LOL OH MY I had a Green 81 rabbit Diesel!! LOL LOL It did great on fuel! I had a sales job and they were paying me mileage to travel all over the state. I made a bundle on mileage. My boss gave me some ribbing for how much I was making! I remember mileage in the 50s but not in the 60s. I didn't know about your trick to fill the tires! It was not turbo and the 50 HP squirrels in the mountains really was terrible! HAAA the good old days!

 

Your right about the little 50 hp but, it did have good torque for a 4-cyl. I could keep up with the early 85 hp 4-cyl gas-cars taking off from red lights.. Mine had the diesel shipped from Germany. My wife's duplicate car except for color. Her engine came from Brazil and didn't run near as good as mine. I did kick the injector timing up on mine while in your state and it seemed to run lots better.

And yes, I would get blown away by the V8's when leaving a red light.

Somehow it reminded me of a roller skate with well lubed bearings with a tiny engine. Front wheel drive and I don't see how it ever pulled the AC but somehow it barely did.

I forgot to ask how many miles before you got rid or yours. My old fashioned Tan Rabbit lasted 88000 miles then I sold it although it still ran good except the motor mounts had dried out and cause the body to vibrate. The front engine mount was hell to replace so I sold it.

I forgot to mention, coming down some those mountain highways at 80 mph, my wife and I would open the vent windows to help slow the car to 60 where I could use the brakes like slowing entering some small town. A few occasions I could reach back and open both rear windows, similar to drag chute to help slow even more.

Did that with a highway patrol standing on the side of the highway waving us to pull over and stop. I did about 1/4 mile down the grade. I backed up and he wanted to tell us about a wreck ahead around a curve involving a truck and for us to use caution. Well I was doing 85 when we want past him, but no penalty. Never did see the wreck he was talking about. Could be it was already cleaned up and he was not notified.
.

 

The other option in the 2012 TCH is to just use the EV mode. It forces use of EV only if other conditions are met, such as sufficient battery, and low enough speed.

 

We live near a large hill that has a long sloping down grade for over three miles. It would seem to be fruitful regeneration driving. It seems counter intuitive to ride the brakes down hill. I have driven this road with the brakes on nearly all the way down hill racking up many bars in the green zone. What is hard to know is when you are using the brake shoes?

I have been wondering if the B Mode would be better using the throttle to control the rate of deceleration? The B mode seems quick to use engine compression vs full regeneration.

 

That helps! We have the 07 which is sounds like they have made a number of good improvements in 12. For clarity, I was concerned about the wear on the brake shoes. It is hard to know when you are transitioning from regeneration to brake shoes. The speed limit is 45 mph and the battery is rarely full. The car faces the grade uphill at the end of the day.

 

Your right, use the B mode and drive down the long hill. I would prefer driving at 40 so the engine would not rev so much. It will use the regen braking if the battery is low enough and will go to 100% charge. At that point it will then speed up the engine revs to take over slowing the car. You should still be able to brake at the bottom of the hill if needed. One nice thing you can EV a good ways on a 100% charged battery.

 

When I say full while driving that would be a 80% charge, the other 20% is left uncharged to make extra room for the regen braking. The car will still slow and stop even when it's 100% charged, but it would then be using the physical braking rather then power assisted. (regen)

If you drive at 45 mph a few miles before reaching the grade to go uphill the 80% charge should give your engine a extra EV assist, which would help the mpg somewhat. Remember level driving use the cruise, pull it off just before climbing the hill, then manually use the accelerator till the road levels up. Best not so speed up during the climb other than holding a close steady speed.

Most other hybrid owners that have had their brakes replaced end up doing the rear pads. The fronts don't wear much due to the regen braking protecting them. The regen works though the axles and the power split device including mg2 as acting as a generator.

The light braking works best with the regen. Any what I call g-force or 'heavy' braking your using the physical brakes.

I had 38,500 miles on my 5 year old '07 when I traded it for the '12 XLE TCH. The tech looked at my '07 disk pads though the alloy wheels, and said all 4 looked just like new. I am very light on my brakes due to the level highways and streets where I live.

I had planned on selling my car and took it to the tech to have him double check the liquids after I had already checked them under the hood. I wanted to make sure the car was in top shape before selling it. The wife said no, where going to trade it so we took the extra loss for the convenience of driving in the '07 and driving off in the '12. I should mention we had to leave a big bundle of money at the dealers to do that.

 

Perhaps the 07 TCH does not have the same instrumentation, but the 2012 has an ECO gauge on the left side of the dash. The bottom section of the gauge is the regenerative current level. As you depress the brake the needle goes lower and lower until it is "pinned" to the bottom. I have concluded that as long as you are in gauge range you are not using the disk brakes.

How did I decide that? If you go down a hill and turn the cruise on, you can watch this same gauge. First the car backs off on fuel, and then it uses regen braking to slow your speed and keep it at the cruise set point. My theory is that cruise does not have the ability to use your disk brakes, but does have full control of regenerative braking. From watching the needle while on a long downhill and in cruise, I have observed the charge current nearly pins, but not quite, at least in the tests I have done.

Best way to go down a hill? Just put it in cruise and let the car look after itself. If speed becomes too high, or the battery becomes fully charged (so the regen is no longer able to work), then put it in B mode. If speed is still too high, then use B mode and the brakes. This routine will maximize your regen, and minimize the brake wear.

 

I tried using the cruise control coming down some moderate 3% grade in the foothills one night after coming down a steep grade mountain. I was still driving down at 50 mph. I put the cruise on and let off the accelerator. Next thing I know the cars momentum sped up to 55 then onward to 60. It was like the cruise did nothing to slow my car using the regen or physical brakes. I had to slow back down using the B-mode and later applying the manual brake some as I was entering town still at the 3% grade.

I was kind of nervous through that area due to just coming from the steep 16% and 10% grades for the last 15 miles I had just came down. I forgot to look at the traction battery in the slower foothills, could be it was still 100% charged from the steep grades.

Their is a mile long moderately slow grade here in town that's part of the foothills. Next time I drive down that one, I will remember to set the cruise and see if I get a brake assist.

WS

 

Thank you very very very much , i was very confused about that B mode .. everyone just told me it hurts the engine , but it did not got me .. thank you again .. B mode till i die hahahaha i love charging my camry 2008 battery