Thanks AtomAnt, yes I saw that some time ago ;-)
My Prius is more recent, and doesn't seem to be affected.
As regards (predicted) reliability, see:
http://www.consumerreports.org ... eliability-1005.htm#below
Solar Hydro
P.S. I have now inflated the tyres to 42/40 psi, and some pictures, and perhaps even a movie are in the works.
Third refuel on the Prius today.
I thought I was very low on fuel, so I opted for a Texaco station at the bottom of a hill, but it turned out that I wasn't low at all... I have to learn to interpret the meter (it nags).
After having traveled 896 kilometres on this fuel tank, I added 42.30 liters (the price per litre was 1.285 euros), yielding:
4.72 liters per 100km (Prius meter shows 4.8, on the edge of 4.7, it was jumping from 4.8 to 4.7 in the past few days).
Converted to other measurements, this means:
49.83 MPG USA
59.85 MPG Imperial
Referring to Tweaker's request, I took some pictures of the Prius fuel efficiency, braking regeneration, and engine selection screens with my phone camera while in traffic jams, and with my mom's digital camera while standing still, but they are all bad (phone cam sucks, mom's camera always flashes inside the car, didn't find how to turn flash off). I will try again with another camera in the coming days and edit this post when I get a few suitable shots).
I conclude that driving fast uphill helps fuel efficiency a bit, especially when the road thereafter is flat or downhill.
Solar Hydro
P.S. My next experiment (perhaps I'll start tomorrow) will be to inflate the tyres to 42psi front and 40 psi rear. Supposedly this yields better MPG. I'll have to drive slowly to a petrol station nearby to avoid heating the tyres before the air pump. I didn't adjust the tyres on refuel tonight because they only had an analogue bar meter, and I didn't know the psi/bar conversion from the top of my head ;-) Perhaps I should also try this...
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/10/inflate_your_ti.php
P.S.2. This time the consumption meter reset itself on its own at the petrol station, just when I was planning to leave it running indefinitely to know my overall efficiency. I need to investigate that.
P.S.3. I wish I had known that I had quite a bit of fuel left, because actually I was planning to re-try the Total Excellium fuel that the car was filled with on purchase. Total claims that this fuel is more efficient (i.e. you consume less), and fact is that my first tank was by far the best of the 4 tanks I have now used overall. That was also the tank with which I drove in the mountains near Francorchamps, which makes me consider that Total's claims might have merits, even though I remain very very sceptical. Note that all Belgian petrol stations serve 95 octane and 98 octane (I always took 95 - which is the standard quality) whilst apparently the Prius runs fine on the American 87 octane and any ethanol mixes.
I thought I was very low on fuel, so I opted for a Texaco station at the bottom of a hill, but it turned out that I wasn't low at all... I have to learn to interpret the meter (it nags).
After having traveled 896 kilometres on this fuel tank, I added 42.30 liters (the price per litre was 1.285 euros), yielding:
4.72 liters per 100km (Prius meter shows 4.8, on the edge of 4.7, it was jumping from 4.8 to 4.7 in the past few days).
Converted to other measurements, this means:
49.83 MPG USA
59.85 MPG Imperial
Referring to Tweaker's request, I took some pictures of the Prius fuel efficiency, braking regeneration, and engine selection screens with my phone camera while in traffic jams, and with my mom's digital camera while standing still, but they are all bad (phone cam sucks, mom's camera always flashes inside the car, didn't find how to turn flash off). I will try again with another camera in the coming days and edit this post when I get a few suitable shots).
I conclude that driving fast uphill helps fuel efficiency a bit, especially when the road thereafter is flat or downhill.
Solar Hydro
P.S. My next experiment (perhaps I'll start tomorrow) will be to inflate the tyres to 42psi front and 40 psi rear. Supposedly this yields better MPG. I'll have to drive slowly to a petrol station nearby to avoid heating the tyres before the air pump. I didn't adjust the tyres on refuel tonight because they only had an analogue bar meter, and I didn't know the psi/bar conversion from the top of my head ;-) Perhaps I should also try this...
