Finally got to pull a grill block today!

I was going to remove my lowers and found that one had blown out (I use the pipe wrap variety). Anyway, I'll look for a replacement in the fall. Welcome to Spring!

 

I have never tried the grille block, in a car without temp guage sounds scarry, I have a scan guage now but is it really worth it?

 

i'm in Southern California and even i use an upper grill block for the 8 weeks of cold days.
it helped keep me @ 49.8mpg since last summer.
i used the pipe insulation as described on this site.
just removed it 3 weeks ago, however, it's 55 degrees today so i may need to re-install for a few more weeks.

 

I've yet to install, although I plan to this upcoming winter. Reading others, it sounds like 2 - 5 mpg increase in cold weather. E Fusco combines this block with engine pre-heating from an EBH, and I gather maintains 55+ mpg in cold winter Missouri.

 

Removed my grill block pipe insulation this week. Warmer ambient air temperatures are pushing fuel economy higher.

 

I had expected to remove one or perhaps two rows of lower grill blocking this week or weekend. Thanks to a hit-and-run driver (more on that later), I'll be removing all prior to my Monday-morning drop-off at the repair shop.

I use the grill block/EBH combo, and I see that it has increased my MPGs. I had developed a very long Summary Article on Grill Blocking (eventually re-posted by efusco) that could provide some help, but the links were all nixed in an earlier site upgrade. I expect to revise, update and republish that posting during the summer. Hopefully, people will see the benefits to be reaped from this very easy, low-cost "mod" to your Prius.

 

I have my doubts that it helps much once the temps hit 50 F. If you want to get your engine warmed up fast in the winter leave the climate comtrol off until you hit 170 F. It's amazing how fast the temp drops when you're sitting at a stop light on a cold winter day with the heater on even with the grill fully blocked.

 

Thanks I look forward to that, do you know anything of the 88 degree C thermostat change? I am trying to locate one, I believe that to be a great start in getting the temperatures up there and maybe some blocking to keep it up. I appreciate your comments.

 

I see higher temps, and I'm feeling the mpg start creeping up to the 70mpg's

 

I had my grill blocked all winter. Not sure how much it helped - probably some. Its hard to measure. But, we did have our first hot (80s) day yesterday and I had an interesting experience. I drove around a low speed for about 1.5 hours. I forgot that my grill was blocked - but noticed no problems. I parked in my garage. Several hours later - I went out again and noticed immediatly that there was an audible fan noise comeing from the vent next to the right rear seat back. I drove for a while (temps were down to 70s) and I noticed that the outside temp gauge was reading in the high 90s. I was worried a bit but oblivious to the fact that I had forgotten to unblock my grill. My wife then remembered about the grill block. I pulled over and removed all the lower grill blocking and continued on my way. The outside temp gauge quickly dropped down the the true temp and the fan blowing in the back of the car stopped in a few minutes. Throughout this sequence there was never a warning light or buzzer tha came on.

Dumb - I know. But you can see how after 6 months of grill blocking I had completely forgotten about it.

 

Uhhh.... the battery vent fan shouldn't have anything to do with the grill block... other then the fact that it was hot outside... But it was a good idea to remove the grill block in hot weather all the same.

 

That is interesting. Tell me, is the battery vent fan triggered by the outside temp reading or by the actual temperature of the battery? I wonder if the fact that the outside temp was reading WAY higher - up in the high 90s I believe, triggered the battery vent fan?? Is that possible? Or was it just pure coincidence?

 

rpg51,

As I understand it, the HV battery fan is triggered solely by HV battery
temps. To move air through the battery case, there has to be an
outside air supply. Even when the A/C is on recirc, some amount of
outside air is permitted to enter the cabin and be drawn into the HV
battery.

I'm not sure I've heard before of the HV battery fan activating when
the car was not in READY -- maybe I'm reading your post wrong.

Anyway, it would be meaningful to learn whether the HV battery fan
runs on the 12 V battery or the HV battery. If the former, activation
when the car is OFF could lead to low start-up voltage in the 12 V
battery... big trouble. On the other hand operating directly from the
HV battery could in time lead to decreased SOC on the energy display.

Be advised, you can induce excessive HV battery temps by parking the
car out in the open in the summer noonday sun. The cabin gets quite
hot, easily over 130 degF. In time that heat penetrates the HV battery
case and heats the battery. This both reduces the performance of the
HV battery, and as I understand it, it can/does reduce the service life
of the battery itself.

With luck, one of the real Prius smart members will come up and
confirm/deny the above.

FWIW, I pulled all my lower grill block today; predicted and actual
temps in Ballamer were 90+ F. I run the upper blocking year 'round.
I've had the black, foam block in for two winters now and it's getting
quite raggedy, mostly from the putting-in and taking-out. I'll be getting
new ones in the fall.

Hope this helps.

 

Seems to be the season for hit and run. I hope your repairs are quick and undetectable.
I'm still waiting to get mine in for repairs, that happens when you want the best repairer. Fortunately I caught up with the person who hit mine, about a mile down the road. Sometimes all that pursuit driving I do at work comes in handy in my personal life.

 

I was hit this past Monday, and I drop it off tomorrow morning (Monday) -- one week after the hit.

The guy who hit me was out of control. We were pulling away from a stop light in the middle of my (small) town. It is the only four-lane road through town, and I was in the inner lane. There was one car to my right (outer lane) and one car behind me. When the light turned green, we all accelerated down the street (30mph speed limit -- in town). The car to my right was pulling away and was just about to my front bumper by the time we were one-third to one-half of the way down the block. The guy behind me all of a sudden laid on his horn. I looked in the rear-view mirror, but saw nothing. I heard the guy gun his car and saw a flash of white to my right. He was passing me around the right and was attempting to squeeze in ahead of me before he would rear-end the other driver (in the outer lane). His side-view mirror hit mine, and then his left rear wheel hit my right front wheel, knocking me out of the lane. Thankfully, I didn't hit any on-coming traffic. I pulled over and stopped, but the other guy never even slowed down. The last I saw him he went over the crest of a hill, doing at least 60+ in a 30mph zone.

I got the first three of his plate and a description of the car. I saw him just a couple of days ago, so I'm hoping the local police may yet catch up with him. In the meantime, my car will be repaired, with the $500 deductible coming from my pocket.

Let's hope it goes much better for you!!!

 

I at least got the name and address of the driver so no "deductible" for me, which would be $300AU if I had no name. I'm only waiting because I want the best repair, if I was prepared to settle for second best I could get straight in. Your situation might not be the same there so I am not implying you are settling for second best.

The repairer I'm using is BMW and Lexus accredited and comes recommended by a good personal friend in Toyota spare parts. I asked him which crash repairer buys the most genuine Toyota parts, he said "Des Higgins Motor Bodies is the best in the business", can't beat that.

 

I have a full upper and 3 slots of the lower blocked right now. With SGII monitoring my water temp peaked at about 197 degrees in 80 degree weather. In cooler temps (50 and below) my "up to temp" times are in the 2-3 minute range (up from 5-6 minutes in 40 degree weather).

efusco mentioned monitoring his inverter temp...did he do that with the SGII or with additional instrumentation? It's 90 degrees today (a record for my location) and I pulled my lower grill block just to be safe (a 2 second operation as I am using foam pipe insulation).