RaPieR

Prius has a lower drag coefficient and smaller frontal area so it takes less of a hit on the highway. I've wanted to test drive just to compare.

I know BUT 40 would be NICE!

 

Hopefully it will beat the less than 37 we got on the last two trips (same destination).

It might be possible to get 40.  I got this over the weekend after the update and I thought it was higher than my previous trips but it turned out to be 44.2 mpg actual.  This was Detroit to Toronto, Toronto to Niagra, Niagra to Toronto then back to Detroit.  Had a few stretches of 70MPH but mostly done at 66MPH with eco-cruise.

For reference, since June I've driven 4554 miles on round trips from Detroit to Toronto (86% highway).  I've averaged 44.17 mpg during those trips using pretty much the same route up highway 401, the 14-15% city is the only part of the route that actually varies.

I've had this happen multiple times while at a stop or in traffic and cars shouldn't be close enough to set them off.  The dedicated disable button is great.

I've had this happen in clear weather with no rain.

First 30 miles looks like this is what the Dr. ordered for this cmax's problem getting the first 47mpg.

 

 

Before the upgrade it was a struggle to get EV at anything greater that 55mph.

 

After the upgrade same road same speed EV 1/2 a dozen times :happy feet: .

 

Sunday will be the other 47 mpg test, 675 miles most at or above 75mph :secret: .

Sorry but there is no way you'll get 47MPG at a long sustained 75MPH.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by this?  You have the computer update with the 85mph EV limit.

 

Are you tipping in slightly on every downgrade?  Or whenever it tries to go into EV?

If you look at the engine load bar in the "Empower View" during highway cruising above 63MPH, if the engine load drops below the "1 bar" mark, EV will engage and ICE will shut off.  This could occur if you're going down a hill.  The car will continue to use EV even as the road levels out as long as the battery has enough power and engine load doesn't pass the 2nd bar.  

What I've found is instead of letting the car stay in EV and draining the battery, once the engine load passes the first bar in EV mode if you lightly blip the throttle to go pass the max load range of the electric motor the car will stay in ICE until engine load drops near the 1 mark again.  By doing this, you can use EV going down hills and use high ICE when the road levels out again.

The thread listed by fotomoto has more detailed information about high ICE.

Just downloaded and installed after reading about the update here.  Luckily no problems whatsoever.  Installed in less than 30 minutes and the interface is a lot more responsive.  I like it!

Observations:

1. It did wipe out any pre-set addresses/Favorites in the Nav system that I had set.

2. When you engage the MyFordTouch, it now shows a screen with some of the more commonly used "commands" for voice prompting.  It may be able to be disabled, but I am trying it for a bit.

3. Navigation worked well on  my short drive to work, no issues with finding streets or with setting the destination through verbal command.

That command list was there in 3.1.3 but you had to turn it on.

Nav GPS TSB 13-3-11 - Fix for unable to locate vehicle, etc

 

There is a Technical Service Bulletin that came out today for those of us whose Nav systems are having a hard time tracking where the vehicle is. Typically your car is shown as off the road or on the next block over, etc.

This fix applies to cars built on 1/15/2013 and before. It involves a recalibration, apparently.

I'm taking my car in tomorrow. I'll let you know what happens.

 

Thanks to use ceemax71 for finding this

I've only seen this issue on a few roads.  I wish this had come out earlier so it could have been bundled with the PCM and headliner fix.

Not to mention all the incentives Toyota can afford to put on their vehicles right now with the weaker value of the YEN.  

My dad just bought a new Camry and having the 0% interest was the main factor in his purchase.

Thanks for the info on the engine sweet spot.

Hey Guys,

 

Here is an overview of my entire trip with my observations and some cool experimantal data;

 

First, the trip total was 900 miles. It consisted of 800 miles of interstate driving and 100 miles of through town driving. 

 

My total mileage ended at 46.7mpg for the entire trip. The last time I made this trip was totally stock and I averaged under 42mpg (38.9mpg up there and 42.2mpg coming home). So, my aero mods have increased my mpg around 4 to 5mpg on the highway and around 3mpg in town.

