How to key into the car when the fob is dead. A drama in 2 acts. Featured

Never noticed the noisy ones. My experience with ISG is limited but it was smooth and quiet.

I also have a Prius. It is a rather different case. It is a hybrid with high voltage battery (mine is about 200V), and traction motor/generators in addition to the gas engine. When stopped for very long the engine stops. But when you start again it runs on high voltage battery and traction motor, then starts the engine. It doesn't have a conventional starter - the engine always starts with a traction motor - there are two. It has a rather small 12V battery because the battery doesn't start the engine. Because the engine can stop when the car isn't moving the power steering and power brake are 12V - but the braking is also regenerative. The air conditioner (and traction motors) are 3-phase, running off the high voltage battery. It doesn't have a 12V alternator/generator. The 12V comes from a dc-to-dc converter off the high voltage battery. In effect, the 12V loads are run from the high voltage battery. Other hybrids are likely similar.

Nope, not a problem, the engineers thought of that. Once you educate yourself at how the system works you will see how robust it really is.

When I still read fiction, I did read _You Can't go Home Again_, but iirc compared to what I wanted, it wasn't really about going home.

I also went to see the movie What's New Pussycat, because I liked the song. Maybe I thought it would be about cats.

I'm not sure where I fit into this. The wikip article doesn't say anything about starter motors. ;-)

OH, "when he and his mistress, Maria Ruskin, accidentally enter the Bronx at night while they are driving back to Manhattan from Kennedy Airport. Finding the ramp back to the highway blocked by trash cans and a tire, McCoy exits the car to clear the way. Approached by two black men whom they perceive as predators, McCoy and Ruskin flee. After Ruskin takes the wheel of the car to race away, it fishtails, apparently striking one of the two would-be assailants—a "skinny boy." " Well, this is your common anti-NY exaggeration. I lived in NY/Brooklyn for 12 years and I admit we got mugged once but that's when I was late and I left my girlfriend standing at the subway station at Fulton and Washington at 10 or 11PM -- shame on me -- and 4 guys followed us home, but even they didnt' try to hurt us. One snatched her purse and after I tripped and fell down, one went through my pockets for money, but they didnt' hurt her and he went out of his way not to hurt me.

A bit of my NY pride is showing.

I want to buy a Perodua Myvi.

It's made in Malaysia. Who knew there even was such things, and made in Malaysia?

There is a list of conditions / parameters that will automatically disable the engine stop-start - engine temp. is one of them. This is just a partial list - below - CVT over/under temp. and certain cabin climate control conditions also have some effect :

The engine can be automatically stopped by the Auto Start Stop system when all of the following conditions are met. . The engine is sufficiently warmed up. . The engine hood is closed. . The driver’s door is closed. . The driver’s seatbelt is fastened. . The malfunction indicator light (CHECK ENGINE warning light) is off. . The airflow mode selection is set to a mode other than “ ” mode. . The rear window defogger is not in use.

One hack that I read about in the Subaru forums, to disable the engine stop-start - is to McGiver the hood-open switch .. but I haven't tried it yet. John T.

Thought I read they were going to fix it on the 2025 Forester but googling just says it is not as clunky.

My dash-cam caught this little micro-van recently - I think it's a Toyota Pixis.

Thanks. However, if the engine is started with power from the high voltage battery, can you explain why when the 12v battery is dead, the car won't start? And also, if a hybrid vehicle doesn't have an alternator, does the 12v battery recharge via the dc-dc- converter off the high voltage battery? If so, it would seem that as long as the high voltage battery was functional, the 12v battery should never be in discharge and should last forever, being recharged at the same time as a load is placed on it.

I've seen (heard, actually) a few of those. About 70 years of conditioning leaves me with the feeling that a car dying at a stoplight is not a Good Thing that is usually followed by a real Charlie Foxtrot.

My hatchback doesn't have a valet key or a locking glove compartment. That leaves me a little nervous in jurisdictions where a firearm has to be in a separate locked area not accessible from the drivers seat.

My previous car did not have power windows. When a cop pulled me over he came up on the passenger side, a good idea rather than standing on the traffic side. When I reached across to wind the window down he said 'I didn't know they even made cars like that anymore.' He was a young cop. The car was a 2011 Toyota and was only a few years old at the time.

The new one, same model, does have power windows and door locks. It doesn't have the remote option, which is fine by me.

I've seen a few of those micro-vans and they look very tall and narrow. There are a couple of rotaries on my way to town that I look at as a challenge. I'd probably lay the van over on the first one.

Wow. The last vehicle that I had with crank-windows was a

I wonder if they drove it here from Pixieland.

Very nice for a small car. That chime is going to drive me crazy!

I just re-checked the previous link - that model had swing doors -

this one has rear sliding doors - like my dash-cam pic.

The computer controls boot/run off the 12V battery.

Yes

That is true in "run" once the computers are booted.

But the 12V battery is only charged when the car is "run". If the 12V battery is too low it won't boot/run the computers.

(Would be nice if the car could start with a low 12V battery.)

If the car is "run" and you are just sitting running the air conditioner the HV battery will discharge. When the voltage gets too low the engine will start, charge the HV battery and stop.

If the car is on with "accessory" it won't charge the 12V battery, and you can discharge the 12V battery far enough so it wont "run".

Because the 12V battery is small, 'parasitic' loads can drain the battery so it won't start if the car just sits long enough - month? It is in the manual.

The 12V battery is gel cell or AGM (not flooded lead acid), so it withstands deep discharge better.

Sometimes in cold weather here ordinary (12V) cars won't start. Prius will probably always start using HV battery and traction motor.

If you run out of gas you can run some on the HV battery/traction motors. Most or all the idiot lights come on. (Don't try this at home.)

This is for a 2009 Prius. May be some differences with current version.

It looks reasonable. I don't know what the one I see around town is. It isn't taller than most vans but is very narrow which makes it look tippy. I'm surprised it is even in the US.

I have a somewhat similar feature on my motorcycle, where I'm supposed to push a button every time I start the engine, that enables the transmission to be shifted by pressing a small lever on the left handlebar. The foot shifter always works, but the hand shifter only works if I've pressed the button to enable it, which has to be done every time the engine is started.

The fix was easy. I created a simple RC circuit that triggers a relay momentarily, where the relay mimics me pressing the button to enable the feature. (In your case, the relay would mimic you pressing the button to DISABLE the feature.) There are only 3 components in the circuit, a resistor, a capacitor, and a 12v relay. There are web calculators to help calculate the appropriate values for the resistor and the capacitor.

More info can be found here, or wherever your local electronics nerds hang out.