My Prius is going in today to the Toyota Dealer for the two recalls. Should I pull out my grille blocking? Would they give me grief about it (i.e. "your inverter cooling pump is bad because you overheated it with the grill blocking and we arent covering it") ?
I guess it depends on the dealer. I never bother with removing the grill block especially since I had painstakingly zip-tied a piece of plastic to partially block the lower grill and it would take a long time to put it back if I cut the zip ties. The dealer never complained. I do disconnect stuff from the OBD port so it's available for the dealer to plug in their tester if needed.
While my dealership(s) have never mentioned it when I didn't take the block out, on the most recent visit (September) they removed the (partial) block without saying anything.
I probably would, if I ever darken their doorstep. I use pipe insulation, single strips that run the full width of the lower grill, either one or two, depending on weather. I secure with velcro tape, and it takes all of 30 seconds to remove.
I ended up taking out the grill block. I would rather err on the side of caution and not give them any reason to a.) give me grief, b.) void any warranties, c.) not perform the recalls saying that I accelerated any kind of failure. On the bright side, a really cute dealership shop tech shuttled me back from the Dealer to my work in a 2013 fully loaded Hybrid Camry! It was really cool (oh, the car was too)
I don't remove the insulation & I don't unplug my ScanGauge. One time the Greeter asked about the insulation. No hassles, no aggravations, no problems.
