Bringing 2012 Prius 3 in for service on Monday..... When driving get an air sound, almost like a crack somewhere and air is rushing in while driving. This is coming from the passenger rear door. Anyone have this too?
Yes, from day 1. Dealer "can't" hear it. They suggest it's the batteries venting. I hear it more on the right rear unless I tip my head back and to the left, then I hear it in the left rear.
Thanks for your reply..... I am not going to accept it as a vent issue, unless they can prove it out to me in a few more cars.
I have it intermittently and I believe it is the cooling fan for the traction battery. It's on my passenger side rear door directly in the area of the vent. It is total assumption, but my best guess
Sounds like the traction battery fan. It's on rear pass side. maybe you can sit in back seat when someone else is driving to better locate the sound?
If you hear the same sound when the car is stopped then it's the cooling fan for the traction battery. With the hot weather in your area it may be running full time it you aren't using the AC.
After learning that there was a fan for cooling the traction battery it explained what I was hearing. Today with the outside temp. being 102, I heard it again. Now it makes sense. I put my ear close to the vent by the rear seat and sure enough, that is it.
You'll see a vent opening near the rear-passenger door (right rear for LHD cars). This is the intake for battery cooling. To maintain battery longevity, this fan will run at various speeds to keep the battery cool. The air is vented out through openings under the left rear wheel. It's normal to hear an air sound because of this, and it's important that your passengers don't block this vent accidentally (like kids with pillows or blankets on road trips).
It's funny, I never noticed this noise (battery fan) until a month after I was driving the car. The reason is I had my daughter's car seat installed in the rear passenger-side seat. Her car seat was blocking the direct path for the sound to travel from the battery vent to my ear, so I didn't hear it at all. (It wasn't actually blocking air flow to the vent.) But one time I took her car seat out to use it in another car for a couple of days, and suddenly I heard this loud fan noise I hadn't heard before (but knew what it probably was from reading PriusChat).
Funny this was brought up. I just picked up a rental tonight for a final try before I buy and noticed the vent. Figuring it was for the battery, I suddenly became fairly concerned about it getting blocked. I rented a Prius V last weekend, and I think it was under the rear seat which seems like a much better location. Are there any good ways to prevent blocking? Has anyone considered relocating the vent?
Awareness more than anything else. Relocating wouldn't be in your warranty's interest, and considering the 100-150k mile nature of that warranty, I'm going to go with just teaching my kids not to block it.
Had my 2010 for 130,000 kms and I can't say I have ever heard the fan. I know it runs. I have removed and cleaned it. I don't cope with heat well and do tend to use the A/C a lot in hot weather.
Funny. It's been "hot" here for the last week or so. Up to 30C. I started using the A/C cooling. On the way home from dropping off a friend I heard an air noise right rear. I thought he had left the door half latched, then realized that would turn on the door open light. So it must be the fan. It only ran when I was moving. Sitting at a light it was off. That's what confused me.
I hear the fan running quite often... it's particularly noticable when driving at high speeds on hot days.
I hane an '06 and an 11, the '06 doesn't have the echo the 11 has, I took out the spare tire and found a large chamber connected to the aforementioned rear seat vent, the spare isn't really secure and any movement is echoed into the passenger compartment, any noises from the passenger compartment will be echoed back from the chamber, I put sound deadening material under the tire and it seems to be absorbing most of the noise that was coming from the rear vent while driving. As I mentioned the '06, it doesn't have as large a chamber, and it seems to be baffled somewhat. The 11's chamber is excellent for cooling air flow, it just needed some sound deadening.
I'm puzzled you mention that your spare is not secured. My 2010's spare is secured by a bolt that also holds down the jack and tyre leaver retainer. Additionally the tyre rests on a specially shaped polystyrene foam insulator. (??)
