The battery vent is at an odd location and I've realized that it has probably been covered a lot by stuff. (What's more odd is that the center of the back seats is part of the passenger side so if I sat in the passenger side to keep the vent always unobstructed, we wouldn't be able to put the center down for cargo...) What happens if the battery vent is covered? I haven't noticed any problems when it was probably covered. I'll pay more attention to it now and try to avoid covering it, but still, it's at an odd location that is often covered.
yes, keep it uncovered. it's possible that you haven't done any harm, but why tempt fate. most prius owners have been able to make it work without going out of their way.
At one time on my gen 3, I had an empty plastic bag that got stuck on the vent on the way home. I drove with a scangauge always attached. The battery temperature shot up to 105F. I've never seen it above 100. The car quit using the battery. It became a ICE car, touch the accelerator, the engine would turn on. When I stopped, and found the problem, the battery cooled back to 100 ish, and the car went back to normal.
