Infinite resistance, doesn't draw current. It's been installed for a few years. It was a Toyota of Canada part. Anyone else have theirs die? Is this to be expected?
We've used ours a lot, virtually every first start of the day. Not driving the car every day, maybe every other day now. Block heater still fine, though I did drag the plug down the road one time, ground it half off. Spliced in a replacement, no further problems. Could it be a problem with the plug, or the last few feet of the cord? Not sure how you test this without cutting a foot or two off. Maybe with a pin probe through the insulation? Resistance should be in range of 30~40 ohm I think, when it's good.
The cord went bad on my Gen2's EBH after just 1.5 winters, had an open. Worth a shot to rule out, if you were measuring at the cord vs. at the block heater prongs itself.
I recall someone visiting Alberta from southern US, and the locals had him half-convinced that plugins were big there: pretty much every driveway sported a vehicle with an extension cord running out to it. I'm in lower mainland BC..., we saw someone SWIMMING at kits beach day before yesterday. I get some puzzled looks over block heater use year 'round.
It was the plug. I used sharp probes to poke thru the cable insulation to determine this, plus that the heater is still 35 ohms resistance. I put a new plug on the cable, then discovered that my 110 VAC timer has a ridge that blocks the larger body of the new plug. Damn. Now I have a short extension cord connecting the heater to the timer. I do have a "plug-in" Prius, but the energy charge is in the form of heat, not electricity.