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/10/inflate_your_ti.php
P.S.2. This time the consumption meter reset itself on its own at the petrol station, just when I was planning to leave it running indefinitely to know my overall efficiency. I need to investigate that.
P.S.3. I wish I had known that I had quite a bit of fuel left, because actually I was planning to re-try the Total Excellium fuel that the car was filled with on purchase. Total claims that this fuel is more efficient (i.e. you consume less), and fact is that my first tank was by far the best of the 4 tanks I have now used overall. That was also the tank with which I drove in the mountains near Francorchamps, which makes me consider that Total's claims might have merits, even though I remain very very sceptical. Note that all Belgian petrol stations serve 95 octane and 98 octane (I always took 95 - which is the standard quality) whilst apparently the Prius runs fine on the American 87 octane and any ethanol mixes.
Last edited by Solar Hydro, .
Second refuel on the Prius today:
After having traveled 886 kilometres on this fuel tank, I added 43.51 liters (costing exactly 60 euros).
This is inferior to the result on my first tank, even though I made a very deliberate attempt at trying to respect all speed limits initially to see if that would affect fuel consumption positively. I admit that I rather lapsed on that project after half a tank because I had to rush to meetings a few times and did even more motorway driving than before. I also noticed that EV mode is great in traffic jams, BUT excessive EV mode in traffic jams can be a killer when you get the battery down to zero and the car starts recharging the battery by running the petrol engine hard while standing still...
This tank result yields:
4.91 liters per 100 km (although the Prius meter shows 4.7)
(this is funny because on the previous tank the Prius meter showed 4.9 and my own calculation was 4.67 - perhaps I'm just revealing my uselesness at maths...)
In other measuring units, this yields:
57.53 MPG Imperial
47.91 MPG USA
Solar Hydro
P.S. I reset the meter once again because I need to experiment the best solutions for driving up hills (driving up hills slowly - at speed limit - seemed to harm fuel consumption; there is lots of debate about hill driving strategies on the Prius messageboards)
After having traveled 886 kilometres on this fuel tank, I added 43.51 liters (costing exactly 60 euros).
This is inferior to the result on my first tank, even though I made a very deliberate attempt at trying to respect all speed limits initially to see if that would affect fuel consumption positively. I admit that I rather lapsed on that project after half a tank because I had to rush to meetings a few times and did even more motorway driving than before. I also noticed that EV mode is great in traffic jams, BUT excessive EV mode in traffic jams can be a killer when you get the battery down to zero and the car starts recharging the battery by running the petrol engine hard while standing still...
This tank result yields:
4.91 liters per 100 km (although the Prius meter shows 4.7)
(this is funny because on the previous tank the Prius meter showed 4.9 and my own calculation was 4.67 - perhaps I'm just revealing my uselesness at maths...)
In other measuring units, this yields:
57.53 MPG Imperial
47.91 MPG USA
Solar Hydro
P.S. I reset the meter once again because I need to experiment the best solutions for driving up hills (driving up hills slowly - at speed limit - seemed to harm fuel consumption; there is lots of debate about hill driving strategies on the Prius messageboards)
Today, I refueled the Prius for the first time.
After having traveled 921 kilometres I managed to add exactly 43 liters.
That yields:
4.67 liters per 100 km (although the Prius meter shows 4.9)
60.49 miles per liquid gallon Imperial
50.37 miles per liquid gallon USA
Solar Hydro
After having traveled 921 kilometres I managed to add exactly 43 liters.
That yields:
4.67 liters per 100 km (although the Prius meter shows 4.9)
60.49 miles per liquid gallon Imperial
50.37 miles per liquid gallon USA
Solar Hydro
Last edited by Solar Hydro, .
Add-on about Francorchamps
Here is my Francorchamps story.
