Cleaning the Prius Hybrid Fan for Preventative Maintenence

I have a set of picks in the garage that would probably work.

The angled ones do the trick.

 

That fan TMR cleaned out is really clean, especially when you look at what he started with. I need that secret sauce

 

I bet the secret sauce contains elbow grease and a touch of determination .

 

Probably chicken grease. Works great on my hands after working on my brakes.

 

II split the housing to get good access to the fan. Then use a small "tweeker" flathead screw driver, about 3/32 or 1/8 inch wide, that has the tip rounded so it's close to the same curvature as the fan blades. A bit of scraping and then some paint brushes that have been trimmed back to shorten the bristles to make them more stiff. And of course, an air compressor. One day I'll just take one of my extras and see what needs to be done to just yank the fan off the shaft and then clean it in a sink. The wife will love that.

 

Air compressor....Yes, that's the secret sauce. I think that'll blow all the crap out of the crevices.

 

This is one of my favorite so far.

I clean a lot of fans so sitting there and picking between each blade is not an option. We pre clean them with compressed air and then spray the squirrel cage with a little degreaser and let it sit for a minute. Rinse with warm water and it comes out looking like this, no elbow grease required. Just make sure you hold the housing in a way that all water runs off when rinsing and it'll be fine.

 

Can't damage them by rinsing with water?

 

Wow. That's foul. Were they transporting sheep or llamas in their car?

 

Heheheheh! So you're rock fan like me? I don't think @bisco is either

 

Are you pointing that barrel at me?

 

Is there a way I could bench test these fans from off the car, using a 12volts battery?

I would want to use some of the hihy blower fans have got lying in the shop, to construct a housing to help keep some of the modules or pack I charge, cool.

 

Yes, just buy an extra fan harness and connect to 10A power source

 

OK. Do I have to connect the harness to all the about six wires coming out of the blower fan?

 

Not as long as you don't let water run back into the motor. I rinse them with the housing split and then blow any residual water out with compressed air. Then follow that up with a few minutes running on the bench. Probably done a thousand that way and never had a problem.

Gen3 fans are another story. The design on those makes it hard to rinse without wetting electronics. It's a brushless motor mounted on a circuit board vs the traditional brushed motor in the Gen2. On Gen3's we have a way to remove the squirrel cage from the shaft and wash it separately.

 

+1

On our 2007, I had the fan out and actually stuck it under a faucet after not being able to get all the dust out with Q-tips. (I left it to dry for a couple of hours before putting in back in, of course). It's been more than a year, with no problems. I know it is still fully functional because of an incident I had this summer, described here:

58.4 C (137 F) Temp on HV Battery per Torque Pro | PriusChat

 

If you're just doing the one fan (your own) I would think it's much simpler to just dry clean, leaving the fan in the car, than to completely remove in order to wash it out. It may take longer cleaning, but not much. I Used q-tip in between the fin blades, and vacuumed up the bits. Q-tip is ideal size, just fits snugly between the blades.

 

To be fair: ours was not very dirty though, I'm a bit obsessive.

 

, same here.

 

After cleaning you might want to consider making a filter to fit behind the intake vent on the back seat. I use something like this from Home Depot.

Frost King 15 in. x 24 in. x 1/4 in. Foam Room A/C FPR 2 Air Filter-F1524 - The Home Depot

It's big enough to cut multiple car filters and is very good at catching hair and dust while not restricting air flow. Well worth the major investment of $2.