Tech with a twist of lime! & FLHybrid Club.

I promised pictures from Race Night 3, work slowed me down, but here they are.

(read more to see slide-show)

This is a reminder posting abut Race Night 3, We are starting at 6:30 at the Gainesville Raceway[(352) 377-0046] Google Maps for directions. 11211 N County Road 225, Gainesville, FL 32609.

If it rains contact Gainesville Raceway to see what the status of the event is.

$20 to race, $5 to enter but not race, due in cash at the gate.

I hope everyone has fun, see you there, look for the silver Prius with the club lettering. If any Toyota hybrid owners need me to show them how to manually charge the battery to green off of the engine see me at the event.

Ted Gier of Gatorland sent us this great link via Autospies.com Solar Prius.

The article describes a kit that adds a solar array and three kilowatt battery to the NWH20 Prius (the hatchback body style).  The manufacturer of the kit, Solar Electrical Vehicles, claims a 29% improvement in efficiency.  I gave the numbers a quick once over and they seem legit, I'll write again when I know more.

The original article was very short so I quoted it after the jump.

My ears! Make it stop!

OK, the subtitle is dramatic but, have you ever wondered why some of first stops of the day in car sound so bad?  Look at this picture of one of my Prius' front wheels.

If all of your stops sound bad not just the first few you may be hearing your brake wear indicators and its now time to start thinking about your next braking system servicing.

The disks in the disk brake assembly oxidize, and what you hear is brake-pads on rust.  After the first few stops the oxidized coating is worn off and all you get is pads on disks as the engineers intended.  This is the same reason many new cars (cough Acura cough) come with plastic covering the whole wheel during shipping, the covering helps prevent unsightly rusty spots on the brakes of brand new cars.  This problem is common on many models disk brake equipped vehicles in moist climates like we have here in Gainesville not just Prius.   I wish the plural of Prius was different than the singular.

What can you do about this?

• Park in areas with lower humidity levels.  (a garage or shed)
• Use your brakes like normal and the problem will take care of itself
• Or put the vehicle in neutral and give the brakes a good pump.  Operating a motor vehicle out of gear on public roads is illegal in many areas.
• Turn the sound system up

All kidding aside this is usually a cosmetic issue and will correct itself through normal use, if the layer of oxidation remains after a couple of good stops that use your friction braking system (as opposed to your regenerative braking system).

When I returned from my most recent trip to South Carolina, I stopped in a part of Georgia close to where I first heard about the Subway personal pizzas.  I picked the wrong exit but this location did have the pizzas in stock.