“B Mode on the transmission lever”

[Paul john]

Sanity Check. 
 

B Mode stands for “simulated engine braking”

Sooo… if you feel like you need some extra brake assist say when you see “select low gear” on a signpost… use B mode. 

[TonyHSD]

Perhaps if you start the car and then select B instead of D and try driving from standstill slowly around the car park for example and try to notice of there is any difference in slowing down when lift off the accelerator. I am not excluding any potential differences between gen3 and ten 4/5 but if they don’t have extra regen in B where the stopping power comes from ? The high rpm of the engine will play a role when the car is moving at higher speeds. Just my thoughts. 

[bigblock]

I used B mode alot on long downhill roads with my Auris. It saved me from having to dab the brakes all the time. I believe you can get the same effect using the paddle shifters on the new 2.0 Litre Corolla but I have not tried this yet.

[Cyker]

1 hour ago, TonyHSD said:

Perhaps if you start the car and then select B instead of D and try driving from standstill slowly around the car park for example and try to notice of there is any difference in slowing down when lift off the accelerator. I am not excluding any potential differences between gen3 and ten 4/5 but if they don’t have extra regen in B where the stopping power comes from ? The high rpm of the engine will play a role when the car is moving at higher speeds. Just my thoughts. 

As far as I can tell it *just* comes from spinning up the engine, even at low speed. I guess they're just taking advantage of the 'CVT-ness' to crank down the gear ratio so even at 10mph it can still spin the engine at a relatively high RPM??

 

It behaves a bit weird generally - Another thing it does is, e.g. Normally the car tries to stay around 2000rpm (Or engine off) in D if I'm not gunning it, but if you hold the same speed and accelerator pedal position and flick it into B, it will immediately spin the engine up to 4000rpm even though nothing else has changed, and you haven't let go of the accelerator! It's almost like you're driving a manual car 2 gears too low for the speed you're going at all the time  

It really seems much more energy-wasteful on the newer ones than it is on the older models.

 

[RabButler]

On 12/16/2023 at 9:48 PM, Cyker said:

I'm not so certain - I've tried it both ways when configuring games controllers and I find it more natural to pull back to engage a forward gear, and while not everyone will feel the same way, it does seem most people find that more natural which may be why it's set up that way.

With tip-tronics, I've tried both ways round, e.g. where up a gear was push the stick forward, and pull back was down a gear, and others the opposite, and it always felt more natural to pull back to go up gears rather than push.

Even with paddle shifts AFAIK they are all pull back to go up a gear and push forward to go down (Except where right is go up and left is go down).

Agreed. To go backwards, you have to exert a force forwards, and vice versa.

On 12/16/2023 at 9:48 PM, Cyker said:

 

 

[Stopeter44]

15 hours ago, Don Mac said:

As a result I wouldn't bother with B-mode unless I was on a really long, steep downhill with a fully charged battery. For everything else (including slopes where I engaged a lower gear on my previous car) I just apply a little brake pedal as required, which does increase the regeneration.

Yes, that's what I generally do. OTOH, I have some long steep hills on routes that I often take, and I can tell when regen cuts out. The car will accelerate, not dramatically, but I can feel the regen braking "letting go".

[Don Mac]

10 hours ago, Stopeter44 said:

Yes, that's what I generally do. OTOH, I have some long steep hills on routes that I often take, and I can tell when regen cuts out. The car will accelerate, not dramatically, but I can feel the regen braking "letting go".

It does seem odd that Toyota have changed how B mode works. My only previous experience is a Prius plug-in, which does not seem to spin the engine up at all when driving in electric mode.

It also occurs to me that, having tried the proactive driving assist feature on my car, I have felt how it can increase it's regenerative braking if it feels like it...

[Stopeter44]

10 hours ago, Don Mac said:

having tried the proactive driving assist feature

What do you mean by that ?

[bob8998]

On 12/16/2023 at 10:50 PM, TonyHSD said:

Spray some silicone grease on front suspension arms rear bushes and all will go quiet again. 

Hello i spray some grease and still same sound.I was at the mechanic again, we examined everything, everything is correct, but the sound is there when I enter a hole and bumps, is it normal for a new slat to make a sound?

[TonyHSD]

4 hours ago, bob8998 said:

Hello i spray some grease and still same sound.I was at the mechanic again, we examined everything, everything is correct, but the sound is there when I enter a hole and bumps, is it normal for a new slat to make a sound?

Hi, 

might be something else then. This with the bushes usually is squishy sound , if your one is more like clunk and feels like something is loose maybe the shocks or stabiliser bar bushes. Again if nothing seems loose or worn will be difficult to locate. Perhaps try to search videos in YouTube like Toyota suspension noise and when find something that sounds similar to yours read the comments and you will see what others found and how the fix it , this could help you too. 
Good luck 

[Don Mac]

10 hours ago, Stopeter44 said:

What do you mean by that ?

Proactive driving assist varies the strength of the regen braking when you lift off the throttle, increasing it if the car detects you approaching an obstacle, bend etc.

The problem with it is that it can't anticipate you changing direction (e.g. steering around a parked car after the oncoming car has passed), so I turned it off. It was amusing for a while however, feeling the 'engine braking' effect increase suddenly.

[Stopeter44]

1 hour ago, Don Mac said:

Proactive driving assist varies the strength of the regen braking when you lift off the throttle, increasing it if the car detects you approaching an obstacle, bend etc.

The problem with it is that it can't anticipate you changing direction (e.g. steering around a parked car after the oncoming car has passed), so I turned it off. It was amusing for a while however, feeling the 'engine braking' effect increase suddenly.

