"Car Mechanics" magazine project

[Beekeeper D]

Walking past the magazine rack in Sainsbury's, the Prius cover-story headline caught my eye. 

November issue of Car Mechanics magazine. 

They have bought a 165,000 mile (05 plate I think) Prius Gen 2 at auction for £1250+auction costs and are doing it up. 

They had to sand off the brakes, replace (eBay) a crunched rear sidelight and fit some new tyres to get it a new MoT certificate - and generally they seem rather impressed. 

The idea seems to be that they demonstrate how practical (or not) it might be for a home mechanic to run and maintain a hybrid. 

I didn't buy the mag, but thought it might be worth bringing this (series) to the attention of Gen 2 Prius owners ... they may investigate (or unearth) some interesting stuff. There was mention of a price for electric shock-resistant gloves and (I admit didn't know) that hybrids don't get emission-checked at MoT. 

[PeteB]

3 hours ago, Beekeeper D said:

W...They have bought a 165,000 mile (05 plate I think) Prius Gen 2 at auction for £1250+auction costs and are doing it up. 

...The idea seems to be that they demonstrate how practical (or not) it might be for a home mechanic to run and maintain a hybrid. 

... and (I admit didn't know) that hybrids don't get emission-checked at MoT. 

Back in early Prius folklore, a story did the rounds about a couple of Taxi drivers in Toronto who bought a Gen 1 Prius in 2000 to use as a taxi.  One drove it all night, the other all day.  When they booked it in quite early for a 200,000 mile (or maybe km?) service, their dealer told them they'd been contacted by Toyota HQ in Japan who wanted to swap their car for a new one so they could examine it (for free!).  Apparently they then flew a team of engineers from Japan who dismantled it down to nuts and bolts at the dealer's site and measured just about every conceivable aspect for wear etc.  They then reassembled it and left it at the dealer.  One of the taxi drivers saw it later, bought it really cheap, and used it for several years as his runabout when off duty.

We never knew if there was any truth in this until a group from the Yahoo Prius-UK chat group arranged a meet (as we did in those days), and I mentioned this at the lunch table.  The chap sitting next to me slapped a business card for the firm on the table and said he'd ridden in their taxi whilst in Canada, and they confirmed the story was true.

We later heard that when the Gen 2 came out they bought one, and when that reached a high mileage they got a free swap of that too - never had that corroborated though.

When the Prius first came to the UK the body responsible for the MoT system didn't understand how it worked, believed you couldn't run the engine while stopped, so excluded it from the emissions test.  In fact, for those in the know, there are ways of making it run in maintenance mode, and by pressing the accelerator while in P the engine will start (on the first three Gens, at least - I haven't confirmed this on my Gen 4).  If you select N while the engine is running, it will carry on running, and if you select N while the engine is off, it stays off no matter what else you do.

[johalareewi]

Pretty sure that all Toyota hybrids will fire up the ICE when you are parked in P and floor the accelerator (when switched on of course).

My gen3 prius did as does my current plugin and so does my wife's hybrid Yaris.  It's one way to manually charge (using the ICE) the HV Battery. ;)

[PeteB]

19 minutes ago, johalareewi said:

Pretty sure that all Toyota hybrids will fire up the ICE when you are parked in P and floor the accelerator ...

so am I, but I try to make clear what I know Vs what I think to be true

[mickburkesnr]

23 hours ago, Beekeeper D said:

Walking past the magazine rack in Sainsbury's, the Prius cover-story headline caught my eye. 

November issue of Car Mechanics magazine. 

They have bought a 165,000 mile (05 plate I think) Prius Gen 2 at auction for £1250+auction costs and are doing it up. 

They had to sand off the brakes, replace (eBay) a crunched rear sidelight and fit some new tyres to get it a new MoT certificate - and generally they seem rather impressed. 

The idea seems to be that they demonstrate how practical (or not) it might be for a home mechanic to run and maintain a hybrid. 

