I've seen lots of posts about the traction battery regarding cooling fan speeds, sensors, overheating, under charged, but is there a dash light that warns the batteries are overheating before they are damaged ? I'm worried about someone riding in the back of the car, covering the vent and causing battery damage. It is hard to see if they are covering the vents when you are sitting in the front driver seat. Thanks
spiderman, Thanks for the answer. I was hoping there was a light instead of wondering what that burning smell was . I've looked at that vent and thought that was a bad spot because it is so easily covered by someone in the back seat. But I'm not sure where a better spot would be.
The battery won't "burn". It will get too hot, that will be detected, and the system will protect it by reducing use dramatically (you will notice loss of power). Overheating the battery is something that you would not want long term, as it will shorten the life of the battery, but once in a while won't be a problem.
Also as a result of the system protecting itself, you'd notice a drop in MPG. That's due to the engine carrying a burnt of the load to allow the battery to rest. Remember, the system can generate electricity on-the-fly, so you can still get some advantages of having an electric motor even without drawing from the battery-pack for power.
To add to the above, you'll notice the engine running at times where it would normally shut off - I think sometimes even when you're stopped. I often encounter something similar on mountains; it will stop charging the battery at around 75% instead of the normal 80% - it's not as aggressive as when you're at higher temperatures though, because it will still use the battery, just not charge it. The engine will still shut off, too. So there seem to be stages in the car's thermal protection of the battery as it tries to keep you from overheating it. If all its steps fail, then you'll see the yellow ! and get a message about "Hybrid System Overheat" or something similar.
Fine, except for the situation one shots it down when battery gets hot. The battery fan will be turned off even though fully charged battery can still generate heat after charging is stopped.
FWIW, I keep a dog seat cover in the back seat because we travel with our dog a lot (as you can guess I'm high-risk for reduced battery ventilation). If I'm not careful the seat cover will block the battery fan inlet. I usually just reach behind me before every trip and pull the cover away from the inlet and go on with my life. Earlier this week I was about 30 minutes into a trip when I noticed the fan inlet was completely covered by the seat cover. A quick check of my log files from the Torque app - nothing unusual about the battery temperature and the only thing I noticed was that the blower fan speed stayed at 2/6 during the entire trip. The fan was drawing enough air around the cover to meet battery cooling needs. So unless your passenger is wearing a garbage bag for pants, this may not be a huge concern. I'm guessing Toyota accounted for the occasional "your-daughter-falls-asleep-over-the-vent-on-the-way-home-from-a-trip-to-grandma's-house" scenario.
Hello. I have a 2008 Prius. Also many gen3’s . Run a fleet for Uber drivers in Virginia. I’ve been working on my batteries successfully for one year . Run into a problem with this one I can’t figure out yet. The battery reaches 130F and goes down to 2hp charge . If I put another battery runs perfect so it’s not the car or the fan, since the gen2s fan are detached. All modules tested 3 times . All charged. All k and E. Thanks
