Traction battery Cooler

Sadly, the default is to not use it, so you have to tell it every time. That's a shame because it's remotely possible for it to be nice & cool when you park and then get very hot when it's time to charge. As for how to make the selection, it's just like any other selection on the MID (Multi-Information Display). Use the selector buttons on the right side of the steering wheel.

The only actual reason to lower it to 8A is if there's something else on that circuit and it's tripping the breaker. As long as it's a 15A circuit and the car is the only thing on that circuit, charging at 8A just makes the charging fan and other circuits run longer and use more electricity to charge the car. The charge rate at 12A or even 16A with an L2 EVSE is vastly less than the charge rates that happen all the time you're driving.

As for the manual, it definitely could be better. I MUCH prefer the PDF version that's available on the Toyota website. It's written just as badly, but this way it's on both computers, my phone, and my tablet and I can search for any word I want. HUGE time saver!! Another thing about the manual that's often overlooked is the index in the back. That can sometimes be a lot better than the table of contents.

 

If it doesn't ask when you park, it can't "decide" to run later, no matter how hot it gets. It will only ask if the battery is over around 95F when you park, and it will only run if the battery is still over 95 F when charging starts. Also, I'm pretty sure it can only run at the beginning of the charging cycle. If the battery gets hot while charging it won't run. It's extremely primitive logic. Toyota makes good cars but the worst software.

 

True dat!! The fact that it won't ask if it's cool when you shut down is just hyper sloppy programming and bugged me right off the bat. At least, if the battery does get hot while charging, it slows the charge rate, if what I've read is accurate.

 

yup
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Isn’t that friggin annoying? On my advanced, the zone MPH sign comes on for 30 seconds covering up the power meter on the HUD but they can’t have a 30 second Traction Battery Cooler message or at least make it an auto yes with the option of saying no.


iPad ? Pro

 

HI
Just got the Traction Battery Cooling message for the first time , yesterday ! since i owned the car. I have been reading some posts on that subject prior to this event. The message was displayed when i parked the car at 6 PM. I did answer YES to the message . The charge is scheduled every night at 11H30 PM. So I plugged the car as usual . nothing special hapenned. my question is that at 11.30 PM did something different happened ?
The car is fully charged this morning as usual.
traction battery cooling seems to be a saucerfull of secrets !

 

Whether the A/C actually came on depends on the temperature at time of charging. I'm guessing it cooled off enough before your charge start time. If you can view the charge time or electricity amount, you can puzzle out whether the cooling came on. It would result in longer time and/or more energy used.

 

The traction cooling function works only if the traction battery is hot at the time the charging starts. In your case, when you stopped your car, the traction battery temperature was hot enough for the car to give you the chance to enable the cooler, but since the charging did not start until 5+ hours later, by then the battery cooled on its own without any AC help. So, it did not need anything special. If you did set your charging to Charge Now and started charging immediately after you parked and enabled the traction battery cooler function by quickly answering the question by toggling to "YES", then the car would have turned on the AC and cooled the cabin temperature to help cool down the traction battery quicker.

Like you, I live in an area where the ambient temperature is never that hot. I do not see the cooler function warning display on my car often. Unless it needs to be charged immediately after parked, I don't even bother to answer the warning.

 

I’ve experienced it working a few places at public charge stations (on hot days while I’ve been picnicking in Bromont and elsewhere) but it rarely happens. It does slow the overall speed of charging a bit. I say yes when I see it but I don’t worry about it.

 

I see that message a lot because summers are hot here. However, I thought the traction battery cooler only works for a scheduled (not charge now) charge, or when there is no scheduled charge programmed. I'll try it again, but I've never been able to get it to work because I have a scheduled charge that happens about 3 am every night. Also, I don't think it's needed anyway because the Prime lowers the charge current automatically to protect the battery (at least that's what's explained above). Seems like a useless function to me, especially when more electricity is used to charge the car by having to run the a/c too.

 

I've seen a hypothesis(perhaps in this thread) that it is more for keeping the charging process from adding more heat to the cabin on a hot day than protecting the battery. Cooling the cabin before the battery is an inefficient way of lowering the pack's temperature.

 

Hummmm........I was under the impression that when the message is displayed and the answer is yes ,AND if you have scheduled charge but then you decide to charge now for any reason, the conditions are met to cool the car down when the charge starts.

 

When the coolling fans are turned on ,the air is exhausted outside the car, as i understand it hot air will go out the cabin. Only the air from the charger itself is released in the cabin .

 

I've never been able to get the a/c to come on under those conditions.

 

Some heat will conduct through the pack case into the cabin.

The charger it self is not a minor source of heat. The times the cooler becomes an option to turn on, and actually run, will likely see the car baking in the sun.

 

Air flow comes from outside the car, into the cabin, through the filters and out through the battery pack. Maybe that's what you wrote, but it wasn't clear.

 

What I meant was : The air is sucked in from the cabin by the two fans , this air is chanelled through the battery pack and exhausted ouside the car,somewhere out the rear fenders