Extreme Cold - Any Tips?

Yeah third gen it's the opposite: inverter radiator is at the top, so best to start blocking at the bottom. Which is easier to work with I think: the upper grill openings are small/fussy, it's hard to block them effectively, and more unsightly/noticeable.

 

It’s because people that don’t even own 2nd gens anymore make comments they know nothing about. Shameful.

 

Gen 2 Prius didn't have very good heaters in them.

 

One more question then...if the battery is frozen, when things warm up will it "come back to life" and start the car? Or will it still need to be charged up somehow? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

 

Sorry to hear about the emergency vet visit and I hope things are ok there. I am not well versed in auto mechanics, so it is new for me to understand the terminology being thrown about on this chat, but I am trying to keep up! Since I have not been successful with charging from the port under the hood and have been warned against chraging the terminals directly, I feel my only alternative now is to have the car towed to a local shop for them to deal with it. Very costly...and frustrating! This is my third Prius and I love the cars...but not when stuff like this happens. If there wasn't so much salt on the roads I would power up my '66 Mustang and use her!

 

I secure ours with velcro tape. Better than zip ties, in that you can pull it off and/or reuse it in seconds.

This is our typical west coast winter mode (again, 3rd gen, inverter radiator at top). If when it gets consistantly below zero, I'll put a second tube on on the bottom, goes from 50% to 100% block. There's a third gen blocking thread here, says you "can" block the upper 50%, but just in extreme cold, and that never ever happens here, lol. This is the 1.5" OD stuff:

 

What connection point are you using for the negative (black) clamp? You are of course using the tab in the fuse box to connect the positive (red) clamp, aren't you? How long are you leaving the charger on, you probably need to be having it on for a good 18 or more hours.

As long as you connect the red clamp to the positive battery terminal and the black one to the negative terminal, there is not really much that can go wrong. The damage is done when you connect them the wrong way around. Also, there are more things to go wrong when you are jumping it.

You certainly do not need to be towing it into a mechanic just to have a battery charger connected.

 

0 deg C or 0 deg F?

 

There's one sneaky with the positive battery terminal (assuming second and third gen are similar): the terminal is mostly plastic, with one face sheathed in copper. There are some jump/charge cables where only one jaw is connected to the wire. If this is the case you need to be careful which direction you apply the clamp, or you won't make an electrical connection.

Centigrade. Currently exceptionally cold for us, was minus 6 (centigrade) this morning, walking the dog. Sunny though. I bought a second tube and installed yesterday, must have lost it over the previous (mild winters). Home Depot and all have it; I use a couple of 3/4" (pipe diameter it's insulating) by 3', to do 100% block of lower.

 

If you get those fun noodles for pool use you can get different colors.

 

Oh I saw some in red/white candy cane spiral tubes, around Christmas, and I was really thinking about it...