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I have a prius 2001 that has only been getting 36-37 mpg. I dont know why my gas mileage has decreased. I have checked for rear wheel brake drag, tried different gas and neither of these things have had an effect. I have 96,000 miles on my car and wonder if the age of my hybrid battery might be a factor. I am contemplating getting an Enginer PHEV conversion but Im not sure if I should if my car is not currently performing up to snuff. Any suggestions or advice? Any opinions about the conversion and how it performs in terms of improving MPG for both city and long distance driving?

Hi Tis4real:

___We have had a few discussions about the 12V causing trouble for FE in some of the older hybrids. Along with tire pressures, alignment, dragging brakes and new fluids, I would check that next.

___We have to get your vehicle back in top tip top shape before moving to a PHEV or their may be future disappointment not attributed to anything in particular but a glitch somewhere.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Yes please make sure the car is in good shape before this conversion. may I add cleaning the throttle plate area and new iridium spark plugs? If your wheel alignment is very far off it will damage fuel economy (and eat the tires as well) so make sure that is not an issue.

The enginer kit will only 'recharge' your existing HV battery en route and will not replace all its functions. Therefore, if your battery is in bad shape you will not be pleased with the results.Before making this decision you really ought to find a Toyota shop that knows how to test the HV battery on charge/discharge cycles. That will cost $100 as a guess.

If it is poor, HVB replacement is where this chunk of money ought to go I think.

Also I'll guess that the battery addition will not help on long trips.

DAS