It has taken me about 4 tries and 3 days to get the accessory battery cover to stay on! That top latch looks to have been designed by a student engineer. I think that I FINALLY got it on right. I mean .... I'm no genious, but I'm not the dumbest guy that you'll ever meet.....gesh.

 

You mean the black fabric piece with 2 prongs and twist ****? That covers access to the 12V battery?
Brother, it's not a truck. it's a fine Toyota designed vehicle. She needs love and gentle hand. Had that cover off and on maybe 20 times - never had an issue.
Are you like having hobby now, looking for something that is not the way you want it? Just wait till the driver side backrest release handle will start falling down every time you put bags in.

 

My battery cover is a flimsy plastic 90 degree cover with two tabs on one end and some sort of a molded plastic clip to hold it in place, not a ****. It never seems to clip in right and has fallen off a few times, probably because I can't get it clipped in right. I think that I finally got it right.

"Looking for something that is not the way you want it" absolutely not, I'm loving this thing so far! I've owned 6 Toyota's in the last 10 years, there's 3 of them in my driveway right now. Am I "getting a new hobby now", no. I'm just gathering knowledge about this newest Toyota in my personal fleet.

 

Well then remember what I told you. You will have a period of worries and fears.
So did I.
best is to simply relax and drive the car. Enjoy her. She is very enjoyable. I'd rather start learning about hypermiling techniques and how to change driving habits, as you DO have wrong ones, switching from conventional car to a hybrid.
Also, as cold is coming, take it easy. You will not see grand mpg you expected. It's typical. You can check my Fuelly graph or table and you will see how mpg goes up summer time and down winter time.
Best suggestion is to set mileage counter/mpg data to zero ONCE and never touch it again, unless you have that goofy one that automatically resets itself every fuel up.
Light foot, planned braking, pulse and glide, lots of B mode use(that's more interesting to look into than battery cover) = good mpg.

Sorry, confused our cover with wife's RX one. But still - stepped down, old I am, popped the trunk lid, yes, it's same as yours, 1 second take it off, 1 second put it back in. Not sure why yours is acting up. 2 prongs at the bottom, 2 clips at the top. 90 degree shape. Yep, easy.

 

Right you are about the driving technique. I find the gauge on the dash very helpful in retraining myself. I'm currently at 40.3 mpg so I think I'm starting to learn, it's kind of a mental challenge with a mpg reward..... lol. I'm trying to stay out of the power range, practicing on getting up to speed and then backing off, and staying in EV as long as I can.

I find myself wanting to drive more as I learn more about it, and knowing that having formerly got 22mpg in my non-hybrid, it's a less expensive training exercise.

Do you find that the latch on the top of the battery cover at first glance appears to be not right? Not sure if it's because it doesn't look like it's facing the right direction, or I just can't see how it hooks in. There also are no slots for the bottom to fit in, they just hook on the trunk floor lip.

 

Well, it's asymmetrical, you can put it on only one way.
yes indeed, prongs do hook over the trunk liner lip. Make sure that lip is not damaged.
You simply need to be careful with it. And why do you need to frequent it anyway?
You have nav system
Find Info button.
Press and hold it then press Start button twice. When dash lights come up, start flipping headlight switch 3 clicks forward and then back fast. After about 3-5 flips like this, you should get into the diagnostic menu on nav screen.
From there, you will have plenty of data without opening any covers.
Have fun.

 

This whole thing started with removing it once to see what was under it. I never expected to find a battery there, but after looking under the hood there was really no choice but to put it there. Once I get this thing on right, and now I think it is, I hope not to open it again except to check the terminals a time or two a year.

Thanks for the diagnostic procedure, good to know and I'll try it just to see what happens. That almost sounds like something that you made up to see if id try it. I do however know how these procedures can be wacky like the one to disable the seatbelt buzzer in my wife's '06 Camry.

 

Yep, old fool I am having none better to do but to make up stuff for hybrid noobs, he-he

https://www.greenhybrid.com/forums/f...is-mode-26811/

You welcome. Also, as you apparently have itchy fingers, download Techstream s/w from their website and get yourself a USB to OBD2 Toyota cable.
For starters, you'll be able then to log into the system and do mass of changes.
2ndly, you can NOT bleed brakes in those cars without Techstream.
yes, I made this up too.
Psych..