[edude]

Hello,

Has anyone purchased any of the mods from CoastalEtech.com? I was considering the XMRadio feature where you can use the built-in display.

Any thoughts? Problems? Recomendations?

 

[Brian]

I have boughten the Reciever Hitch from them. Very nice product. They make great products. I also have helped a member here, Bradca21, install his Auto Door Lock mod. Look here for a search for the word Coastal. If you want to search for a certain thing, go to the search icon above.

 

[Daniel]

I have the Costal mod for the EV switch (cruise-control-stalk version) and I am very happy with it. That's their only mod I have. But I have read nothing negative about them here or on Prius Chat.

 

[Brian]

But I have read nothing negative about them here or on Prius Chat.

Makes two of us!

 

[melgish]

I'll be having the CostalTech XM Radio, EV Mode and Auto Door Lock installed next week. Once the mod's are in, I'll post an in-depth review

 

[Philippe]

I have ordered a hitch receiver to coastaletech in june (before I get my 2004 Prius from my toyota dealer !) to be sent here in France : I received it within 5 days by UPS and the contact was very good. I asked for some special informations to adapt the hitch to my carrier and the answers were coming fast. Now, I received the car too and the world seems fabulous !

 

[Brian]

I'll be having the CostalTech XM Radio, EV Mode and Auto Door Lock installed next week. Once the mod's are in, I'll post an in-depth review

Are you having Coastal Tech install them?

 

[melgish]

Yep. The advantage of living on the Space Coast

 

[Daniel]

One small consolation for living in the suffocating humidity of the Caribbean. ... Still, I'd probably drive down there if Costal had a double-your-battery mod they'd install for a couple grand.

 

[melgish]

Well, for the XM, they beat the dealer in both equipment price and installation, so I'm happy happy

As for the humitidy... A few years ago I had to spend some time in Bartlesville Ok in mid December.

All I remember from the trip is that my nose was so dry it bled daily. I was glad to get back here, where I can breath in my 8 glasses of water a day

 

[dpurcell]

Hello,

Has anyone purchased any of the mods from CoastalEtech.com? I was considering the XMRadio feature where you can use the built-in display.

Any thoughts? Problems? Recomendations?

I haven't heard anything negative about CoastalTech, but I bought my XM Satellite Radio that fully integrates into the multi-funtion display to show 3 screens of Satellite pre-set channels and name of tune/artist, etc. from Jon August, who has several posts here. It is an outstanding kit, including an instructional DVD to see exactly how to install it.

Dave

 

[Daniel]

As for the humitidy... A few years ago I had to spend some time in Bartlesville Ok in mid December.

All I remember from the trip is that my nose was so dry it bled daily. I was glad to get back here, where I can breath in my 8 glasses of water a day

I guess the human body acclimates to a region, and any extreme change is ruinous. In Queretaro, on the high central plateau of Mexico, I arrived at class one day in shorts and short sleeves feeling rather warm. A classmate arrived in a full sweatsuit and shivering. She was born and raised on the coast of Chiapas and had never in her life experienced temperatures as cold as the lower 70's!

 

[melgish]

I'll post more details later, but yesterday Dave over at Coastal installed my XM Radio, EV mode switch and auto door lock.

The short answer is everything works great. After going without XM for nearly two weeks, it's good to hear the sounds of Lucy, Fred, and Ethel again

Thanks Dave, for a job well done!

 

[jeff]

For any Questions for coastal Dave, we have a new section of the site that is being hosted by him. Just go back to the form index and you will find it.

 

[romad]

I'll post more details later, but yesterday Dave over at Coastal installed my XM Radio, EV mode switch and auto door lock.

The short answer is everything works great. After going without XM for nearly two weeks, it's good to hear the sounds of Lucy, Fred, and Ethel again

Thanks Dave, for a job well done!

So, when are you going to post the details? Is this the same kit that Toyota says is only for the Solara?

 

[melgish]

So, when are you going to post the details?

Sorry, I've been busy with hurricanes Here you go!

Yes, in fact the box said Solara right on it. Dave made the install look so easy I wish I'd done it myself, even though I know better than to try stuff like that.

