the reason why you have to put the gear in D because..
1. during idle, your ICE (engine) will turn off and so will use the 144V battery to operate the electronics, aircond compressors
2. at low speed it will use the battery to run the motor and the aircond compressors
3. these operations drains the battery really fast (especially during a hot day when the compressor works hard to cool down the car)
4. placing the gear in D will enable the car to charge the battery back when the battery runs out of juice
5. it will turn on the engine (even though in idle) to charge the battery for about 30 seconds. at this time the rev of the engine may seem a bit high, but it will turn off again after re-charging
therefore, please place your gear in any positions (P, R, D, B) except for N where at N the car is unable to charge the battery. the worse effect of not charging the battery is:
- battery totally out of juice
- battery unable to start your ICE (because toyota hybrid uses the 144V battery to start the engine. the 12V battery is only used to start the circuit)
- you will have to call a tow truck
this charging of the battery will happen for around 30 seconds, once every 10 minutes if your car is running out of juice.. if your car is fully charged then i think it takes about 15 minutes to 20 minutes maybe to drain the juice..
what i usually do, i just place the gear in N if my battery is still full.. but once it has reached the lowest 20%, i just let it on N for about another minute or 2, then if the traffic is still not moving, the i just place it in D and wait for my car to charge itself, then only i place back to N..
that's why when charging, our car is very noisy....
for ppl asking regarding timing belt, well, there is no timing belt in our car, open the bornet and figure it yourself.
Since our engine battery is below our rear passenger seat, change it to bigger capicity...N60
sorry guys, was busy with my house renovation, don't have time to update my mod on open pod filter...
will update with pictures soon when I get all the materials ready and mod..