Can someone please link me to a good video of how to clean the hybrid battery fan on a Prius C? Thank you.
Thank you. So easy. I saw the fan screen under the grill cover under the back seat. It was very clean and it seems like the 2 owners before me kept the car quite clean. I popped off some of the plastic rivets and looked under there, then put new rivets back in their place. Evidently there is no need to take the fan out and clean the blades with Q tips.
I also checked and cleaned the cabin air filter. It was wayyyy easier to access than the one in the Ford Fiesta I had, but that's because Toyota makes better cars. The filter had a small amount of debris on it but I'd say it was quite clean. Clean cabin filter, new air filter, clean battery fan cover. I should be all set for a while. I'm going to change my oil and filter in the Spring as was suggested here. Some guys on a Facebook Prius forum seem to change their oil much more often than 1x a year but some of them probably drive many more miles than I do.
If you were wondering... I “lol’d” because I just throw those things in the trash and never replace. I drive with a window cracked open quite a bit anyways. No need to filter the air!
I like that "Orange C". Oranges are high in Vitamin C. My first new car was an orange '71 VW Super Beetle I paid $2345 for. The color was called Clementine and was very similar to the Habanero Prius C.
Got my 12V battery checked today. First I went to nearby reputable place and he told me my battery is weak and only has about 1/2 its capacity. But when I asked him how much it would cost for an Interstate battery for my Prius he told me I better go to the Toyota dealer to get the exact one I need. So then I went to another place called Auto Electric that NAPA referred me to, and he told me it looks and acts like a new battery and said it puts out 12.9 volts. I have no idea why the first guy told me that about my battery but I'm willing to bet my battery is in great condition. It probably was replaced recently.
Get something like Solar BA9, an electronic load tester, and you can see for yourself. Be the battery guy in your circle.
Yeah you won't find an Interstate. Or really anything other than a Toyota genuine battery for a 100% exact match. 12.9 measured shortly after operation is a good score, I wouldn't worry. But when the day comes you either go to Toyota or put up with some adaptation to make a slightly wrong one fit.
There are some exact fit alternatives within 1/16" or so, correct posts, electrical specs and so on. Especially for height you need the same dim's, due to Toyota's lame hold-down bracket design, at least on 3rd gen. I put in an optima yellow top, theoretically the same dimensions: it was just a hair taller, and I had to shim that bracket with a washer, to stop it rocking.
He checked it while I was starting the engine and said it didn't go down hardly at all when I did. Now I want to find out how to remove the back seat so I can really access and see both batteries.
Access to 12v battery is through a removable corner panel under the rear right seat. It's really just mirror image of the battery fan trim panel; you've already seen the youtube for fan cleaning. Same fasteners. Removing this one panel gives enough access to test and replace the 12v. The entire rear seat cushion is held in by similar pop tabs. They're a different style, they stay attached to the bottom of the seat, so really you're just grabbing the front edge of the cushion and pulling straight up. You'll hear 6 or 8 meaty pops as it releases. Once you get that out, you have total access. You'll see the crash cage, the HV battery suitcase, the cooling fan and ductwork, and the 12v battery all laid bare. It's a bit fiddly to put back in, mostly because you have to thread the seat belt receivers through the cushion in exactly the right places otherwise it won't snap all the way in.
I removed the panels a week or so ago. I bought 100 new plastic rivets with a rivet puller. One guy asked if the seat could be removed so he could hook up some big machine to the battery but then tested it with a smaller unit with the seat in place.
Might not solve that problem since one of the beams of the crash cage covers the battery somewhat. As you might imagine, the cage doesn't simply pop out. *shrug*