 

I did some expermentation with mixed EV (under 63mph) driving and engine only running (over 65mph) and these are my findings for my car with aero mods;

 

Above 65mph with the engine running 100% of the time, my mpg (coming home) on the expressway was averaging 44.5mpg (I had a stiff headwind coming home that was not there when we went up). However, once I dropped the speed to 63mph to allow the car to run EV occasionally, my mpg immediately shot up to over 48mpg and that was consistant over 100 miles of driving. This was through Wisconsin. It may not be consistant through flat states. However, at least with my car in hilly terrain, the EV with engine off helped my MPG tremendously. My theory on that is the engine volumetric efficiency sweetspot. That is the point of power output that achieves the highest efficiency (power per unit of gasoline versus friction and RPM). According to my Scangauge, this appears to be somewhere around 45hp. So, running the engine at 45hp results in the best efficiency. Under accelleration, that normally equates to roughly two bars on the power graph. This seems to figure correctly as most of us have found that is the accelleration sweet spot. For cruising, if the engine is running all the time, the power output was on the lower 20s (horsepower in the lower 20s) to sustain expressway speeds. However, when running under 63mph, the engine would shut off for a time, then start up. When the engine started up, it would draw around 45hp driving the car and charging the pack up. I believe this 45hp is where the engine is most efficient. So, that means the engine was running at its sweet spot whenever it was running. Then, obviously, when going downhill or on a flat with the battery relatively full, the engine would shut off and run in EV. So, the only time the engine ran was at its power output sweet spot of roughly 45hp.

 

I hope that makes sense.  :)

 

Matt

Rapier - yeah, I can see the ICE High MPG but thats done manually which I did try early on in my hypermile driving here (look at one of my ole threads ICE High mpg vs eco cruise vs P&G) and I found it to be very distrating to keep it at that bar, to me it was dangerous then jus because O had to watch the gauge so closely and its diferent doing this at 35 mph vs 65 mph or 68 mph...woah. However, I try it next tank and see if my impression is the same. The eco-cruise ICE High MPG was so nice, akin to your eco-cruise at the surface street....now who said I don't use eco cruise... ;)

 

 

Is this is a different CARB to the one in my acronym thread? Do fill us in.... :)

Hehe, look at that picture again Jus.  The "ECO" icon is enabled on the left side of the dashboard.  I was running at that level for almost an hour, I can't stand doing manual feather for 20 minutes in the city there is no way I'd do that for hours on a 4 hour drive.

I've noticed the clock on my C-Max since the 3.5.1 update is two minutes slow.  I don't know if it's slowing more, because I reset to the correct time when I notice.  I've done this twice already.

Saw an articule awhile back where they just bypass the locking gas cap. Seems they carry a cordless drill & drill a hole in your gas tank then catch it with a bucket. In most cases you're looking at a new tank afterwards. Yeah, I hate a thief.

Yep, if they really want to steal something, they will a flimsy flap isn't going to help. Here in Detroit cars have bern stolen by breaking shifters then pushing the car with a 2nd car.

High ice using eco cruise is still possible after the update.

 

So far these updates look encouraging but I think the eco-cruise ice high mpg is gone. i use to do the manual one way before the eco and I thought it was dangerous especially at the 65mph speed (see my thoughts in one of my early threads)....yes...jus  :dogwalk:

Tried this out today. Even with higher ev threshold provided by the PCM update you can still do high ICE techinque by blipping the throttle.

Thanks

 

I should be able to get to 600 miles on a tank then.

Many people ond this forum have shown it can be done. But no point in taking unecessary risks. Just fill up before you get that low on the tank.

I just got the PCM update on Thursday.  I drive to Toronto a LOT so I should be able to get a decent comparison of mileage before and after the update.  Based on my last 5-6 trips I've driven 4554 miles at 44.MPG all at about 88% highway driving using eco-cruise at 65-70MPH before the PCM update.  Usually I draft semis from around 200ft when they are driving fast enough and the temperature usually ranges from 50-80F on those past trips.  Only other variables are amount/direction of wind, AC usage, and traffic.  I always take the same route, Ambassador bridge then highway 401 to Toronto and take the same route back home to Dearborn.

Funny how all the dashboards read on the high side, seems intentional. Wonder if there is a way

to calibrate it.

I've noticed my c-max reads high when I drive on the highway and low when I'm driving in the city.

Totally agree with you that its easier :) , but I am so use to it now it more a question of battery management & light timing now. Back to manual run today and I am back in the 79.2 Avg MPG, 1/2 squirt away from breaking the 80s or 1 too many 1/2 bar recharge burn.

 

Did you notice that eco-cruise "stuck on" 0.4 burn recharge? Or do you take it out manually via tapping the brakes et al?

