A bottle of wine exploded in my Prius today- well the cork popped off and all the wine is gone. I can't find where the liquid went-it was incredibly hot outside today and I thought maybe it evaporated??? It was in the cargo area- The car is driving fine but the only other thread I saw on this says this can cause damage to the battery- I am totally freaking out. I just bought it. I'm going to call the dealer tomorrow to have it looked at. Does anyone have any ideas what I can do to locate where the spill went or should I just take it to the dealer?
You know the Prius has a false floor right? The back part pulls up and voila, spare storage and a plastic bin. If you are lucky, it would be in there. Otherwise that false bottom, is another bottom! That's where the spare tire, jack, whatever is as well as the hybrid battery. That's where I would look. But it can seep down by the 12v battery all the way to under the rear bench seat.
I just looked there and there is some moisture but no liquid- When I found it earlier today, the foreward cargo mat has moisture on it but the mat area closest to the rear seat was bone dry- if it had gone into the spare battery area would it have drained from there or in plus hundred degree weather evaporated?
well there's some liquid but not a bottle's worth of wine. I drove the car home not knowing how terrible this could be and it was fine..
Pull everything out, the subfloor tray, the spare tire and its tool tray. Pull out the two corner floor pieces. Then look everywhere, with a good light. Check under the 12 volt bsttery, for example. A wet/dry vacuum cleaner may be needed.
It didn't break, the cork just popped off. It was in the cargo area-- But I just got back from Toyota- They looked over it and said I needed to clean the carpet and the some of the hidden areas, tire well, etc. Some got into the 12V battery well, but not much- They said nothing got into the hybrid battery well and said it was pretty well sealed off and it should be fine. So I pulled rubber mats out, pulled carpet pieces out and wiping everything with 401 K and then using pet cleaner on the carpet to get the smell out. None made it's way to the rear seat area. Toyota service guy said car was fine and just needed cleaning.
I never leave wine it a hot car. Even if the bottle (or cork in your case) does not break, the wine will be adversely affected. I use an insulated bag if I have a stop coming from the wine store. I agree with the others the carpet probably absorbed it. You may want to have it cleaned to prevent future odors.
A bottle of wine (typically 750 ml) doesn't hold a lot of liquid...just a little over 3 cups. That could easily be absorbed by the carpet. (Hope it was white wine!)
It was white wine! I have all the carpet pulled now, sponged with warm water and sprayed with Nature's Miracle- The pieces are sitting on top of my boyfriend's car now, basking in the sun.
I learned my lesson the hard way! Thanks for the tip. I think I'm going to use an insulated bag/or better yet a cooler to tote liquids in the future- and never will I let wine sit in my car again. I feel so lucky that nothing more serious came of this.
There's a reason wine is stored in the cellar and not in the attic. I traced the deck carpet on to a large box to protect the carpet when hauling cargo.
If pretty much a whole bottle of wine has disappeared into the hatch area, I'd want personally inspect, all the way to the low points. Chances are the dealership got someone on it, but I'd want to be sure, not discover a sticky grit trap later. Under the 12 volt battery for sure.
There was a tablespoon or so of wine under the 12 volt- The service guy rocked the car to see if could hear sloshing, but he didn't. It doesn't sound super professional though, huh? Since the car has been cleaned by me, the smell has dissipated to a hint of Pinot Grigio in the cabin, rather than the smell of a wine bar after a busy night. Nature's Miracle worked very well to break up the wine smell. I really think the majority of the wine was absorbed by the carpet- So I will clean it once more and hopefully that will eradicate it altogether. I was just looking at my owner's manual, there's a section on how to remove the 12 volt. I will do that soon to get the last remaining sips of wine.
Maybe the battery hold-down bracket can be loosened/removed, and the battery just raised slightly without disconnection, to better afford a peak under without loosing settings, and all the hassle. If you have a jump pack with a 12 volt outlet, there are memory saver cables, run between the jump pack and the OBD port, just provide 12 volt during battery disconnection, to avoid erasing memory.