yikes.. possible traction battery failure??

Luscious Garage | Blog | Prius battery cooling fan cleaning, P0A82 talks about cleaning the battery fan.

 

If you can drive the car and the car has enough power then the HV battery should still be usable.

I posted pictures of panel removal to expose the duct work (but not fan removal) here:
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ng/71909-diary-wimpy-diyer-2.html#post1141598
and here:
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ng/71909-diary-wimpy-diyer-2.html#post1141954

Good luck!

 

Hi hpartsch. The air doesn't come out of that duct, it enters the duct at that point. When you try to detect air flow by "feel" it's surprisingly difficult to judge what direction (in or out) that it's flowing when the flow is only gentle. One easy way to test is to take a very thin piece of tissue paper (eg just one ply of a two ply tissue) and place it over the vent. If it blows away from the vent then the flow is outward, but if it sticks to the vent then the flow is inwards. Try it and the tissue will stick to the vent showing that the air is entering there.

BTW. Take a look at my pictures in reply #31 here. (See: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ur-dirt-causing-major-battery-problems-4.html ). I've labeled where the parts are and marked arrows on the ducts to show where the air flows throughout the system. Also on those photos you can see that you just have to remove that right rear interior hatch panel to access the fan and ducts.

 

Try my "tissue test" as outlined above. You might be surprised!

 

See the white thing marked "blower" in my photo.

 

Well I think you should try and figure out why the laws of nature are reversed in your Prius.

I mean somehow the centripetal force on your fan is directed opposite to everyone else. How else could you explain it blowing instead of sucking? It's not physically possible to reverse (interchange) the ducts so that means yours has to be propelling the air from the outer part of the pump into the center part which ducts to the vent at the back seat.

Or how about you admit that you were wrong when you said you were "100% certain that it was blowing" and for refusing to believe me, even after I explained that it was an easy mistake to make and also I gave you a simple test to confirm it.

 

In order to get the fan to run, I believe it probably takes quite a workout and there is no sense in deliberately stressing the engine or the battery. It is probably possible to put 12 V on the fan or the two leads actuating the fan. The fan is a dog to get to. There might even be a relay for it and you can short the pins out. One of our sharp Techies will join in maybe. I am too lazy to study the schematics. :cheer2:

 

Yeah sorry for the rant. Sometimes it feels like no one is listening to you.

But anyway that's correct. It's a centripetal fan so the direction cant be reversed. Not without physically interchanging the intake and outtake ducts, which isn't going to happen. I guess when you did try to test it it must have been too cold to be blowing, hence the null result. Next time when you can feel it definitely blowing, place a sheet of thin tissue paper next the the intake vent. If it's sucking air then you'll definitely notice the tissue getting pulled onto (even stuck onto) the vent. On the other hand, if it's blowing you'll definitely notice the tissue get pushed away from the vent if you place it there.

 

I don't think you have a problem with the fan, there was another poster a few years ago that also noticed air blowing out. Some interesting reading titled " 2005 Prius Battery cooling fan problem " see post # 12 dated 08/16/2010 by UART, an excellent link also. After reading all this, and other threads you will find that there is no way to test the fan. The Prius tech use a intelligent tester that looks at different connectors and the predicted resistance values, Apparently even Toyota dealerships cannot run the fan, to check it. So just stay away from that area unless you want to spend some big $$$$$

 

let's go back over service details.. what have you changed on this car?

have you changed the spark plugs? how many miles are you at? (forgive me if you put that part up there, i'm just listing)

back to ignition coils. (for a min) you replaced on because of water. water shorts it and the whole thing should fail very rapidly. if a coil is going out but not fully failed, it trips things.. battery soc isn't as high, 12v faults around corners.. weird things.. when it actually fails, the engine sound really bad, soc is way down, acceleration is down.. etc..

maybe a quick lookover of the coils. i'm not sure how you could accurately test it unless you take it to a shop that can put it on a tester. i'm not sure if autozone and such type of places do that though. at 80 bucks a piece, you would think people can test them first.

but yeah.. otherwise let's see what you've changed and haven't changed so far on this car... this way we can toss around ideas based around it's maintenance schedule.

 

Hello V8Cobrakid: Are you sure this is the thread you wanted?

 

You can test the fan at various speeds (off, low, medium and high, IIRC) using Techstream, and perhaps with other third-party software. A dealer is certainly able to do this, and it doesn't take long to do.

 

it sounds like you're on top of things...

so.. wait a min.. back to post 11. Edthefox described basically the only thing that could have happened. it makes complete sense, and i've even experienced it once in my past... i pass it off because i simply never figured it out.

i've been wanting to get an app for my iphone and a wifi obdII so i can keep track of my car's data... still not sure on which one yet.. hehe...

the just floor it routine was developed to keep people from playing around too much with their pedals which backs up traffic... so back when priuschat started... just floor it was adopted by people here and there....

i've learned this don't floor it routine. ever since i started passing over grapevine, i bring down speed, keep charge up, and keep a firm pedal position but very slowly let up as things torque out to a pulse stage... wreck that pulse, and you suffer...