A friend convinced me to block the grill and get a Scangauge. Got it at Amazon for about $130. My wife is pretty short, so sticking it on the dash above the steering wheel wasn't gonna work. So I put it here. I think that's a good spot. People with really long legs might bump it while getting in or out. I'm 6 foot tall and haven't hit it yet. Since the distance is pretty short from data port to Scangauge, I bundled most of the cable together with a piece of electrical tape and stuffed it underneath the console. You can see in the picture that the bundle slipped back out. It'll be simple to tape it in place if I have to. Right now I'm running water and intake air temps on the Scangauge's left column, which is more readily visible than the right side. Don't know what to choose for the other two parameters. Suggestions?
Based on other opinions on this forum, I placed mine right above the steering wheel colum right behind the steering wheel. There is a flat shelf there. This puts the ScanGauge more in your line of sight and you do not have to take your eyes off of the road to read it.
I find engine output in Kw, water temp, RPM and Amps most useful for me. The RPM and engine output in KW is helpful to gauge acceleration and cruising power. I use the amps when around town to provide insights regarding battery output to the electric motor and review charging level. I mounted the unit above the steering column as discussed in the previous post.
I've got mine over the HSI display with its velcro attached to a black 3 inch binder metal clip. The binder clip is attach to the HSI display visor.
OK, thanks, I'll have to look at the instructions to find the KW and amps displays. I haven't read the manual very thoroughly. My wife and I couldn't figure out why the display kept shutting off until I found the part about telling the ScanGauge it's monitoring a hybrid I still have to plug in the other stuff about engine size, etc. I'm pretty sure that mounting the ScanGauge just north of the steering wheel would partially block my wife's view of the HSI display, That's why I was casting about for options that wouldn't look amateurish, interfere with ingress/egress, keep falling off, etc. It's been very educational to watch the water temp. The grill is fully blocked with 1/2" foam tubing. Our commute is 14 miles, via country roads and a coupla small towns. The ICE finally approaches 190 deg. F about a mile or two from work. And we're not talking snowshoe weather here. Western Washington winter temps are fairly mild. January av. high is 44.5 deg., low is 31.6.
Is this thing really something that one needs? Seems that the readouts that come with the vehicle tell me enough without adding another gauge to the mix. Don't mis-understand, I'm not putting it down. Just want to know how it helps or I guess how much more the info. in it help to save fuel while driving. I'm new to all this hyper-mileage stuff and am sincerely interested in learning.
No you do not need it. It provides information that the car does not provide like engine RPM and water temperature. I would say it enhances understanding on what is going on with the car during all operation phases. Engine temp gives insight to the warmup cycle and when to turn on the heat. When gliding using the base instrumentation I can't tell if the glide is using the battery much or not. With the guage on amps I can pinpoint a glide with no charging or battery use. For me it makes the "game" of driving this car more enjoyable because more information is available to me. Your views may vary. You are viewing this site so you are interested in the vehicle beyond just driving it. The gauge enhances that experience. Hope that helps. Finally the trip information is beneficial in that it keeps track of current trip, today as a whole, yesterday and the overall gas tank.
my main reason for getting a scanguage was to monitor the water temp when blocking the grill. an occasional warm day in the winter got my temp up to 200. pulled over and removed some of the blocking
There are threads on which four gauges people use that will be enlightening for why people use it (e.g. this one)- I like RPMs (it's not always possible to tell when the engine is stopped), Amps (to tell if there's an unexpected large power drain), coolant temp (to know when I'm at Stage 4), and battery SoC (when it drops below 58%, the engine starts working harder - over 62%, it tends to drain the battery more. Both of these are well within "bar #6", so the MFD isn't enough.). Does it help me save fuel? Maybe. Probably not much, if it does. But it helps me understand the car better.
.80 to 1.20 (GPH) is the ICE sweet point aka 1.5 kilowatt-hour power level - when you are geting the most fuel efficient gas engine output. On the HSI display it equates to somewhere on the right side of the ECO bar between the middle to the far leftside but not touching the power bar. Stay in this range and drive atleast until the engine coolant temperature (FWT) climbs over 168 F and the Prius can get 50 mpg easy. Somewhere between .38 to .45 SoC is where the Prius ICE will automatically activated to recharge the HV battery back to .50 - if it starts up the Prius loses +5 mpg. Which is why many hypermiler will tell you not to depend on the electric motor & battery too much. If the engine coolant temperature (FWT) drops too low in the winter time, the Prius ICE will automatic reactive to raise the coolant temperature - if it does Prius can give up 10 mpg or more for that trip. This happen to me when I got stuck in a snow storm traffic jam last winter. FWT can tell you what stage your ICE is running. In Stage 1 and 2, the Prius does not benefit fully from a Pulse & Glide and EV mode is limited. hope this helps Walter Lee
