM

I'm still hunting for one (Prius). No prospects in the last 3 weeks though. Summer drought!

vskid3 · 08-23-2015, 11:40 AM

Glad you finally found one, Metro. They're neat cars.

My inverter coolant pump died a couple weeks ago. Lit up all the bad lights in the car, but I was able to make it ~8 miles to home. Finally got the new one in the mail and swapped it yesterday. Fairly easy to do. Most people drain the inverter coolant to do the change, I just clamped off the lines and only lost maybe 1/4 cup of coolant. Here's a link to my PriusChat thread if anyone wants to read more about diagnosing the problem.

MetroMPG · 08-23-2015, 11:43 AM

Thanks for posting the fix/link. Glad it wasn't too onerous.

vskid3 · 10-20-2016, 03:17 PM

After running half a lower grill block for the summer, the zip ties started breaking so I removed it completely a couple months ago. Before putting the whole thing back on for the winter, I did a little refurbishing to the grill block. Here's the result:

Swapped the Ecopias for some Bridgestone Blizzak WS80 snow tires yesterday. This will be the first real winter for the car now that I'm back in Utah. I also have a block heater and a heated seats kit in the mail to keep the engine and hopefully the wife happier in the cold. Still considering the coolant temp spoofer, but I'm going to wait and see how the block heater performs. I'll get some pipe insulation for the upper grill the next time I'm at Lowe's or Home Depot.