Hybrid poor fuel economy
I neither see many Hyundais or hybrids. The customer says she used to get 40mpg now she is at 21 mpg. I pulled it in for coolant leaks and are waiting on a hose so have not driven it yet. Although I am not one for good full economy driving style. The dash must have been reset as it was showing 6mpg. I scanned it for codes and there were none in the engine or the hybrid control. The battery state of charge was at 38% and 256 voltage. Autel has a description that says over 35% is a go battery. My question is that as the battery ages does fuel economy go down as the ICE must work more?
Work on Prius mostly but when we get Hybrid MPG after rolling our eyes we make sure they have done their maintenance and offer a Hybrid battey integrity check as test driving and visual inspection of the battery bus bar since most the time it’s corroded causing weak cells which affect the inverter power boosting. Granted I haven’t looked at a Hyun Hybrid in a long while but they more or less the…
Ask them if the fuel economy dropped after a recent oil change maybe. I've heard using thicker oil will cause a drop in fuel economy, though I don't see it causing that dramatic of a drop. Maybe check fuel trims at idle and driving. Also don't overlook simple problems either like a dragging brake or the alignment being out. It may be several small problems occurring that by themselves are minor…
I wouldn't worry too much about the hybrid battery's SOC. It will go up and down normally as the vehicle is driven. This car has a lithium-ion pack unlike most of the older Toyotas. You could look at each cell in scan data and look for them all to be close in voltage level, but without a code I wouldn't chase a battery issue just yet. Like any vehicle, hybrids will loose some fuel economy as…
Before you get too deep in diagnostics, we have had a number of hybrid owners replace their worn tires with a new set only to suffer a large drop in fuel economy due to the wrong tire, There are specific tires for hybrids so be sure this is not the issue.
I think she had a 40 mpg when the car was new never seen (2.4 hybrid 2014 sonata) with this mpg in years!! it should be around 25-29 mpg by the way if the average on dash was reset, it may have been dropped to 21mpg because it was rough driving for sometime, you should make her drive her normal driving over 300miles so the dash can calculate the right mpg (during all the driving conditions)…
+ check engine live data for long and short fuel trim and MCU data for drive motor mg2 temperature
Ahmad- according to the boys at Oakridge, 40mpg is right in line with this vehicle: fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?ac… This site is my baseline when customers have mpg complaints.
Hi Michael, I would have the customer use the miles per fill up calculations using their cell phone. Automotive technology being as good as it is, does not mean their is not an error with the programming or an electronic level sensor playing games. Another issue is how is the car being driven? If it is short tripping and city, it may show a mileage error. If it is 6 MPG, it should be a rich…