Spill coffee into the drive Mode buttons

sorry to hear about it. i'm sure someone will post the instructions, all the best!

 

Do the button still work? Or are you concerned with the smell, stain only?

 

What I would do without disassembling the unit: when the Power OFF spill some distilled water into it. Then blow with compressed air, having some disposable tissues around. And repeat. If you don't have a compressor let's buy a bottle of duster.

 

I would not recommend pouring more liquid (H2O) into your electronic shifter, even if you are going to blow compressed air in there. Water and electricity usually not a good mix, more likely a recipe for a short circuit and possible permanent damage.

OP, search for the threads on PriusChat for the Stage 10 Electronic Shifter. There are disassembly instructions there. Remove the shifter assembly.

Then you can try cleaning the buttons with some denatured alcohol or electronics cleaner, followed by the aforementioned compressed air.

SCH-I535

 

Generally you are right, however I was seeking for quick advice without disassembling the unit. Believe me or not, I have the experience with damaged hand-held VHF radio-telephone which was submerged in SEA water. First thing was to disconnect the battery! Then I washed entire device in wash basin under fresh water, then dried it carefully and it came back to life with no problem Similar stories with various electronic equipment. But the first point is to cut-off power supplies.

Of course - the disassembling and cleaning all parts one by one is the best solution.

 

If you are going that route, I wouldn't use comepresed air. It would drive water and the coffee further into the electronics. I would use shop vac to suck out the water and dissolved coffee instead.

SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 ? 2

 

Its not the coffee, its the sugar and creamer in the coffee that makes things sticky. There's no good option other than removing the button assembly for cleaning.

 

Good idea.

 

Homelessz- Yours is the first post on the "Coffee Sloshing, Drink Spills Vulnerability" in Toyota’s design and layout of the Drive Mode Buttons that I have seen on this site. Thanks for sharing this "Whoops…Coffee Spilling" happening with us Coffee Drinkers gathered here who are piloting the v(vee). This "Spill Coffee Into The Drive Mode Buttons" post needs to be FWD'ed to the designers at Toyota Town because it is a "Design Shortfall," or at least a marginal design, considering that the switched assembly is placed/located directly next to the beverage holder.

Duh-h-h, mounting three (3) upward facing, non-wet-proofed Drive Mode Electric Switch Buttons stacked horizontally, fore-to-aft, directly next to (i.e. by measure, ¾ of an inch away) from a receptacle that contains moving, sloshing liquid is "A Slosh/Spill-Accident Waiting To Happen."

I had a "Coffee Sloshing ‘Whoop-p-s’ Event" happen to me as I was very slowly moving along in the EV Mode (<1 MPH) in a grocery store parking lot. In the at-crawl-speed process of very gently negotiating a speed bump in the Winn-Dixie grocery store parking lot with a cup of their "Gratis-Complimentary" Winn-Dixie Customer Coffee sitting in the coffee-drink holder of my v(vee)’s Center Console, I crept over the parking lot speed bump at approximately a 45° angle (i.e. One Wheel At A Time), which caused a small, nuisance-level amount of the Coffee liquid in the cup to slosh-splash out of it onto the switch button assembly, and then drain, disappear into the cracks in the Drive Mode Switch Buttons located next to the cup holder.

Fortunately, I drink my coffee BLACK, unadulterated with cream, sugar, and et al other additives with which others (like your Brother) doctor up their coffee-based beverages. The offending coffee liquid for me was essentially brown, clear water. As a result, I did not have to deal with any residual stickiness and/or follow-on “it smells so bad now” problems you had to and are trying to clean up, recover from now. Mine was a simple “Oh $#!T” problem, which quick use of narrow strips of “Brawny” paper towels, selectively inserted inside the cracks-openings in the switches in the switch assembly were able to “wick out” the coffee liquid.

 

I can't recommend pouring or adding more liquid into a situation where the problem is "liquid" already spilled into it. You'd just be pouring more water into the area, "hoping" it helped and hoping it actually didn't do more damage. Not a good idea.

I agree, just look up any of the many push button shifter installation threads. Removal of the panel in that area if I remember right is pretty simple. Then you can actually get in there, and see what you are doing.

Did he have milk or cream in the coffee....

Man...your brother owes you.

 

Homelessz - Ya Dun Good! This is a helpful bit of information for coffee swilling Prius v(vee)'erz who may experience an unintended coffee sloshing event. Enjoy your "Pristine Again" Pv5.

A belated Welcome To The Hybrid "Hive" & The Fight In The War On Petrol Terrori$m - One Gallon/Liter Of Motor Fuel Not Consumed At A Time."

 

This thread reminds me of the old Glenn Ford/Suzanne Pleshette movie "Fate is the Hunter."
An airliner was taking off and lost #1 engine right after rotating. The captain's coffee cup (no lid! duh!) spilled into the control panel creating a short that gave a false signal of engine failure in #2 engine. The captain, now thinking he had lost both engines, pulled power on the second engine and prepared for an emergency landing on the nearby beach. They had it made until a wooden wharf suddenly appeared as they slid down the beach.

Impact..... Fireball...... only Suzanane Pleshette (flight attendant) survives.

Glenn Ford's reenactment proved that it was the spilled coffee, causing a false engine failure warning, that made the captain kill power to the perfectly good #2 engine - thus the crash.

Moral of the story.... don't loan your car to your brother!

(and don't drive with open containers in the beverage holder. Better yet.... use the holder on the lower level.

 

Just got done cleaning this mess this morning...attached some pictures if y'all are interested.

thank
pull from back - like mentioned above, only a few clips are holding it down.

disconnect unit...
remove screws

remove cover and remove electrical unit (dont know what's its called)



washed the housing with warm water and soap. gently cleaned the electrical unit with alcohol.

remember to clean the center console with warm water and soap (that took a lot of time to clean up.)

Good luck and hopefully this helps.

 

sorry, for some odd reason the pictures did not attach to my post.

 

I am glad I searched this forum for this information.

This morning when I pressed the PWR button, the mode button fell inside. I took it to the local Toyota dealer and they wanted a few hours to fix it. I didn't believe that it would take few hours and hence didn't drop off the vehicle. Using the information in this post, I was able to fix it in 30 seconds. One of the plastic clips that is holding the Model button is broken, but nothing major and my temporary fix will probably be good for the next 50000 miles

 

Thank you so much for this post!
If it weren't for this I would have ending up paying to have it fixed/replaced (which means I never would have bothered until I was ready to sell it). Husband spilled coffee AND dogs got sand in the button tracks. Really appreciate this post. It was time consuming to get everything clean/all the debris out but EASY and worth it to have it functioning again! Thank youuuu!

 

Yes, truly a terrible location for the mode buttons on the v. I'm not sure what the designers were thinking.

I find myself inadvertently switching modes on occasions just because they are where they are. And yeah right next to a drink holder...