Hi All: Has anyone thought about having an Hour Meter on the Prius? Since the ICE only runs part time, it would be useful in determining extended oil changes using Synthetic oil. Maybe someone could tell from the schematic in the service manual where one could hook up a digital Hour Meter so this could be accomplished. Any ideas? Charlie
you should be able to T into the oil pressure switch and put in an oil pressure switch and ground the hour meter from it. That's probably the easiest. Power the meter from any 12volt supply in the fuse box and ground thru the pressure switch. You'll have to use a N/O switch, it'll go to ground when the pressure rises.
That was a cool feature in my 2000 GMC Sierra. With the motor off, you would press and hold the odo reset button. The display would show total km, then after a 5 second pause, total engine hours. I actually did like the Oil Change reminder feature of that GMC. Depending on ambient conditions and driving cycle, it would allow me anywhere from 3,200 - 9,800 km before telling me to change the oil. For extended drains, you really should perform UOA (Used Oil Analysis). It's hard to know just how far you can extend out the change interval without getting a lab test to see what wear metals and oil degradation you're experiencing.
