Recently my Climate Control System on Gen 3 has been missbehaving. A few weeks ago, I could not for the life of me get cold air out of the AC, and then just as quickly as it stopped working, it started working again. Then yesterday, I started noticing coolant temps on the Scan Guage rising to 215 - 220 F, which seemed quite a bit higher thant the 195 limit I had set for operating with grill blocking, so I turned on the Heater and brought it down to 195, and when I got home, I checked and the coolant level seems OK, and it was under pressure. Also, the heater has always taken forever to get warm, and this morning, I noticed that when I had it set for it was cycling between very hot and very cold air. I have an appointment to get this checked out next week, but would appreciate any words of wisdom because my car is out of warrantee. Also, I have a Circulating Tank Heater plubed between the cooland drain on the back of the block and one of the hoses at the back of the cylindar head that circulates coolant down around the exhaust for perheating. The idea is in the winter time, you plug in the tank heater and convection heat causes the coolant to circulate thought the cooling system and preheat the whole block. With all the computers and sensors, I an thinking this tank heater installation may be causing the odd Climate Control system behavior and perhaps overheating, so I cannot decide if I shoud disconnect the tank heater before I take it in to service or leave it and tell aske the service people to help me confirm if it is plumbed in at a sutiable location. Since my tank heater is an extra coolant circuit I added myself, I think I might just clamp off the tank heater hose with a pair of vice grips or something to test if not having that extra circuit fixes the weirdnesses.
He has 40,000 miles: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...wners-highest-mileage-total-miles-driven.html
I have never seen anything like 215-220 degrees, even on the hottest days climbing steep hills I have never seen over 205 and it usually runs down around 193 to 198. I would agree, completely remove the add on circulating tank heater and drive it for a while and to see if that fixes the problem. As soon as the mechanic at the dealership sees a non standard cooling system he is going to jump on that as the problem anyway. Post #14 of this thread lists normal and maximum temperatures: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...n/75554-observed-temperatures-x-gauges-2.html
It might have voided the warranty on body panels, but certainly not the innards (climate system, engine, battery, etc.). Car warranties are not an all or nothing.
Bumper Cars are great....there's nothing quite as fun and getting all speed and momentum to whail some unsuspecting rider
