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Is the added weight of the batteries something that causes the car to be more susceptible to bottoming out? Have other drivers found a way out of this dilemma? When a car bottoms out coming up a driveway, can this damage the car?
Thanks
:confuse:
And yes, it will lead to damage. Try slowing down a little, if it still bottoms, take it at an angle....Good luck
Caaz
My sister in law has a prius also bottoms out (and she's my wife's sister- 'nough said)
I'm wondering if stiffer struts or something can help fix the problem? Or some underbody bar can help protect the car?
Later
Caaz
p.s. I like to hear men praise thier wives.... when you got a hot one, why not...mine is drop dead gorgeous as well.
mACK
Macxk
:shades:
The other alternative, is just leave it in D and drive a little bit more aggressively to keep from lugging the engine with too low rpms when it moves to 5th gear.
Mack
Just watch the tach to count what gear you are in, and I think if you have this lugging you'll find the engine rpm's very low like around 1Kish rpms in 5th. It's been a while since I've even noticed this, but I think putting it in 4th adds about 500 or less rpm at that speed.
If the engine has enough power (no knock/ping due to lugging) to move you forward at 10MPH in 5th gear then in 5th gear it will be.
Toyota what were you thinking?? That pukey yellow coloured wood grain really (07). The designers need to work with real people and see what they like, and beige interiors are boring can't they come up with something else?
Welcome to CarSpace!!
With a "strong" V6 it is not at all unusual these days to have both of the top two gears be OD ratios.
The idea, for best FE, is to keep the engine at the lowest possible RPM at which it can just barely produce enough power to move the car along smoothly at any speed you happen to want to "cruise".
On the other hand if you choose to accelerate "briskly" then the transmission needs to be able to put you well up into the engine's torque range, again, at any speed.
I have to agree with you to a certain extent about the 4-speed vs. 5-speed automatics, because I have one of each ('04 and '05, both 4-cylinders). The 5-speed can get annoying in city driving, with too-early upshifts into 5th in which the engine appears to "bog down" or lug. If I'm going 40 mph or below, and there are inclines, I will often just lock out 5th. On my 4-speed, I don't have to do this.
Interestingly, the 4-speed consistently gets better mpg on long highway trips than the 5-speed -- this makes no sense to me, but that's the way it is.
The latest thing seems to be the engine/transaxle ECU "watching" the rate at which you release the gas pedal in order to determine, hopefully, your intent. Fast release, no shift (remain in low(er) gear ratio for engine compression braking), slow release, upshift to enter cruise mode.
More gears in theory will give you better fuel economy. But one problem I've read with CVTs is that they tend to make the engine stay at high revs in many situations, which makes them objectionable to some people because of more noise.
The Camry with the numerous transmission complaints is the 6-speed unit in the Camry V6. The 5-speed auto in the 4-cylinder model has been much less problematic, and I'm not aware of any significant complaints with the CVT in either the Prius or Camry Hybrid.
So far, it is as good as what people tell us about Camry's...although my family bought a lemon of a Camry about 15 years ago and since then, they have became a Honda family...we're finally breaking the mold...
Originally, we were crazy enough to think about getting the Scion XB..but rationality got the better of us...
I4, with 5 speed?
V6, with 6 speed?
Your the best! Many of my irate customers are finally happy with their Camry. Can you imagine I asked about a dozen Toyota dealers and Toyota Customer assistance as well, and nobody had a clue how to solve this problem. How did you figure this out?
Glad to have helped.
Blessings, Mark
But there is a clear and certain DANGER in doing so.
During the winter months the windshield will consistently be colder and a slight buildup in cabin humidity can result in windsheild fogging. Sometimes QUICKLY due to the design flaw within most cars of asian origin that use the DENSO system.
Yes, just like the old manual systems with the cable operated slide levers. I still have one in one of the cars (older Corolla). So IMHO, it is no more dangerous than the old system. I have said this before.
I have no problems with the HVAC design of my old or new Toyotas, but some people don't like Denso systems. Just like anything!
Mack :shades:
Yes, many of these new cars do learn the driver's "style/type" but such information is ERASED each and every time the engine is started. Within a short period of starting the car in motion the driver's style will be "binned" into 1 of 4 types. Within a longer period it will be further refined into 1 of 16 types. Thereafter it keeps a running record of about three minutes. Anything prior to that period is discarded.
In that way a second, new, driver doesn't get surprised by the car's "learned"
reaction to the previous driver, and if the current driver happens to change his/her style on the fly the car will adjust accordingly.
There are other "learned" parameters that involve the need to continously adjust for sensor and servomotor feedback signals that vary from the norm, factory default, and those are kept in non-volatile memory or memory with power supplied by the 12 volt battery. Obviously the ones maintained via the 12 volt battery can be erased and the appropreate ECU will now use the factory default parameter until it has time to relearn the actual device parameters.
Additionally there is quite strong information that Toyota and Lexus are still struggling with trying to find a fix for the 1-2 second transaxle downshift delay/hesitation resulting for the "abolition" of the transaxle ATF pressure holding /sustaining accumulater back during the design phase of the RX300.
Look up the NCF, New Car Features, for the '08 Avalon for more detail.