Learn Me Some Prius

Got a text from my wife this morning.  The Prius is telling her that the battery in the key fob is low.  

Looked into it a bit, and it is an incredibly easy swap.  Just have to make sure it is the correct battery.  Most online say it is a CR1632, though one video mentioned a CR2032.    You can use the key from the fob to open the fob, but the person who made the tutorial in the first link didn't seem to get the memo.  

Debating on buying a single battery for $4.49 at Target vs a 5 pack for $5.60 on Amazon with Prime one day shipping.  I know the battery should last a while after the first warning, and even if it went completely dead, we could still start the car with the fob.   However, I'm pretty sure we won't have to do that, as she keeps her fob in a thick leather purse on the passenger seat.  Either way, I plan on replacing the battery tonight or tomorrow.   Will likely get the 5 pack, as I will probably replace the one in the other fob, and have a few spares on hand, as I have heard that they last about a year, possibly two.

Updating since the Canoe-Bannification and Restoration (Thanks again for straightening it out, GRM!)

Bought the 5 pack. Replaced the battery in the fob my wife had, but still couldn't find the other fob. 

The night my Father-In-Law passed away, my wife went to look for the wedding band that her mom lost years ago. She wants to keep both of her parents' bands on a necklace so she will always have them near her. 

Turns out the band had been found and was in a box with other keepsakes. Also in the same box was the other fob. 

Of course the battery was dead in this one, as well, as it hadn't been used since my MIL was diagnosed with Alzheimer's 5 years ago. After showing my wife how to start the car with a dead fob battery, I easily swapped out the battery, and both jobs are working fine now. 

There are 1000s of Prius Taxis around here , so its pretty hard to find a low mileage one that does not get grabbed quick !

My friends Daughter just turned 18  and is starting Jr College soon , 

Not sure if its better to look for a Prius for her , or a older Volvo "tank" so she has some metal around her.

Does high temperatures hurt the batteries if you buy a Used Prius in Arizona or Nevada ?

californiamilleghia said:

Not sure if its better to look for a Prius for her , or a older Volvo "tank" so she has some metal around her.

A Prius will be safer than an old volvo 'tank' if that is your concern.

Yup...   My 2006 that "needed a fuel tank" still runs out of gas with 2 bars on the gauge, but other than that is basically a solid car.  It simply is really good at being decent transportation.

The only thing I really don't like about driving it is the "notchy" feeling it has in the steering when at highway speeds and moving just off center.  It takes some input to get it to move and then it feels normal. I don't know if something is worn out or this is a byproduct of electric power steering or what.

I want to dislike the car, but I just can't... 

I have zero notchiness in the steering of this 2010.

My two '04's, one '07 and one '08 do not have any notchiness.  

On mine when the gas gauge gets down to one flashing bar that seems to mean that I have 2 gallons remaining so I need to buy gas in the next 80 miles!  

I am going to have to look into the steering I guess.   It just seems hard to turn initially and then it lightens up.  It seems to do this even stopped and annoys me on the highway. with a small correction it seems fine but going just past that and it just acts like the pump takes a fraction of a second to kick in or something. 

Can someone around here explain the silly wheel covers?   How in the world, or why did something like that get designed? A whole extra part number, and so on... I am very curious what the real story is on those.

Do you have any noise coming from your steering?  

Either way, I would look into this recall to see if your car was fixed.

Barring that, there might be an issue with your steering rack.  Not sure if the gen II is a manual rack, but I have heard of issues with them needing to be relubed.  It also might just be worn in one spot from a lot of highway driving.

Learning the car a bit more.   It loves local commuting.   I can get 60+ MpG in the suburbs as long as the traffic isn't horrible.   Real bad stop and go, and highway driving bring the mileage down to the low 50s.

Best way I have learn to get good MpGs on surface streets with traffic lights is to accelerate briskly up to the limit (or just above), then take my foot completely off the accelerator for an instant, and then press back down again to maintain speed, keeping below the halfway point on the Hybrid System Indicator display.  If you are around 40 MpH or lower, and the hybrid battery has enough charge, this will usually turn off the ICE, and maintain speed off the battery pack for as long as possible.  The second thing is to use coasting and battery regen as much as possible coming up to red lights.   The Prius coasts very well, plus you also regenerate during braking, so there is no need to drag up real slowly.  Just be aware of when your foot is on the accelerator and brake at a point where you don't need to max out the charge (CHG) side of the bar graph.




