I recently took my parents on a road trip in my new Prius. They kept complaining that the back seat seemed hot in spots, like they were heated. I should add that it was 110 degrees, but we had the A/C cranked and it was cool inside the car. Is there something under the back seat that gets hot? Has anyone else experienced this. Thanks.
There's not much under the back seat, but the High-Voltage traction battery is behind the back of the back seat. It can get hot when being used, but it's unlikely one could feel it through the foam of the seat cushions. If you put you hand on the carpet right behind where the back seats fold down, it is directly above the HV battery. The grill on the passenger side by the back seat lets cabin air in to flow over the HV battery and cool it, so if the grill is blocked the battery might get hotter.
You should have a look under the rear seat. It's easy to remove the seat bottom, just pull straight up on the front of the seat bottom on each side of the center hump. It will pop up and you can remove it. It's just a large block of foam rubber on a plastic base. Under it you will find the car floorpan, and only a few inches of foam rubber separate the rear seat passengers from that. That is probably the "hot spots". The outside air heating the floorpan. Some of the engine cooling air passes under the car, and that can also heat the floorpan. When you put the seatbottom back in, first fasten all the seat belts, to ensure they are "recoverable". Otherwise you could trap them under the seat. You will have to route them back into the slots in the seatbottom as you put the seatbottom back in. Easy to remove and replace, and it gets easier with practice.
Bear in mind also that the exhaust runs close to the body floorplans back there. You might get a little heat transfer from that....
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bear68 @ Aug 9 2007, 07:56 PM) [snapback]493326[/snapback]</div> I was thinking of that as well, but I'm pretty sure the fuel tank is actually under the rear seat, so I would think the exhaust is below that. Thought about this and wondered why the floorpan was so much higher under the seat, so I looked. Oh yeah, the car still carries fuel, even though it doesn't use much.
I just experienced this today. It was about 90 degrees, and I was riding in the back seat, when all of a sudden my rump was getting hot on each side, where the belt buckle holes are. I could literally feel heat rising from them. Very uncomfortable! :target:
That's exactly what I thought! But I looked over, and the vent (right beside me) was completely unobstructed. And I've sat in the same place in the back seat on a 2 hour drive a couple weeks earlier in 100 degree heat and this didn't happen. The only difference I can decipher is that I had the back window open. Perhaps the draft was interfering with it's self venting? I don't know. Any other long timers have any ideas?
