Dog proofing my Prius

I bought a pair of nylon stockings that mach the color of my seat covers. I removed the battery air intake grill, slipped both stockings over it, and reinstalled it. So I have double layers of fine mesh in front of and behind the grill, and very little restriction of airflow. (Try blowing through a pair of nylon stockings.)

 

Yes that would probably help. Some people here have reported fitting their own filter media over that vent cover.

Note that you can clean the fan fairly easily, and I personally recommend doing this at least once every two years if you carry dogs in the back. Take a look at my reply (number 31) here to see some photos of where the fan is located and what a fully blocked up fan looks like: Fur and dirt causing major battery problems | Page 2 | PriusChat

I noticed my battery getting hot and the fan running high speed the first summer after buying the Prius second hand back in 2009. The photos in the above linked thread shows what the fan looked like when I opened it up. Interestingly it's never been that bad since that time. I started doing an annual check each summer, but there's never been too much fur in there so I've changed to a two year schedule now. This is despite having a large hairy German Shepherd in there a lot of the time.

 

Man...
Where did they find THIS thread???

1. There's no such thing as "Dog Proof" 'Dog resistant' is as good as it gets for now. Lawyers won't let manufacturers use the phrase "Child Proof" for the same reason.

2. If you actually like dogs (or other small furry mammals) consider restraining them in the car when you're motoring around together. If you don't like puppy dogs....consider restraining them anyway for two really good reasons. First of all, you should like small animals. Its a Karma thing, Secondly....even a Yorky-sized pooch can easily hurt people if they clatter around the inside of a car while an accident is in progress. It's a Newton thing.
If you're one of those people that use a small lap dog as a buffer between you and the steering wheel, you can stop doing that as well.
Airbags have been around for decades now.

Just sayin.

 

So you don't have any kind of filter?
If not, then how much hair is going past the fan and into the battery?

 

Yes I agree that's a concern. The main reason that I haven't bothered is because I thought the damage would probably already be done by the previous owner, given the state of that fan the first time that I opened it up. As it's remained relatively clean since then I'm hoping that whatever muck there is in the battery is not getting worse.

After seeing how bad my fan was originally, I was going to pull the HV battery down and inspect but I've never gotten around to it. Actually I tried once but couldn't find all the bolts and eventually gave up. I've since learnt that I should have removed the back seat to access those bolts so try again some time.

 

Thanks uart, if you ever get around to it, please get some pics. That would be interesting to see.

 

Yes. When I get the time to do it I'll definitely take pic's. . Summer has finished here now so the urgency is not so much there, but I'm going to try and get it done before next (southern hemisphere) summer.

 

John is the man....I never thought about the interior grill and dog hair.

I do take care to fold the seat cover away from the grill, but never thought about airborne fur.

I was thinking a light dab or five of silcone to hold some type of filter material in place, but was not sure about what to use. But BritBug's screen idea....hmmm....I have lots of gray plastic(?) window screen around. Might just try that....

 

I've used the same Back Seat Buddy in my last three cars. As a bonus it allows a hiding place behind the front seats and a place to dump groceries without worrying about things moving about too much.
I would suggest adding thin dog beds for long trips for a bit of padding.