[bjm]

hello, I bought my left over 2002 pirus three weeks ago, today i noticed a beep or short tone coming from the dash, about every two minutes while driving, I sat in the car while it was off, and it kept letting out this quick beep about every minute. nothing was running in the car! I don't have a clue, neither does the dealer. also I had only 260.00 miles on the car and had two bars showing, so i refuiled it, I'm not getting more then 42mpg can't understand why. any susgestions
Barbara :?

 

[RSnyder]

This might be the TRAF function of the radio? Try pushing the TRAF button to turn it off.

 

[RSnyder]

The very first fill-up is not a good indication of mileage. The dealer may not have filled it the same way you do. Also, before delivering the car to you, the dealer is supposed to charge your High-Voltage battery to condition it. This is done by running the engine (with the computers in a special mode). If they filled the tank prior to conditioning the battery, instead of after, you'll have a bunch of idle time holding back your mileage. Finally, there's the "infamous" bladder in the gas tank which changes size with temperature, so you can't even get true mileage readings from one fill-up in any case. You need a running average over several fill-ups to get an idea of true overall mileage.

Although it makes mileage calculation difficult, the bladder is a good thing. It prevents the Prius from expelling raw gasoline vapors (hydrocarbons) into the atmosphere when parked and while filling up the tank.

 

[bjm]

Traf whats that?????????????

thanks for your answers to my questions, but............. what do you mean turn off the (TRAF on the radio?)
thanks Barbara from Rockland Ma.

 

[WmHPowell]

Re:Beeps

An RDS message will also give you a beep or two.
Turn the radio OFF and see if the "bleeps, creeps and sweeps" go away.

 

[RSnyder]

Well, the beeps aren't mentioned in the manual (at least not where I can find them), but I've heard beeps when my radio was either scanning for TRAF broadcasts or RDS messages. The trick is to figure out how to disable the scanning with the non-obvious collection of real and on-screen buttons. I'm pretty sure that pressing the TRAF button toggles the scan on and off. I'm not as sure how to turn off RDS message scans.

But follow Bill's advice first to turn the entire audio system off and see if the beeps go away (don't just switch to tape or disk, the radio scans continue even when playing local sources).