Can anyone tell me if the AC plug is available without popping the hood? A photo would be nice... Thanks in advance.
All depends on how it is installed. Most will run it through the lower grill and it just hands there. One guy ran the plug through the fog light blanks. He made a quick disconnect plug-in. clever.
In the US they don't as it's not available there. In Canada they put it through the lower grill on the drivers side.
We got ours put in by the dealership: they coiled and zip-tied the AC cord/plug under the hood, to an existing conduit near the driver's side headlight. I guess they figure people like to fine tune their AC plug location, run it out through the grill. You could tell them your preference, if this is an install yet to happen. What I did with ours subsequently was to run it down in front of the radiators (routed under plastic trim piece that runs over the radiator frame) and double zip-tied it to one of the lower bumper grill bars, with a few inches of cord. Two zip-ties, a few inches apart, is insurance: Sooner or later you will forget to unplug it. A single zip-tied cord might pull further out, and you end up with the plug dragging along the road for a few kilometers. Don't ask how I know.
I see that all of the responses are coming in from the great white north. Maybe I should be asking if the EBH will be of any value when used in an unheated Pennsylvania garage that seldom gets below 35F.
You will see faster warm up/heat in the cabin in the winter after you start driving, and you should see some mileage benefit as well since you're in principle progressing thru engine warm up faster. BTW, I just pop the hood and run the power cord to a timer. I forgot to unplug once, and noticed the extension cord following the car in time to stop and unplug. Whew. I've got a carport, naturally unheated.
Thanks. I'm not going forward with this if it requires popping the hood, but it sounds as if that is not the case.
In "the great white north" where we get -real- winters, a 400W "block heater" doesn't do much. Yes, it does dump -some- heat into the engine, and it allows warmup to be achieved perhaps a few minutes faster. But when it's -20 or colder (which is often in a normal winter here) it's kind of pathetic. For a place where it's 35F it would have a bigger effect. Pearl came with the block heater. I use it once a year just to say I did. I have an insulated unheated garage. In the depth of winter it gets down to about -10C inside when it's -20 to -30C outside. The block heater is more bother than its' worth in my opinion here.
Minus 30 C? Now that's what I call a real winter! Just spoke with my Toyota dealer. They claim i am the first person to ever ask about the EBH and that all they could do is to bill me an hourly rate for their actual time. That's not giving me a lot of confidence.
That's standard, closed-minded US Toyota dealership stupidity. I've run into this locally with both service writers and mechanics. They seem to be consciously unaware of what Prii have available in other countries like Canada, where EBH are a dealer-installed item using a Toyota part and Toyota instructions. I ran into the same problem here. You'll either have to do it yourself, find a private shop that does it, or drive to Canada.
I spoke with my dealer again, and this time I was connected to the head of their Prius service team. First response" "Are you planning drive somewhere really far north?" From there they went into the "no warranty for a non-Toyota part" spiel, followed by "we'll look into this and get back to you." And they wonder why they never see our vehicle for service...
