I brought my 2010 in for the airbag recall and the dealer says I have a dirty cooling filter for the traction battery. He'll gladly correct this and perform battery "service" for my favorite customer price of $249. I know I could remove the back seat and do any service myself. Is there any "service" I really need to do? Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
You don't need to pull up the seat to access the hybrid battery fan (there is no internal filter btw). If you push open the gap between rear seat bottom and back, adjacent to fan inlet grill, look through the gap with a good light: there's a bolt holding the grill portion of seatback, 12 mm socket size I believe. Just use a ratchet wrench extension and you can back it out. Reach your hand in too, to hold the bolt when it comes loose: you don't want to drop it. Then you may well have to remove seat bottom to recover it. Then, in the hatch, pop up the rear portion of the floor over the battery. There's a number of tenacious fasteners, use pry tools gently, take your time. Most of them can be left off when putting things back together, the floor is still well secured with a few tabs. You need to flip down the seatbacks, peel carpetting off velcro strips, and I believe there's an additional bolt needs removing. Basically just follow your nose, pull off and clean the ductwork, and eventually you'll be down to the fan. It can be cleaned without removal from the car, not that hard. That's pretty much it, takes an hour at most.
Is that at inlet grill? 2010 Prius is a little different I think, no filter holder in the inlet grill. Maybe you'd need to swap grill too. Good idea though. I just put in a piece of window screen material on the inside, comparable in coarseness to Toyota's filter I think. I put it so it's bowing away, then put a couple of loops of thread through the screen and grill, to pull them together.
Other than checking/cleaning the fan (which could be worth $250) I see no need. Put it this way, I have not done anything.
Alternated fact. What a world we live in. I appreciate all the help. I'll take my time and do what you suggest. I am pretty sure I can find something else to do with the $249! Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
But that's why they are called stealers. Oops, of course I meant dealers. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
