Could anyone please tell me how to check if the cooling fan for the hybrid is working or dead? I have 2005 Prius, some battery cells found Electrolyte leaking. I am not sure if because the cells are overheat or not. I drive around but can not hear the fan runs. Please help Joseph
try a tissue on the intake grille. if it falls off, either get a scan gauge, etc., which lets you run the fan manually, or take it apart and clean it. it's on you tube.
My Mini-VCI scanner let me test all speeds (five, I think). Mini-VCI can be found on Amazon or eBay and runs well on an old Win7 32-bit laptop. That'll test not only the fan but the control system as well.
Of course, plugging of the Gen2 fan with lint and for example dog hairs is the more common issue. In your case it make sense to make the visual check of the fan. Admittedly I have not done this yet (dog died before Prius) but many have and some find it's a big mess.
I am ordering the mini VCI today, but where do you get the diagnostic software? I see they sell cables on Ebay.. Any particular specification i need to look for? Thank you
Normally, the mini VCI comes with the software. So make sure that's the case with yours. Be aware, though that unless it's really really expensive, it's pirated software and not the latest version. Some anti virus programs report virus infections in the driver software that comes with it. It may be a false alarm or true, so it can be a little scary. We have lots of threads here about the VCI if you want to do a little digging.