Cleaning the fan under the back seat...

it is a good idea to inspect and clean the fan if necessary. if you don't carry shedding pets, its usually not an issue.
i'm at 66k and haven't bothered because i don't carry pets or anything that could lead to clogging.

if you decide you want it done, shop around. $400. is a wallet cleaning, not a fan cleaning.

i'd be willing to pay $100.-$150.

check out @NutzAboutBolts youtube channel, he might have a good video for diy, or at least an understanding of a reasonable cost to pay someone, based on the time involved.

all the best!

 

Yeah he does. There's a Priuschat link to it, in pinned thread at top of this sub-forum. The only exception I'd take: he pulls the rear seat bottom off. I don't see that as being necessary, and I believe the seat clips are fragile/finicky. There's one bolt you need to reach, a bit below the hybrid fan intake grill (on seat back, passenger side): use a ratchet wrench with extension and a 12 mm socket, push apart the seat and back cushions, and reach through. A light helps. Don't drop the bolt, lol.

I just followed-my-nose the first time I did this, hadn't seen the videos. You need to pry off the hatch floor atop the battery, take out that section of the rear seat back bit with the grill, and just work your way in.

Dust out all the plastic ductwork as you remove it. I found I was able to clean the fan blades without complete removal, just running a q-tip along each blade. Then blow the whole area out with air, either wet/dry vac or leaf blower, or shop air, what have you. The fasteners on the hatch floor over the battery are very stubborn, overkill I think. I left a lot of them off when reassembling, made it easier next time.

 

for toyota employees that should be a routine thing /

 

It took me maybe 2 hours. A pro mechanic, experienced with the job, an hour?

 

Because it's all labor. It's probably 3-3.5 hours of labor.
If the fan gets dusty, seems the battery would be dusty also, and all duct work from the fan
to where it exhausts by the battery(12v).

 

I would certainly ask if they are cleaning the battery and ductwork as well. I still think that's only a 1-2 hour job for an experienced tech. I suspect they really only do clean just the fan for the $400.

It's a fairly simple DIY and is very rewarding to save that kind of money.

Also, can't you look in the battery air intake with a light and get a peak at the fan to see how dusty it is?

 

Exactly.

No, it's way in there, you can't see more than a few inches. I've attached a piece of residential window screen material to the inside of the air intake grill, and you can get "some" idea, from the condition of that.

We're low miles, transport a dog sometimes, and I haven't bothered with it for at least two years now. It takes a fair amount of time and miles to get to where it needs cleaning.

 

I'm sure they ONLY clean the fan. It doesn't matter how long it takes them to clean it, it's flat rate.
I have dogs. This is what I got. It was $14 for the filter from Toyota. The other screen with $2-3.
I just cut it to fit. I pull it off every few weeks and wash it out in the sink, shake it dry, then put it back in.
It does catch a lot of fur and dust!

 

Do you think its possible to inspect the fan with an inspection camera or is there something that would block the camera from getting to the fan?

 

You can feed bore scope type camera through the intake vent. I think there are a couple of
90 degree angles, but you should be able to do that.

 

Maybe, but I don't know that it would be worthwhile. I would just get in there; it's not that hard.

 

Inspection camera makes it to the fan without a problem, just pushed it in and bent itself straight in. Definitely needs to be cleaned.

 

I would think it needs a cleaning.

 

Did the HV fan cleaning for the first time and it was extremely easy, everyone should be confident enough to DIY this one.

Here is what the fan looked like when I pulled it out:

After cleaning:

Back in the car with inspection camera:


Thank to everyone for the quick and helpful responses.

 

Looks like fur! Do you or the previous owner have dogs?
Looks like you did a good job.

 

I have never had any animals in the car since I've owned it(about 13 months and 50k miles).

Thanks, I went around the block and did a short test drive afterwards and EV mode was deactivated at 10MPH saying "excessive speed" I thought that was at 25MPH before, could I have done something or does it change based on current status of the HV battery? Or am I just remembering incorrectly?

 

My EV kicks off at 10 also, UNLESSSS, I'm going VERRRYYYYY slooowwwwww...
I can creap it up to about 15mph. If the battery is charged high enough, and the engine is already
at operating temp, the EV will deactivate, but it will still just run off the battery to about 40mph.
But I have to do it very slowly.
But I can also just get up to a few miles over the speed limit and hit the cruise then decrease until
I get to the speed limit, and the engine kicks off.

 

It won’t stay on ev mode after a certain amount of seconds even if under 5 mph.