While looking in a GenIII parts catalog, I saw what appears to be an electric heater next to the heater core. True?
Yes, there's a couple small PTC heaters. Basically, they provide enough heat to keep your breath from fogging the windows when you first turn on the car on a cold day. They don't do enough to make the air feel "warm".
Interesting. My VW TDIs had an electric grid to help heat up the cabin until the coolant was hot enough to take over.
bisco, Yes, your 2008 [& all 2G Priuses (2004-2009)] should all have 2 of the PTC electric heaters. As already said, they don't put out a lot of heat (just enough to take some of the chill out of the cabin air temp until the coolant gets hot enough to take over). If you haven't felt luke warm air coming out of the vents immediately after a cold start, then maybe the tech who did the PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection) didn't bother to install 2 light blue relays in the relay box under the middle of the hood near the bottom of the windshield just below the black plastic tray & the windshield wiper transmission linkages. (See my post #13 in this thread) http://priuschat.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1462145#post1462145 I know your car is 4 years old now, but if they're not there (in the slots for the PTC heaters), then they never got installed by a lazy or ignorant tech in the first place. and the dealer you bought your car from owes you 2 of the light blue relays because they probably tossed them aside before you took delivery (as referenced in my post #13, linked above). How many people know what slots are supposed to be filled in that relay box? [mine had an extra one (for a total of 5) because I have fog lights in my Pkg #4 (AM)]. Heck, I bet some owners have never even opened up that relay box. Ken (in Bolton,Ct)
thanks ken, i will take a look and see if they are there. do you have to have the heat on to feel the lukewarm air? btw, i have never opened the relay box, didn't even know it was there!
Hi again, bisco, See what I mean? Your last sentence in your post #9 confirmed my last sentence in my post #7, so quite a few people may not even know if the tech doing the PDI even installed the PTC relays or just tossed them aside as in the post #13 that I linked you to (which I actually saw the proof of). On my '05, I just turn the blower motor on the lowest speed, in recirculate, & in the face vent setting (unless the windshield is starting to fog up inside---then I use defrost on low). I NEVER use the "Auto" setting & in the winter I always have the temp set to max (of 86 degrees) before I shut down, so it's ready for the next morning. The one thing I can't stand, however, is that even though I have the car set to the "re-circulate" setting before I shut it down at night, the next morning (while the screen is on the energy display) I start to notice ice cold air hitting my face. I turn to the heater/AC display & find the my car has decided to go over the the "fresh air" setting on its own. Usually I don't hear the diverter door changing over because the stereo is on at moderate sound level. However, if I had turned the stereo down or off the night before, I have been able to hear the squeak of the door changing on it's own & then turn immediately to the heater/AC display where I change it back to "re-circulate" to avoid that cold air blast before it even happens. Ken (in Bolton,Ct)
Sorry folks, Another duplicate post like a few days ago. For the last couple of weeks PriusChat has been extremely slow for me (NOT so on any other sites). It has been taking between one & two minutes to load or re-fresh a page, & when I submit a post it takes even longer (about 3 to 4 minutes for the display to show my post), so twice now I have not noticed that the little indicator was showing that it was still in process & I clicked on the submit box again & walked away in frustration, only to discover later that my 2nd click resulted in a duplicate post. On PriusOnLine, I believe that a poster can delete his own post (although I don't have any slowness there & therefore haven't encountered making any double posts), so I don't know if that's entirely true or not. But here at PriusChat the other day the "Cancel" box didn't do anything to rid my first double post, so I tried the "Edit" box & deleted all my text within the duplicate post. But when I clicked on "Save", it told me the text was too short & that I had to use at least 3 letters (or 3 words?) to be able to "Save", so I just typed "Deleted duplicate post" & hit "Save" & left it at that.
PC has been overloaded. Danny is in the process of moving to a new server, but it takes time. While you can't delete your own post, you can edit it and leave something like <deleted> on the page. Tom
thanks R, so the temp has to be set to maxheat. i don't think i have ever done that, i'll have to give it a try. that's a funny place for instructions. are they in the owners manual?
