Ancient Nerd

Has your installer fitted a standard breaker or an RCBO. You can recognise if it is an RCBO by the presence of a button or similar with 'test' written on it. MyEnergi recommend the use of a circuit breaker, not an RCBO in their installation guide for the Zappi. In my case, changing from RCBO to circuit breaker fixed the problem completely. If you have an RCBO, it may well not be too high a current causing the trip, but a very low level discrepancy between the current flowing in the live and neutral wires.

I had a similar problem with a zappi v1. The installer had fitted an RCBO, instead of the recommended trip. The included RCD is redundant, as the zappi includes one internally. It worked fine when taking power from the grid. However, it frequently tripped when power from the solar panels kicked in or out in ECO+ mode. The problem was fixed by replacing the RCBO with a trip of the same rating. MyEnergi support can be quite helpful. It is also worth posting on the myenergi.info site. There are some very knowledgeable, and helpful, people there.

May be a wheel bearing. Does it change when you turn the steering wheel. This is about the only significant problem I've seen on any of our Prius. Front one went on an 08 reg Gen 2, and a rear one went on a 59 reg Gen 3 We had these two cars for about 320k miles in total

Thomas

Fishing

I'm sure that every Prius I've had has been equipped with a space saver wheel. That includes my original Gen2 T-spirit (2008 08 reg). Only the plug-in doesn't have it as an option, because the space is taken up by the bigger battery. There should be a false floor in the boot, with space underneath for the spare wheel

Sol, The smallest, or cheapest, you can find should be ok. With a hybrid, you just need enough power to start up the electronics and one or two low power items. You don't need the high capacity these things provide to turn over an ICE. You should be able to do it with a battery box and eight AAA batteries. However a jump starter is a convenient way of supplying the 12 volts needed. FWIW, the one I bought some years ago was around £40 (and no longer available). It still works well, and has got me out of trouble twice in that time.

EV EV city values EV usage above efficiency. It prevents use of the ICE, even if that is he best option. Use this in town if you value environmental impact over efficiency and performance.

Definitely a dashcam. The other end will probably be connected to the fusebox under the dash on the passenger side. There will probably be a piggyback connector to one (or possibly two if the camera had a parking mode) of the fuses. If you can find a dashcam with a similar USB connector, it will make for an easy self-install, saving you a lot of hassle, or the cost of a professional installation. Fwiw, when I sold my last Prius (to a dealer), I moved the dashcam to the next car, I cut off the old cables at both ends. Then I just bought new cables for the new car. The ne owner would probably curse me if he knew.

It may be worth getting a new battery from another source. I have fitted two new batteries, one after the other, from the same batch, several years old, but well before the expiry date, with just those symptoms. I bought a new batch of batteries, and the key worked fine again.

Years ago, I bought an alloy wheel and winter tyre combination from MyTyres. These were 15 inch, and have fitted my Gens 2, 3 and 4 with their 16, 17 and 15 inch original wheels. They are still available, and can be bought individually. At the time, they were significantly cheaper than buying the winter tyre offerings from my local (and excellent) dealer. I've now switched to Michelin all season tyres, but the winter ones survived 8 winters in rather better condition than the Toyota originals. I haven't got the details to hand, but I can probably find them fairly easily. FWIW, I think the main size difference was the offset, which was slightly different from the original wheels, but from looking around well within acceptable limits.

SWMBO would kill me if i did that to ours.

Agreed. Mine is 13,600 mAh, which is massive overkill and waste of money. The only consolation is that it will keep my laptop working for days if necessary 🤔🤔

Mine (VicTsing) says don't use if below 75%. However, I suspect that this is intended to save its battery when starting an ICE, which need a lot of battery power to operate the starter motor. The prius only needs very little power to drive the car electronics. So it should be OK down to a very low percentage. FWIW I've only used it in anger once, and it worked like a dream.

You could try the Faraday cage to eliminate the key as a problem. I don't think it's likely, unless the key is close to the phone's aerial. This is no good as a permanent solution. The warning beeps wll drive him mad, although the car will work ok. Where does he keep the phone while in the car? Is there anything metal or electrical nearby that could interfere with the mobile signal? He could try keeping the phone on the dash, or in a window phone mount. The signal should be much stronger without bodywork etc in the way. It could also be a marginal mobile signal. There can be a big diffence between networks. IIRC my son replaced an iphone 6 because of poor signal quality amongst other things. If other phones work in the car, then the fault is with the apple. Otherwise, good luck.