Interestingly,  the Prius doesn't do well where my Saturns have always excelled- the winding two lane country roads.  I get very close to the same mileage as I do on the intestates.  My 5 speed SL would usually do a few MpGs better there than on the interstate. 

I'm beginning to think that my next car, unfortunately or fortunately, is a beater Prius with something fun in the garage. 

In reply to mtn :

The Prius that I sold Billy was in what I called "street fighter trim."  It had been previously dented in the hood and recently bumped in the rear but mechanically it was great and ready to continue it's urban battle.  For a car to keep parked on the street in Chicago, it would be fantastic.  

I run dedicated winter tires on mine (General Artics) and they have been great.  

Are they exciting?  No.  They are however a good tool for the job.  As you can see from Cooter, some of the "excitement" comes from learning how to play the Prius game for mpg.  The 5 door design has very good utility even though the rear window slopes pretty quickly steeling some space, there is still ample cargo space.  

John Welsh said:

  The 5 door design has very good utility even though the rear window slopes pretty quickly steeling some space, there is still ample cargo space.  

That was the unexpected bonus for our 2010. (Gen 3) I figured it would be a commuter and nothing else for my wife.   However, I was pleasantly surprised that it will haul haul as much or more than either of my S Series wagons, or my Aries K-wag, if you don't count the roof racks on the wagons.  So we can still take Road Trips that are Pickin' Trips, while still getting mileage that the wagons could never dream of.  

In fact, I am have decided to add #thingsIhavestuffedinmyPrius to my previous hash tag #inappropriatethingsivehauledwithmysaturn on Instagram. 


The car is really my wife's, but she prefers that I drive when we are in the car together, and keeping my mind occupied with mileage can add novelty to mundane trips.  Plus, I really want to figure out what makes this thing tick.  I also like to track the economy of most of the fleet, just to see how they do in different situations, as well as know when something is amiss.   Still need to get the Torque app, and was thinking about using an old tablet for a dedicated display for when I drive it, just so I will know what is up, especially with the hybrid battery.

I was able to correct the notchyness in the steering on my 2006.  The passenger side ball joint was completely shot and the driver's side was worn pretty good.

As lazy as I am with this thing I was just going to drive it but it kept having a vibration that was getting worse around 70 miles an hour so I took the tires off to get them balanced and found the inside shoulder of the tire was completely worn slick.

Silky smooth now.

Anybody have any Tire recommendations?

Tires:  I have been running Falken 201's.  My final expense, with paid mounting has been under $75 per tire ($60 per tire after rebate.)   These are 65k mile tires.  

I detailed further in this thread  

I also talk about tires on page 7 of my Prius thread when talking about the silver car, Prius #4 (P4). 

Just a minor update after 3 1/2 years.


The Prius now has about 165K on it


Replaced the rear brakes a while back, which was more of a pain than I expected due to a binding issue with the pads in the driver's side caliper.  Will likely replace F&R suspension, and sway bar links, as they are rattling.    Put a new set of winter rated tires on it and bought a set of "cable chains" for a trip to Portland in late December 2019.    Bought a set of new all seasons last summer after driving year-round on the winter tires for a couple years.


Just replaced the water pump last week, which was much less of a pain than I expected from the accounts on the webiverse.   Would have been even less annoying if I remembered to plug the new pump back in before I reassembled everything...


And I used another battery from my stock a coupe minutes ago when the one in my fob went bad.  (My wife neglected to tell me that hers was going bad a couple months ago and went to Batteries+ to have hers replaced /sigh)  

Get to priuschat.com with your favorite beverage and spend some time.  Gen 3 has some semi fatal flaws, EGR clogging and electric water pump failure.  Inverter water pump is an issue but very easy to replace.  The little 12V battery only starts the computer and must be AGM, price is over 200.  If the car sat for a while prepare for that.  Get an OBD dongle and torque pro or dr prius app, the diagnostic capabilities are great.  I am hooked on driving 200-250 miles and filling it up for about 20 bucks.  

Oh, if you live in the city watch where you park it, the cats are stolen quite often.

In reply to porschenut :

You may want to check the date of the OP.

I started this thread nearly 4 years ago.

In reply to porschenut :

I just bought a 12v Prius battery.  In the past, Amazon for Optima was the cheapest. This time around, RockAuto was the cheapest.  Even though claiming the core charge is near impossible with RockAuto, it was still the cheapest at less than $170 delivered (using 5% discount.

The core is near impossible because RA does not provide free shipping for the return. Ergo, need to spend $6 in shipping charge to get $6 back.