That must be a '23 Corolla feature, I can't recall that I have it on my '21 Yaris. Is it a feature you can turn off permanently ?

[Cyker]

1 hour ago, Don Mac said:

Proactive driving assist varies the strength of the regen braking when you lift off the throttle, increasing it if the car detects you approaching an obstacle, bend etc.

The problem with it is that it can't anticipate you changing direction (e.g. steering around a parked car after the oncoming car has passed), so I turned it off. It was amusing for a while however, feeling the 'engine braking' effect increase suddenly.

Ooh you haven't had the fun one yet then, where it thinks you're going to clip a parked car and slams on the brakes on just the right-hand side of the car for a moment to pull you away from it and into oncoming traffic instead!   

[jthspace]

Having got used to engine braking on my manual MK5 on twisty country roads, I almost came a cropper with the Yaris (shortly after getting it) on a similar journey, waiting for the slowing down coming into a bend, which didn't happen 😳

On journies around our twisty county lanes, I use "B"; having learned, when motorcycling, that you never go into a bend in the wrong gear and to always be under power through the curve. I've always driven this way for +50 years and have avoided seeing, close-up, ditches in all that time 😎

 

[Don Mac]

2 hours ago, Stopeter44 said:

That must be a '23 Corolla feature, I can't recall that I have it on my '21 Yaris. Is it a feature you can turn off permanently ?

I think it is part of the latest safety sense package and, yes it can be turned off permanently (it was off by default).

[2badmice]

On 12/16/2023 at 9:21 PM, Roker said:

Who ever invented the automatic gearbox got it wrong in that you push the lever forward to go back and pull the lever back to drive forward 

Wait until you get in a Cupra Born, totally different.

On 12/16/2023 at 11:54 PM, Cyker said:

It constantly amazes me the sort of made up BS sales people will give to their customers; I honestly think half of them don't actually know how cars work.

To re-iterate what everyone else says: B-mode in the hybrids is basically 'engine braking' mode - It's the equivalent of downshifting to a lower gear in a normal car to slow the car down more without using the brakes, and is only meant to be used in situations where you'd normally do that (e.g. going down that scary downhill road near Bath/Bristol with all the escape-lane sand traps!).

In the earlier hybrids like the Auris and Prius, it maxes regen and sends the rest to spin the engine. In the newer ones, it does some light regen but mostly all the energy goes into spinning the engine alone.

There are no magnets. (Well, aside from the ones in the electric motors. Pfft, magnets over the wheels indeed! )

 

Salespeople don't need to know the product to sell them, they just need to know how to sell.  Usually by talking and believing in the product.

 

The lad who "sold" me my Corolla said he doesn't sell cars, the cars sell themselves.  He said it working at Toyota was the easiest car sales job he'd ever had.  MOTWYW.

[Roker]

On 12/20/2023 at 7:13 PM, 2badmice said:

Wait until you get in a Cupra Born, totally different.

 

Salespeople don't need to know the product to sell them, they just need to know how to sell.  Usually by talking and believing in the product.

 

The lad who "sold" me my Corolla said he doesn't sell cars, the cars sell themselves.  He said it working at Toyota was the easiest car sales job he'd ever had.  MOTWYW.

On a car with a gearbox there is engine braking when you take your foot off the throttle. this energy is wasted by generating heat in the engine. On a hybrid there is no engine braking but there is regenerative braking which feels the same but the energy instead of being wasted charges the Battery . The B function is like dropping to a lower gear when going down hill and increases the regenerative braking instead of wasting energy by using the brakes

[Cyker]

In the newer ones the B-mode doesn't increase regen braking, but actually uses engine braking almost exclusively.

 

[Stopeter44]

26 minutes ago, Cyker said:

In the newer ones the B-mode doesn't increase regen braking, but actually uses engine braking almost exclusively.

 

... and takes you out of EV mode, although I expect, but I'd be interested if someone could confirm, if the Battery has room to store more charge, it will continue to do so.

Being in or out of EV mode makes a difference to my insurance premium with Toyota insurance. The more I drive in EV mode the more discount over the standard rate the give me.

[fred88]

If used gently don't the brakes regenerate even in D mode?

[Don Mac]

2 hours ago, fred88 said:

If used gently don't the brakes regenerate even in D mode?

Yes, in fact you can brake quite firmly without using the mechanical system. If you switch the display to the hybrid system monitor it shows the regeneration level, the friction brakes shouldn't cut in until it is maxed out.

[Mjolinor]

My old Prius had done 120,000 miles when my dad wrote it off and it still had the original brake pads in.

The only time I had the Battery showing fully charged was in "B" mode on a long downhill. In fact it was the longest continuous downhill in the UK at around 6 miles if memory serves.

 

[Cyker]

9 hours ago, fred88 said:

If used gently don't the brakes regenerate even in D mode?

They do - In fact, on mine at least, I can get much more regeneration by using the brake pedal than using B-mode; The power meter shows 3 levels of regen, and you can only hit the 3rd level of regen by using the brake pedal; For some reason, B-mode never shows more than 1 level of regen.

The regen braking is quite strong - I can roll down e.g. Muswell Hill and control the speed with purely regen braking - No friction brakes used until I get to the bottom and have to stop at the lights.

[2badmice]

On 12/22/2023 at 11:16 AM, Roker said:

On a car with a gearbox there is engine braking when you take your foot off the throttle. this energy is wasted by generating heat in the engine. On a hybrid there is no engine braking but there is regenerative braking which feels the same but the energy instead of being wasted charges the battery . The B function is like dropping to a lower gear when going down hill and increases the regenerative braking instead of wasting energy by using the brakes

Did you quote me in error?