Woke up to the smell of burning plastic and found this in the garage. I think the block heater caused it. So much for waiting on the GenIV. Anyone need some parts, the tires are almost new. Dan How do I attach a pic..anyone?
the most important thing is the family is safe... the house did not burn down... Let the insurance companies fight over it.. as a stop gap you could always get a another genII with the money and not be out of pocket much if anything and get the Gen IV in a couple years...
The most important thing is that no one got hurt. The Prius can be replaced, but human life is another story. Glad to hear no one got hurt.
This. I have a few questions though... and this raises important questions in my head, as Ive read here at least once, maybe more - about a Prius catching fire with suspicion pointing to the fire originating from the engine block heater I surmise this is because the Prius EBH isnt installed into the cooling jacket like most other engines, where its submerged and coolant surrounds the element. Ours is a metal rod that gets inserted into the cylinder head, most likely right next to, but not submerged in, the coolant jacket. Once I wanted to see if my EBH was working. So I put the Prius up on ramps, plugged in the EBH and got on my back. I reached my head up near the area of the EBH and didnt feel much, so I touched the metal (Darwin moment forthcoming) lol. It was ridiculously hot and I nearly burned my finger off. It had just been plugged in for ~5 minutes. This is very different than all my other vehicles with EBH's that were submerged in coolant. You could not touch the area and get burned. It would be hot but not scorching-melt your skin- hot. Anyways, I digress..... I can easily see if something was up near that area (leaves, rodent nest, etc....) it could easily catch fire. So my first question is, does anybody think: * Should Prius owners who have installed an EBH be removing the heating element and replacing the heat transfer grease maybe every couple years? * Should Prius owners who use their EBH often, replace the whole assy on some kind of interval to prevent a potential short/fire? (We already know the cords are the weak spot). My next question to the OP: * How long would you leave your EBH plugged in for? This is for my own information, as I leave mine on a HD timer for 4 hours before I drive off to work in the morning. * Do you use the EBH year round, or just during the cold months? * Have you ever had any problems with your EBH cord? After just 14 months, I had to repair a piece of my EBH cord. Thats it. Im curious. No agenda.
EBH is on timer, was on for less than a hour out of about a four hour timed period. I use it mostly during the winter. The cord has been a problem, so a couple of years ago I installed a short maybe two foot store bought "extension" to eliminate the constant flex-use of the EBH cord. Thanks, Dan
Well, I really hate that this happened, I remember inserting one in my '06, the wires just sit on the block(coming out of the hole), no sort of rubber grommet or gasket around them, and it's 120v, was wondering if they would wear through and short, 120v's sparking, now I have to look and see if I surrounded the wires with electricians tape and if not, it's a to do
I would do the short extension cord thing to eliminate the stresses on the EBH cord. Then again......
Agree. The rest of us that use the Prius EBH frequently should view this as a gentle reminder that the EBH needs at least annual (or more) inspection of the cord, the EBH area, and maybe some kind of preventative action if we see something amiss. Im very glad that nothing worse happened to the OP such as a house fire or loss of life. Like I said, my cord shorted out last week and Ive only been using the block heater for 1.5 winters.
Well if you were not a very ethical person.....nobody will know if you swapped the good battery for one that is not good.
With my luck, I'd swap the batteries, then the insurance company would fix the fire damage and return the car to me