Just depends if there is no traffic I let it recharge at whatever eco sets the engine to. I think it is .4 bar if thr road is flat. I'll manually shut off eco to coast if there is traffic ahead or I expect a stop or other delay. On my daily commute I average around +50 to a high of 77 at current summer temperatures.

It'll usually keep charging the battery at .4 bar until it gets above 50% then it will drop into ev again unless there is an elevation change. You always overide as well.

I use it because it's easy. All I have to do is keep an eye on traffic and lights. I find feathering the throttle to tedious. Probably won't hit extremely high mileage but I don't have to mess with the throttle my entire commute.

Stay safe SDM.

 

I tried the 2nd eco-cruise run today and it was poor. I finished with 59.5 MPG when I always usually come in >= 62 Avg MPG for the entire day.

 

Jus shows you how fickle the MPGs can get - even whilst using the eco-cruise. Same EXACT route, same temps and time of day. One thing I noticed is that the eco-cruise will drain all the way to the end and then set a 0.4 Bar re-charge beyond the 50% SOC - so this was an extremely slow burn to build the battery but I didn't see the EV kick back in by the eco-cruise because of the traffic light. This could explain why my gas use was higher than the day before, I didn't see this pattern emerging from the eco-cruise.

 

Now I am adament some of you posters swear by this eco-cruise over manual feather - and my question to you: did you notice this 0.4 bar show burn and did it eventually kick back to EV at some point? As I documented for my CMax, the slow burn consumes a lot more gas than the 2 or 1 3/4 bar burns to the same speed limit.

 

Side news: I broke the 700 mile mark- 703.5 miles with 11.31 gallons used. I can hit the 800 but I think the timing is bad as I have to use the car this weekend...but this car is saving me a ton of money for sure :)

Mine too, I originally thought I could use that to double check successful door locks.

If you press the black "button" on the front handle you can immediately pull on the handle after you hear the doors lock to verify the doors are locked. If you have fob in your pocket all doors can unlock the car by touching the handle.

LOL you can see traffic in your picture.

Thanks for sharing.  In the first picture was it with a cold start-up and in the 2nd was the engine still warm?

Look Mom no hands  :skateboard: Don't try this at home.  There was no traffic around me and I was very careful taking this picture.   :camera: This of course is 70 mph on EV.  

I saw mixed results today.  However, I didn't drive my usual route at the usual time.  It was more like a test under varied conditions.  I actually lost some mpg today.  :sad:

 

For fairly heavy traffic, it seemed that the stomp to two bars, even if very brief, was less efficient than gentle feathering and gliding.  However, once you reach areas where you can glide for longer stretches, you come out ahead with the stomp and glide.

 

Secondly, it seems that the stomp and glide is like a longer term investment that yields higher returns but costs a little more in the early stages.  By that, I mean that I get worse FE on short trip than I do by gentle feathering.  However, after a certain distance of travel, I am back to even with where I would be with gentle feathering.  After that, it is bonus FE by using stomp and glide.

 

Using two bars, I went up some of the steepest bridges in my area, and this was at 45 to 55 mph zones.  What a fun ride, even if it costs a squirt or two of gas.  :woot:

 

I ended out getting caught in peak rush hour, with bumper to bumper traffic, too.  There was nothing I could do.  Too many errands to run.  I tried to rationalize that I was testing for this driving condition, but even in the C-MAX, that part was not so much fun.

You have to adjust how much you pulse based on traffic to try to keep as constant a speed as possible.  For example if a light turns green and you are close enough to pulse pass or if you're too far then you'd coast to try and time the light.  If you have you to keep pulsing from a complete stop, you'll kill your mileage.

The first dealer that I took my cmax for the update replaced the apim module because the update failed. They tried again after the ao I'm was replaced and reported to me that everything was updated. Car was still on 3.1.3 and the nav now had the wrong SD card error. They took it back in and came back shortly to say it was fixed. Mft still wasn't updated correctly, so I took it to a different dealer and they got it done right the first time. Still hit and miss for most dealers because of the technical curve of these cars I guess

Main point like just-a-cmax was saying, is to use two bars to get up to speed around the speed limit then back off to kick in ev. Using eco-cruise, it goes into ev when you hit the cruise button as long as you aren't pushing the gas enough to speed up. Then you can adjust speed for traffic and lights by pressing the throttle to pulse up again or hit the cancel cruise button to coast. It's not as efficient as doing it manually especially if it is hilly but it takes only a little bit of practice and not as much concentration as manually feathering the throttle.