XM Radio is great. I think the reception is a tiny bit more sensitive than what I had with my Delphi Sky-Fi, but since the sound doesn't have to feed through an FM modulator, it's cleary superior. There's still only the one bridge on my way home where it cuts out for a second or two.

I'm a bit annoyed that the Toyota version of the XM doesn't seem to show as much album text as the Sky-Fi, but I expect that's because it's an older implementation. I'm half hoping that they'll soon have a second generation system that supports the added features -- though I'm in no hurry to spend *another* $400+ so I hope it's not *too* soon.

The integration with existing audo screens is fairly seamless. The AM button becomes a toggle for AM-SAT1-SAT2-SAT3, and the voice integration does work to directly access a particular mode ("sat one" etc)

The 3 banks of 6 presets are plenty for me, with one bank being devoted to Rock & Roll, one bank for News, Traffic and Info, and the last bank for comedy and misc. I'm real glad I had the install done before our hurricane francis evacuation. Listening to #71 Watercolors kept our tension down during the long drive, and even my wife's satanic cat was able to relax.

The Auto Door Lock mod works as advertised. Again, watching the installation, it looked pretty straight-forward. As I noted elsewhere, the only 'annoyance' I have with it is that once the doors lock, you need to remember to unlock them if you get out and open the hatch...so far this has proven to be the case even if the fob is in your pocket.

The EV-Mode mod rocks for parking lots, and for driving through the neighborhood on the way home. It's also great when I hit a short patch of stop/go traffic. I've gone as far as 3 miles using strictly EV, but haven't had the guts to push it until I get down to two bars.

At first, I was annoyed that there was no feedback to indicate that EV mode was activated (I have trouble counting to 2 seconds) but now I know if I move the MFD to the consumption screen first, it will flip back to the energy screen when it turns on.

 

[Daniel]

Mel: Nothing bad happens if you leave the car in EV mode until it reaches 2 bars. You'll hear three beeps and the ICE comes on. If you do it all the time, your mileage may suffer. But if you are in a situation where you want to be in EV mode, there's no reason not to. Remember, all you're doing is using a feature that all the Japanese and European cars have.

As I have posted elsewhere, the situations where EV mode can help your mileage are very limited. In normal driving you are better off letting the car's computer decide.

Would you describe the driving conditions where you went 3 miles in EV? What was your SOC when you engaged EV and after you had gone 3 miles? Was the terrian level or downhill? Where there any stops? How fast were you going?

I get only about 1/4 mile per battery bar in EV, on level streets with stop signs every 2 or 3 blocks. That means if I start at 6 bars I can go a mile.

 

[melgish]

Would you describe the driving conditions where you went 3 miles in EV

3 miles is our best guess at the distance ... it was in slow, but steadily moving traffic on I-95 south, roughly level. I started with 7 bars of green--which is why I tried it. The last time I looked at the SOC before our speed topped 34 and the ICE came on, it had 3 bars.

My guess is the SOC vs EV distance is not linear. I got pretty far going from 7 bars to 6, but it dropped faster from 6 to 5 and so on.

I've started using EV mode when I get off I-4...It's a about a half mile or so from the exit to work on a mild down-grade. Starting with 6 bars, I end up with 3 or 4, and that seems more inline with what you are getting. Stopping twice seems to take a lot more than rolling ahead at a constant speed.

My only worry about letting it go to down all the way to 2 bars is getting into a situation that requires the battery and it's already depleted. At another point in the same trip, we encountered heavy stop-go traffic. When I flipped to the SOC and found it in the red. We got moving again soon after that, and things went back to normal...but it did leave me wondering...

 

[Victor]

At first, I was annoyed that there was no feedback to indicate that EV mode was activated (I have trouble counting to 2 seconds) but now I know if I move the MFD to the consumption screen first, it will flip back to the energy screen when it turns on.

Dont you get the little green car symbol in the display near the speedo?

As an aside, Why is the little green car, and the regen symbol, still of the Prius 1 and not the current version??

 

[melgish]

Dont you get the little green car symbol in the display near the speedo?

No. the CoastalTech mod does not enable the light. I suspect that this would require cutting of wires, or make installation more difficult than it is worth.

Oh those green things are cars? I thought they were turtles. I only see them when I slow down