Ian, THANK YOU. You just gave me the clear understanding of how to do this and I was able to immediately reset my MPG reader. Now it reads accurately for the first time since we've owned the car. I guess it is very important to reset it every tank.

36.6 <--------------------------------average MPG without any effort to hypermile

 

6th tank was slightly better - 38.8 mpg.
717 miles for 18.5 gallons. Same station, same pump, auto shutoff.
80% city driving. 20 min commute. Almost no AC.

I did nothing different this tank. So the only way to explain the slight
improvement is engine break-in. Though I am at 3500 miles, it might
have taken longer as I was babying the accelerator from the very
beginning.

Dash display accuracy is getting worse - showed 41.8 (+3 mpg).
Range went to zero at 630 miles.

I need another 20 miles on the tank to achieve my goal of 40 mpg.
Let see what happens this time. This tank has given me hope.

Will know only after a month.

 

If I ever get 38 mpg I will be so happy I won't care how I get it.

 

Lately I've noticed 2 things, that made me think of your situation. One is, that I live too close to work, and so short trips are not good for mileage. When I started dropping Mrs. Khan off at the train station, and my trips got a little longer, my mileage went up.

But much worse, my car has been occasionally doing something strange. I'm not sure exactly what's happening, but it might be slipping out of "stage4" back into "stage3". See post #36 here:
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/toyot...age4-5984.html

Like I said, I'm not sure, and I'm new to this stuff:
- NORMALLY, once the car has warmed up, the ICE can turn off at 42mph, so I Pulse up to 42mph, and Glide down to 35(ish)mph. Also, I can take the regen needle all the way down to the bottom, while braking. On a known driving loop, I can get about 45mpg. To be clear, if I'm going 40mph down a steep hill, and the ICE is off, and I take my foot completely off the gas, and the car speeds up simply on gravity, the ICE will turn on automatically at 42mph, whether it's needed or not. This is normal, and is the same as the Prius.
- When the car is doing this new mysterious thing (possibly stage3), the ICE turns on at around 33mph. So, P&G is nearly impossible at that speed in New England, without holding up all kinds of traffic. And regen braking barely works, so the battery voltage goes down. When it's in stage 3, or whatever is going on, the mileage numbers are abysmal. On the same known loop, where I can usually get the car into the low to mid 40s (mpg), I can barely hold low 30s (mpg).
- The 2 states are completely different, like night and day. If your car is not getting into stage4, then you'll never get very good mileage.

So, IF my car is going from stage4 into stage3, then the discussion in the forum seems to indicate that getting it back into stage4 has something to do with water temperature, and/or stopping the car for 5 to 10 seconds. These particular details seems a silly design, but whatever. I'm trying to figure out now if my car goes back to stage4 because of water temp, and stopping for a few seconds.

But regardless of my situation; does this apply to your situation? I guess the simple question is: What is the speed at which your ICE turns off (42 or 33mph)?

Otherwise, maybe your trips are just too short. The car doesn't really start working right until after a couple miles, and so I can't get decent numbers until after about 5 miles.

-Gren

 

GrendalKhan:

First pleas lookat this web page: http://eahart.com/prius/psd/ play with the sliders and you will see why the ICE comes ON at any spped over 42mph as the Morot rpm cannot be in the EV move at sppeds above 42mph or it wwould exceed it rpm ability. (Until the mfg are willing to spend the money to put a 2 to 1 speed shifter in)

Anyway you question confuses me at you as does my Internal compustion engine go off at 33 or 42 mph the answer is the ICE will not go off above 42 and only stay off at speeds below 42mph. So it seems to me you phrashing is reversed. Do you means on and not off. If you do mean on the my ICe comes on at 42mph no matter what and will stay OFF at speeds below that depending upon battery load and throttle demands.

Thanks, Don

 

Ah, ok. If you're car's ICE can be off, up to 42mph, then that's stage4. So, that's good.

-Gren

 

Ok if we are past that part. Then if you ICe will not stay of above 33 it must be beacuse of a low charge battery. Could be defective cell. How far up on the HV batt scale can you get the indicator to go?

 

I don't think it's that. It almost never happens, and doesn't seem to be related to state-of-charge. And it's a rare event. And it happens after being in stage4 for awhile. So, I'm not real worried about it, I just have to figure out how to force it into stage4.

I was just thinking that if this is what you're going thru, then I can see why you're having trouble. But if it's not what you're experiencing, then I don't know.

-Gren

 

Trivia foot note... we recently had a heat wave here in Southern California... 5 days of 105-108 degree misery. I reset my MPG meter. I was getting 36.5-38 MPG prior to the heat wave... and 32 MPG in the heat.

 

In the last week since I've owned my NAH, the temperatures have hovered around 110 degrees nearly every day, and I just filled the tank yesterday to a 32.1 mpg average. Of course, I think it's due in part to my wife's driving compared to mine. She drives it like she did her Monte Carlo, and she says I drive like my grandmother. I'm still shooting for the elusive 40+ mpg, but I have a feeling it will be rather difficult in the desert - or at least until the temps cool down.