Longo Toyota tells me Prius overheating is *normal*!?

Hi Galaxee,

That's great. I'm wondering whether your DH will refrain from using the THHT when he does the engine coolant, so that he is facing the same constraints as most of us?

 

we don't have the scantool. as much as he wants one, the price of that thing will pay for most of his college tuition...

he says it can be done without using the scantool. it's very helpful but not required.

 

Longo as far as sales is great, their body/paint repair is another story...i have my own bad exp from them...get that fixed asap, when is "overheating" ever normal for a car...thats total BS!!!!!!!

 

Kablooie, when you get tired of Longo, take the thing to Claremont Toyota. If you bring them a bag of cookies, they'll probably know who sent you

 

I love it when the dealer says a defect is normal.. My favorite saying is " if you can't fix it feature it". I agree with the guy that says the body shop guys are over their heads and don't know it. See the service manger.

 

If this Longo service claims the overheating is "normal" then see another dealership. The motor is aluminum and won't tolerate overheating. Get this fixed ASAP. If necessary, call the Toyota assistance number and start a file

 

Yeah, the highest I've ever seen was 206°F on my scangage. That was climping the Cuesta Grade north of San Luis Obispo, in 90 degree summer weather with AC running. It usually runs between 182 and 188°. Overheating is not "normal" for any modern car. My 1966 Mustang always ran hot, but it was neither normal, or modern.

 

If they didn't flush all the air from the system (and it's not easy to do that correctly) then you still have a problem. Only replacing the radiator cap is not enough.

 

Hey Kablooie -

Let us know how your salsa is. We have been driving out to Longo for all our 'major' prius repair needs... sorry to hear yours latest experience has not been a good one.

Hope you get her back to preaccident shape soon.

~A

 

I also live in Sacramento where it's routinely 105+ in the summer and I've also taken my prius over the mountains into Oregon. Never had it overheat so far.

 

For one more datapoint, I've driven here when it's 115°F (46°C) with the A/C on full, and haven't had any problems with overheating.

 

Geez, what a PITA for you.

That issue is one that has been known about in the automotive repair industry for a *long* time. For example, to change the water pump on a conventional old-fashioned V8 you have to remove the fan shroud, fan, hub, etc.

It was easy enough to put the fan on backwards when putting it all back together again. As long as you drove at low speeds or in town, there was no difference. On the highway, instant overheat.

The fan put in backwards would turn into a "pusher" instead of a puller. So once at a bit higher speed, the fan would push against the airflow and the rad would overheat

Thing is, every fan that I recall working on - I'm not a mechanic just a hobbyist - was marked to indicate the proper direction. For example, when I still had my '84 Ford truck in Utah, the dinky Canadian spec rad couldn't keep up

I had a custom monster 5 row rad made at a custom shop in SLC. I also ditched the fan clutch and put in a hub spacer, and a "flex" fan from Summit Racing. The flexfan is clearly marked to indicate which side faces the rad

At one time it was also common to upgrade cooling systems, as for some reason a lot of cars and especially emission controlled trucks from the '70's had weak cooling systems. They'd put in a bigger fan and sure enough, backwards

At idle, you could walk in front of the truck and feel the hot air blasting at you. At highway speeds, overheat

Really, this is nothing new. I'm just surprised it happened

 

I beg to differ Jayman. Puting the fan in backwards will not convert it from a "puller" to a "pusher". It will be less efficient, but it will not push. Think about it....

 

Well, I clearly remember the install back in the early 90's. The fan is labeled to indicate rotation and which side faces the rad.

One way to test this. I'm heading out to the hobby farm this weekend. It's a simple 10 min job to unbolt the shroud and fan from the spacer, then flip it around.

 

You could also just sketch a fan blade in profile. Indicate the direction of rotation and resulting air movement, then flip the sketch around and see if it looks any different. Real fan blades are usually asymmetric and so they don't work as well mounted backwards.

 

it could also be they didnt plug in the engine cooling fan

 

After market fans like the Davies Craig units allow the fan blades to be fitted either way around but they also allow the fan to be wired in reverse. This is so they can be used to push air through or pull it through efficiently.

The convex curve on the blades works like the curve on a front of a sail in that air moves across the curve causing the air to move back through the fan.

If you put the blades on backward (I doubt you could in a Prius) the concave side of the blade would be to the front making the fan into a turbulence creating device and a poor fan.

 

I'll be the first to admit my background is industrial controls, not fluid/air handling. As far as your suggestion, that's what I finally did last night, after 3-4 beers. Also checked out some online engineering resources I'm subscribed to

Right, the fan if run in the opposite rotation it was designed for, would just make a lot of noise and not really do anything. Could even crack the fan blades, cause a catastrophic failure

The only way I can see turning a fan from a "puller" into a "pusher" would be to buy a fan intended for the opposite rotation, *then* put it on "backwards"

I'm now guessing a lot of the old woman tales of people turning their car fans into pusher fans was mostly bulls***

And I shouldn't have had so many beers late at night. My head hurts ....