Chose the Stavelot entrance.
Prius EV Mode and 'B' on the automatic transmission worked well on the drenched cow patty parking (which cost 15 euros) - no powersliding for me.
Got to a good viewing location (Pouhon) in time for the second F1 practice session.
I saw a grand total of 3 F1 cars: Alonso's Renault and a Minardi passed once, and after the session a Red Bull passed on the back of a truck... (I did see the crash on the big screen). The rain was pouring!
Wearing only my LFS polo shirt wasn't a good choice. I was freezing and, after a while, physically trembling... lucky that I had an umbrella.
After the F1 non-event, I stayed for the GT2 qualifying; at least those guys had some balls (I was at Pouhon, with a view of 4 corners; they were really flying there; actually my viewing position was better than I had hoped for before I got there).
Afterwards I ran to the main paddock to warm myself up. There were various events there. I did the official Toyota Race simulation in the cockpit of a fake Toyota F1 (my laptime was 2:04.20 which didn't make the top-10). Actually their sim is truly crappy (auto gearbox, no damage, steering wheel was shaking to the extent I couldn't hold in on the straight - and I didn't see anyone else who could).
Another conclusion: the Raidillon is A LOT steeper uphill in real life than on TV or in any sim I've seen. I saw the Porsches on there from a good location.
I took some pics and vids with my phone; quality is likely to be too bad to post; I didn't review them yet.. If anything is worthwhile, I'll edit this post or add separately
Solar Hydro
P.S. Back at the car, I took my muddy shoes off and drove my Prius home on (wet) socks...
Chose the Stavelot entrance.
Prius EV Mode and 'B' on the automatic transmission worked well on the drenched cow patty parking (which cost 15 euros) - no powersliding for me.
Got to a good viewing location (Pouhon) in time for the second F1 practice session.
I saw a grand total of 3 F1 cars: Alonso's Renault and a Minardi passed once, and after the session a Red Bull passed on the back of a truck... (I did see the crash on the big screen). The rain was pouring!
Wearing only my LFS polo shirt wasn't a good choice. I was freezing and, after a while, physically trembling... lucky that I had an umbrella.
After the F1 non-event, I stayed for the GT2 qualifying; at least those guys had some balls (I was at Pouhon, with a view of 4 corners; they were really flying there; actually my viewing position was better than I had hoped for before I got there).
Afterwards I ran to the main paddock to warm myself up. There were various events there. I did the official Toyota Race simulation in the cockpit of a fake Toyota F1 (my laptime was 2:04.20 which didn't make the top-10). Actually their sim is truly crappy (auto gearbox, no damage, steering wheel was shaking to the extent I couldn't hold in on the straight - and I didn't see anyone else who could).
Another conclusion: the Raidillon is A LOT steeper uphill in real life than on TV or in any sim I've seen. I saw the Porsches on there from a good location.
I took some pics and vids with my phone; quality is likely to be too bad to post; I didn't review them yet.. If anything is worthwhile, I'll edit this post or add separately
Solar Hydro
P.S. Back at the car, I took my muddy shoes off and drove my Prius home on (wet) socks...
Prius update after 1 week and 590km on the counter.
Fuel consumption is still at an average of 4.9l/100km (it has been at 4.8 and at 5.0. at some points).
I didn't do any real city driving yet, I switched-on manual EV mode when driving through village centres (and also twice in a traffic jam and a few times near home and on our business park when showing off the car). Most of the kilometres by far were driven on the motorway. Generally, I practiced normal Belgian speeds, i.e. usually rather above the speed limit.
Yesterday, I drove to Francorchamps to attend the Friday F1 practice (I had won a free ticket), which requires a long motorway journey (140km or so) that gets seriously hilly near the track (I drove a little over 130 km/h on the way there, and set it to 124 km/h cruise control on the way back). Cruise control works remarkably well.
