No TSB? Starter Plate (but we GOT no starter)

This is a sore spot that I believe Hobbit has brought up, with pictures. He recommends rotating that plate so the tab isn't pointing that direction. I really should check it out on my car, I just don't crawl around underneath it too often.

 

In Hobbit's photos it sure looks like the plate is designed to fit the other way round, where it would not interfere with the harness, and that it was simply installed wrong.

 

Google for "hobbit" and "prius". It's pretty simple. [and, I'll
admit, rather gratifying...] Here's the starter blockoff-plate
writeup, in any case.
.
_H*

 

To clarify, the black cable is not a high voltage one. It's a
harness carrying the motor position sensors and a couple of
thermistors. The orange one in the picture [and I can't
imagine why you don't simply point to mine, as opposed to
a diminished-quality copy] is for the A/C compressor.
.
Turning the plate around doesn't really place metal anywhere
dangerously near the A/C harness, but does get it satisfactorily
away from the MG sensor bundle. The picture's sort of got
the wrong perspective to make that clear.
.
_H*

 

The orange cable leading to the A/C compressor is a high voltage cable. You are correct, orange signifies high voltage.

It may be that in your car, the clearance between that cable and the starter plate is less than Hobbit's car. Then the best solution would be to grind off the tab if possible.

 

Hill, have you checked under the car ?

I've rotated the plate on my 2005 and there is no way it would interfere with the HV cable (orange). At least it is much much less at risk than the other way around.

Just go and take a close look by yourself and you'll see. No need of grinding the plate.

 

Be very careful that heat from the grinding doesn't warp the plate. You don't want to break the seal and start a leak. Cutting it off with a hacksaw might be safer, or fit a plastic boot over it so it can't abrade the cable bundle.

 

The orange cable providing power to the air conditioner compressor has a plastic clamp holding it in position. You can see this with the hood open. It looks like the cable can be moved to either increase or decrease the spacing to the plate covering the starter hole.

Hence, you may find there is no need to modify the plate.

 

There's no seal, it just slaps dry over the hole. The damper
clutch underneath it runs in a non-fluid environment.
.
One should, however, pay attention to bolt torque, since the
two bolts are also part of the set holding transmission to
engine.
.
_H*

 

When I got my car a year ago there was a lot of talk about this issue. I looked at mine and saw that the cable is safely away from the tab. I wonder if an '08 owner can check if the tab has been repositioned or eliminated? I have a feeling, no disrespect for the work done already, that the tab is correctly positioned and some function the engineers wanted. The cable can be formed away from touching anything. The reason I think this is that it is highly unlikely Toyota would manufacture a plate with extra shapes, like the tab, for no reason, and also put it on backwards for several years. IMHO

 

Why not just squeeze down an adjustable wrench on to the tab in question and give it a little bend? It's hard to see in the picture but that way you have a rounded surface, not a sharp edge. I'll have to take a look at mine but with 78,000 + miles I'm guessing there's not to much of a problem.

Bill