I didn't buy the mag, but thought it might be worth bringing this (series) to the attention of Gen 2 Prius owners ... they may investigate (or unearth) some interesting stuff. There was mention of a price for electric shock-resistant gloves and (I admit didn't know) that hybrids don't get emission-checked at MoT. 

That's the sort of idea that gets me in to trouble. Going to look up run down Prius' now and see about getting a cheap one. Well, consider it anyway!

[PeteB]

On 30/10/2016 at 4:41 PM, PeteB said:

Back in early Prius folklore, a story did the rounds about a couple of Taxi drivers in Toronto who bought a Gen 1 Prius in 2000 to use as a taxi...

and I just remembered I took a pic of the card, and found it!

http://www.biwel.com/pmb01/DSCF1475.JPG

[MEP's Yaris GS]

On 31 October 2016 at 10:39 AM, johalareewi said:

My gen3 prius did as does my current plugin and so does my wife's hybrid Yaris.  It's one way to manually charge (using the ICE) the HV battery. ;)

Not in the PiP when up to temp it won't, it'll just burn fuel and doesn't increase the SOC according to my scanguage.

[johalareewi]

23 hours ago, MEP's Yaris GS said:

Not in the PiP when up to temp it won't, it'll just burn fuel and doesn't increase the SOC according to my scanguage.

I will have to double check.  The energy flow display showed juice going to the HV Battery when I did it but I had only just entered HV mode.

Update:

It's true. When the PIP is warmed up and in HV mode, putting it in P and accelerating doesn't seem to charge the HV Battery.

But the alternative method of left foot on the brake pedal, put it in D and accelerate (keeping left foot on the brake) does charge the HV Battery.

[Beekeeper D]

New edition is out now. They changed the front brake discs and pads, but failed (so far) to get the back ones off! And they did a few more bits ... 

[mickburkesnr]

Out of curiosity, does the Prius have an electronic hand brake?

[johalareewi]

2 hours ago, mickburkesnr said:

Out of curiosity, does the Prius have an electronic hand brake?

Pretty sure it doesn't.

 

[PeteB]

 

5 hours ago, mickburkesnr said:

Out of curiosity, does the Prius have an electronic hand brake?

 

2 hours ago, johalareewi said:

Pretty sure it doesn't.

I would have agreed with you until the recall over the Gen 4 Prius - I'm pretty sure you're right for Gens 1-3, but there's been a suggestion that the Parking Brake Gen 4 recall is to do with it being electronic, albeit activated via the foot pedal.

Have you heard something different?

It certainly feels different in what I unofficially call "emergency brake mode" (where you click it on then off, but don't fully release allowing braking effort to be increased or decreased like a handbrake with the button held in),  In the Gen 4 it feels weak and non-linear, wheres older models felt proportional like the handbrake...

Despite this, when engaged whilst stopped, it seems to hold without a problem on very steep hills.

[Beekeeper D]

The problem with the rear brakes was seemingly not with the technology. 

Simply that they were seized in place ... 

The sort of problem that I recall testing my enthusiasm in those far-off days when I used to do that sort of thing in my spare time! 

[kithmo]

The Gen 4 parking brake recall is to do with the cables coming off the pedal, which is being rectified by fitting extra clips, so it's definitely cable operated.

The parking pawl in the transmission is electronic so the Prius effectively has both cable and electronic parking brakes.

[johalareewi]

17 hours ago, PeteB said:

I would have agreed with you until the recall over the Gen 4 Prius - I'm pretty sure you're right for Gens 1-3, but there's been a suggestion that the Parking Brake Gen 4 recall is to do with it being electronic, albeit activated via the foot pedal.

Have you heard something different?

I should have said for the gen3 Prius.  I am pretty sure the gen3 handbrake is mechanical because mine had to be adjusted to take up the slack in the cable (like in the old days) and it feels mechanical.  Although the main brake and accelerator feel mechanical too but they are electronic so I could be wrong.