In the 2 x 25km of small winding mountainy roads near the Francorchamps track (with speed limits of 90/70/50), the Prius performed admirably; I had green battery and 2 1/2 (i.e. 150 watt) regenerated power at several points, while the driving was fun on the zigzag roads and definitely comfortable. I had to floor it to pass a big truck full of trees.
The fuel meter is at 4 out of 10 now with 590km travelled.
After the next refuel (may be more than a week from now before I get there), I'll drive a number of days trying to respect all the speed limits, in order to see whether that gives a different fuel consumption result. I'll report on it.
Solar Hydro
Fuel consumption is still at an average of 4.9l/100km (it has been at 4.8 and at 5.0. at some points).
I didn't do any real city driving yet, I switched-on manual EV mode when driving through village centres (and also twice in a traffic jam and a few times near home and on our business park when showing off the car). Most of the kilometres by far were driven on the motorway. Generally, I practiced normal Belgian speeds, i.e. usually rather above the speed limit.
Yesterday, I drove to Francorchamps to attend the Friday F1 practice (I had won a free ticket), which requires a long motorway journey (140km or so) that gets seriously hilly near the track (I drove a little over 130 km/h on the way there, and set it to 124 km/h cruise control on the way back). Cruise control works remarkably well.
In the 2 x 25km of small winding mountainy roads near the Francorchamps track (with speed limits of 90/70/50), the Prius performed admirably; I had green battery and 2 1/2 (i.e. 150 watt) regenerated power at several points, while the driving was fun on the zigzag roads and definitely comfortable. I had to floor it to pass a big truck full of trees.
The fuel meter is at 4 out of 10 now with 590km travelled.
After the next refuel (may be more than a week from now before I get there), I'll drive a number of days trying to respect all the speed limits, in order to see whether that gives a different fuel consumption result. I'll report on it.
Solar Hydro
For reference, this didn't fix my problem :-(.
When I install the centering fix, my wheel moves left and right very fast, all on its own...
Solar Hydro
When I install the centering fix, my wheel moves left and right very fast, all on its own...
Solar Hydro
Hello Bismarck,
I have only driven 75km with it, average fuel consumption was 4.9l/100km but:
- the batterry wasn't charged fully yet
- I floored it on a straight ;-)
- motorway at 120-130 km/h for 20km with airco
- I stood still for 10 min to make a phone call with airco on (it's 29 degrees)
so that's not necessarily very representative for fuel economy...
My dad owns a Prius previous model. After 4 years, his average is 4.7l/100km.
Yes, you can drive all-electric, by pressing the button 'EV Mode', but max speed is 48km/h in all-electric mode. I drove up a hill with it, it works, but the juice went down quick in the battery.
Solar Hydro
P.S. I am seriously considering getting a plug-in modification with extra batteries and ability to charge up at night via the electricity grid (they are still developing it, should be ready early 2006).
Last edited by Solar Hydro, .
Got my Prius...
Wheel calibration loss - how to fix? (Momo)
Hello all,
In the past few weeks (perhaps since S2), my black Momo loses its calibration during races. After about 10 laps (without hitting obstacles) it is more than 25% off to the left or right (depending on track), and after 15-20 laps I can't make the sharp turns anymore because my wheel hits the max turn angle...
I vaguely suspect that the brakes also lose calibration.
Trying various LFS options and Logitech and Windows option does not seem to change anything.
Any suggestions? (I am now using the mouse again)
Many thanks in advance,
Solar Hydro
In the past few weeks (perhaps since S2), my black Momo loses its calibration during races. After about 10 laps (without hitting obstacles) it is more than 25% off to the left or right (depending on track), and after 15-20 laps I can't make the sharp turns anymore because my wheel hits the max turn angle...
I vaguely suspect that the brakes also lose calibration.
Trying various LFS options and Logitech and Windows option does not seem to change anything.
Any suggestions? (I am now using the mouse again)
Many thanks in advance,
Solar Hydro
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