How do you completely remove the carpet from the back?

Are you talking about the floorboard that covers the HV battery? If so, the difficulty is understandable. There are three plastic clips that hold it in place. If I remember correctly, you have to pop the center one out of the metal, then you can slide the floorboard off the two side ones. It takes some practice to get this off without breaking one or more of the clips.

 

I went through this when I installed the Subwoofer. I mounted it to the plastic battery cover. After I pulled it I went for the carpet too, There was one section that gave me grief, I just cut it and tossed it! Amazingly when I put everything back together, the rear seats fit better than before they were yanked out.

 

If it's the carpeted cover over the HV battery I got some pictures in this post:
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ng/71909-diary-wimpy-diyer-2.html#post1141598

 

3rd gen carpetting over the big battery is similar: lots of push-in fasteners in the underside which has some sort of rigid board inside. I used a couple of types of panel removal tools, just worked slow. On reassembly, I left most of the push-in fasteners off (just bagged and labelled them), in case I want to revisit. It was still plenty secure.

BTW, throwing a cheap blanket in there is good for loose dirt, will even slow down spills. I tuck it under the under floor lid at the back edge, so it doesn't end up jamming the hatch latch.

 

seilerts,

Boy howdy you are not kidding around about the difficulty of this job. I wanted to take a look at my HV battery one fateful day and I had a bear of a time accessing the infernal thing. I suppose boredom does terrible things to a man Anywhoo, the OP may be able to refer to this diagram that illustrates the rear floorboard schematics:



*Legal good stuff- please note that I do not own this diagram, rather it's the property of toyotapartszone.com. Insert further legal mumbo jumbo here