Hi All, I just recently purchased a 2001 Prius from our Toyota dealership with 47K on it.At purchase I bought an Extended warranty for 3 years or 60K miles.I was told at the time that the vechicle would have to have an inspection in order for the warranty to be eligible to Toyota.No problem there. Because the shop was extremely busy my appt. for the inspection was a week. --again no problem.During the time that I was driving (all City) my Consumption Guide was telling me I was averaging from 5.3 to 6.1L/100km. After the inspection which took approx. 2 and one half hours(no cost to me) I started to notice now that my Consumption Guide is telling me that I am now averaging 7.3 to 8.1 L/100km. My question and concern is ----what adjustment or calibration change could have been made to make this difference???and should I return back to the Dealership for an explanation!! Thanks for any and all input.Your thoughts would be appreciated. PS---Love the car
Hi Smokey, and welcome to this place. The usual, shopworn things we tell people if fuel economy seems to decrease after service: engine oil is overfilled or filled with the wrong grade (too viscous). Tires "deflated" to Toyota recommendation. Possibly the parking brake had been set and is now not fully released. If the 12-volt battery had been disconnected for whatever reason, maybe your battery ECU is now relearning how to work best with the driver. This last one is a bit iffy/controversial, but it is the only one that will certainly correct itself over time. Or, maybe your engine air filter is clogged and needs replacing. I hate to speak ill of the average Toyota service shop, but maybe/probably they will have no useful response to such a question. Hope that yours is above average. Another thing is that maybe the weather just got worse, or you are taking mostly short trips. New Prius people often underestimate the effects of such factors on mpg.
Hi Smokey, Did you see how the inspection was done? If the engine were left idling for the whole 2.5 hrs, then you should expect FE to be lower immediately after that. Zero distance travelled but fuel still burning. I suggest to monitor it for the next few tanks to see if it gets better. Alternatively, you may consider pressing "RESET" on the consumption screen to restart the consumption tracking all over. Warning, the lifetime L/100km will be lost if you press "RESET"!
I second the tire pressure. When I took mine in I got a 5-10 MPG drop. They had dropped my tire pressure from my normal 44 to 35. After I fixed that, everything was back to normal.
Hi All, Thanks for the responses so far. The first thing I did when I started to notice this was to check the tire pressure,they hadn,t been touched.Immediately upon purchase and driving off lot I "upped" the tire pressure to my liking,which is 38/36psi. I plan on seeing the Service Mgr. to-morrow to try and get a decent explanation on what would have been done to entail this change on vechicle. I didn,t see any of the Inspection work that was performed. Will inform "the crew" on what I have been told on this. Thanks
Hi All, I can happiply report that all is well again,and I feel very relieved that nothing was amiss.Couldn,t see the Service Mgr.(day off) but saw one of the Prius mechanics. After explaining my concerns he hit the RESET button on the Panel Display 3 times and told me to try that.-----and thats all it took.Now averaging as per screen 5.2-5.8L City driving. Wouldn,t it be nice if ALL the world problems were that easy to resolve.
