2017 Premier Update

[adopterearly]

Hi, I'm still only leaving town for a 90 mile round trip carpooling every other week. I'll see how this works out when I get my solar panel electricity true-up in September. The only problem that I've noticed is the passenger side blind spot monitor stays on very long after the lane has cleared. This started after the last seat belt retainer recall service. It only seems to happen at highway speeds. Is there a setting somewhere?

I just applied for the CA Clean air vehicle tag for my wife's 6-month old Prius Prime. We've been charging it at every opportunity so she's only bought 6 gallons of gas in 6 months (1700 miles). With electricity rates spiking, it may soon be cheaper to use the gas engine instead of the battery.

Thanks

 

[summit]

petrol would never be less than the solar, do the $/mile comparison

 

[mchapmon]

A thought on the blind spot detection problem. My 2017 BoltEV Premier passenger (rh) blind spot detection went crazy. Often it would come on for no reason and was driving me crazy. Before I took it to the dealer, I found someone here that told me how to fix it (if yours failed for the same reason as mine).

I'd recommend parking it anywhere there's a smooth surface with 4 to 5 feet of space behind the car. The left side and right side sensors are on opposite sides of the car, both easily accessed. Slide under you car right behind the right rear wheel, enough so your arms can move around a little. Then, look on the inside of the quarter panel close to the wheel opening and see if you notice a piece of cheap material with an aluminum tape looking appearance. It covers an opening made in the quarter panel where the sensor is located. If this piece is loose or damaged somehow where it either does not stick firmly all the way around, or if it is missing, the repair is simple. Make a pattern of the hole leaving an extra 1" all the way around. Stop long enough to clean the quarter panel surface all the way around the opening so it can dry before you make a new piece out of metal foil tape. My foil tape roll is 2" wide material, so it took 2 or 3 overlapping strips to make my new stick on cover wide enough. I used regular duck tape to cover enough of the sticky side of the foil tape to approximate the shape of the rubber piece that was on the inside of the junky piece Chevrolet made for this job. Then, if the quarter panel is clean and dry, stick it in place. I used an old wash rag (completely dry) and wiped around the perimeter of the new stick on piece, pressing very firmly to make sure it adhered well. Test drive if you want and then pat yourself on the back for fixing it yourself. I did my repair close to 4 years ago and it has not had a problem since then. Mine was still warranty covered at the time, but it was quicker to fix it than drive to the dealer and wait for them to repair it.

I hope this is what your problem is, so you can fix it fairly quickly. Beyond that, check to see if there is a service bulletin for this. (I think there was, on 2017 & 2018 models) They may fix it for you at no charge if there is.

 

[adopterearly]

A thought on the blind spot detection problem. My 2017 BoltEV Premier passenger (rh) blind spot detection went crazy. Often it would come on for no reason and was driving me crazy. Before I took it to the dealer, I found someone here that told me how to fix it (if yours failed for the same reason as mine).

I'd recommend parking it anywhere there's a smooth surface with 4 to 5 feet of space behind the car. The left side and right side sensors are on opposite sides of the car, both easily accessed. Slide under you car right behind the right rear wheel, enough so your arms can move around a little. Then, look on the inside of the quarter panel close to the wheel opening and see if you notice a piece of cheap material with an aluminum tape looking appearance. It covers an opening made in the quarter panel where the sensor is located. If this piece is loose or damaged somehow where it either does not stick firmly all the way around, or if it is missing, the repair is simple. Make a pattern of the hole leaving an extra 1" all the way around. Stop long enough to clean the quarter panel surface all the way around the opening so it can dry before you make a new piece out of metal foil tape. My foil tape roll is 2" wide material, so it took 2 or 3 overlapping strips to make my new stick on cover wide enough. I used regular duck tape to cover enough of the sticky side of the foil tape to approximate the shape of the rubber piece that was on the inside of the junky piece Chevrolet made for this job. Then, if the quarter panel is clean and dry, stick it in place. I used an old wash rag (completely dry) and wiped around the perimeter of the new stick on piece, pressing very firmly to make sure it adhered well. Test drive if you want and then pat yourself on the back for fixing it yourself. I did my repair close to 4 years ago and it has not had a problem since then. Mine was still warranty covered at the time, but it was quicker to fix it than drive to the dealer and wait for them to repair it.

I hope this is what your problem is, so you can fix it fairly quickly. Beyond that, check to see if there is a service bulletin for this. (I think there was, on 2017 & 2018 models) They may fix it for you at no charge if there is.

Thanks. I'll try that this weekend. I bought the cheap (Amazon) pdf of the repair manual. So far it hasn't helped.

 

[adopterearly]

petrol would never be less than the solar, do the $/mile comparison

PG&E just went to $0.36/kWh which works out to $0.09/mile. The Prius prime gets 55mpg. If gas drops to $5/gallon, hard to find in the Bay Area, it's a wash. If it drops to $4.50/gallon it's cheaper to use the gas engine. I know people with EV's where they pay $0,05/kWh, but not around here.

 

[ClarD]

The Prius prime gets 55mpg. If gas drops to $5/gallon

EPA says the Prius Hybrid gets between 52 and 57 MPG, depending upon trim.
The Prius Prime gets 48 MPG on gas. But there's also 39 miles of electric.

The price of gas, divided by the cost of electricity, times your miles per kWh, gives your cash gasoline equivalent cMPGe.
Looking at the charging kWh from my JuiceNet over miles, compared to the dash display, shows that my formula needs to have charger efficiency of 93% applied.

Equivalent MPG Gas$/kwh$*.93*Dash
5.00/0.36*.93*3.9*.93 = 50 cMPGe

For convenience, that ratio is 9.9 to one, so the price of gas/10 is my equivalent MPG.
We replaced a Mercedes that required Premium gas, so that would be 59 MPG today for me.
My LEAF leads an easier life, and has a 7;1 ratio, 84 MPG, but it replaced a car burning Regular, so 78 MPG.

 

[adopterearly]

EPA says the Prius Hybrid gets between 52 and 57 MPG, depending upon trim.
The Prius Prime gets 48 MPG on gas. But there's also 39 miles of electric.

The price of gas, divided by the cost of electricity, times your miles per kWh, gives your cash gasoline equivalent cMPGe.
Looking at the charging kWh from my JuiceNet over miles, compared to the dash display, shows that my formula needs to have charger efficiency of 93% applied.

Equivalent MPG Gas$/kwh$*.93*Dash
5.00/0.36*.93*3.9*.93 = 50 cMPGe

For convenience, that ratio is 9.9 to one, so the price of gas/10 is my equivalent MPG.
We replaced a Mercedes that required Premium gas, so that would be 59 MPG today for me.
My LEAF leads an easier life, and has a 7;1 ratio, 84 MPG, but it replaced a car burning Regular, so 78 MPG.

The 2023 Prius Prime SE gets 55 mpg and 44 miles on battery. The more expensive Prius Prime models have a smaller battery range and less mpg. We were willing to give up some of the luxury, convenience, and safety features to get better efficiency.