1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Quick ? -- pulling hi-volt safety plug necessary when cleaning fan?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Stevewoods, Oct 4, 2015.

  1. Stevewoods

    Stevewoods Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2014
    647
    983
    0
    Location:
    Seattle, WA
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Want to tackle cleaning the battery blower fan. Not even thinking I will remove it, just wipe and vac., but we will see.

    So...Instructions in this post Battery Fan Cleaning | PriusChat, as well as a couple of others on this forum say nothing about having to disconnect the hi-volt safety plug to do this, a couple of posts talk about disconnecting the 12V negative and a couple do not

    My Chilton's repair manual says it is a necessity to disconnect the Hi-Volt safety plug and I need special lineman's gloves to do it.

    Whose right?
     
    #1 Stevewoods, Oct 4, 2015
  2. RobH

    RobH Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 18, 2006
    2,369
    978
    70
    Location:
    Sunnyvale, California
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Easy way to identify hazardous wiring in the Prius is the orange colored insulation. No orange to the fan, so I'd say it's safe to work on. You can look at the orange wires, just don't cut them or fiddle with their connectors without using protection.
     
    #2 RobH, Oct 4, 2015
  3. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2009
    5,131
    1,338
    0
    Location:
    Wilmington, NC
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    The HV Battery wires come in to the Electronic Module section and land on the top side of the Main Relays. There are no exposed conductors and with car OFF there is no HV on the downstream side of the Main Relays.

    So the short answer is that you can clean the battery fan without disconnecting the Safety Plug but you just need to be extremely careful and stay away from the end closest to the HV battery. The battery fan is located at the opposite end from the battery.
     
    #3 jdcollins5, Oct 4, 2015
  4. Beachbummm

    Beachbummm Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 12, 2013
    1,160
    392
    0
    Location:
    Florida
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    Five
    fan is on the other side of the battery where nothing is exposed
    GO
    4
    IT
    :)
     
    #4 Beachbummm, Oct 4, 2015
  5. Stevewoods

    Stevewoods Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2014
    647
    983
    0
    Location:
    Seattle, WA
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Thanks!!

    As usual, you guys are the best! Just one other thing, I am decent on 1967 Fords, these hybrids, not so much, so, when I open this up, the blower is going to be obvious, I assume, and, if I do NEED to disconnect/pull it out, still am not going to light up like Clark Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation as long as I am reasonably careful.




     

    Attached Files:

    #5 Stevewoods, Oct 4, 2015
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2015
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,686
    48,936
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    there's a good you tube from luscious garage, should have all your answers.
     
    #6 bisco, Oct 4, 2015
  7. Stevewoods

    Stevewoods Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2014
    647
    983
    0
    Location:
    Seattle, WA
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Hi Bisco:

    Thanks for the reply. I did find a blog post from Lucious, but no video. That post was one of the things that made me think I should do the cleaning. The blog post just said it should be done at 60K and no detail how to do it. Only video I found was a Priuschat person and it had no sound and was a bit confusing...mostly because it is very fast paced....although I did appreciate the effort.
     
    #7 Stevewoods, Oct 4, 2015
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2015
    bisco likes this.
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

    Joined:
    May 11, 2005
    107,686
    48,936
    0
    Location:
    boston
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius Plug-in
    Model:
    Plug-in Base
    sorry, i thought there was more than that. have you searched here? there are quite a few threads. i don't recall anyone ever pulling the plug.
     
    #8 bisco, Oct 4, 2015
  9. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2009
    5,131
    1,338
    0
    Location:
    Wilmington, NC
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    If you do release and pull the Safety Plug pay very close attention to the orientation of the disconnect switch. If it is not re-installed properly you will get the lights.

    For the Gen 2 I believe you have to slide it up first and then rotate it 90 degrees to remove. Install is reverse. The part everyone misses is to slide it back "down" to lock in position after rotating 90 degrees.
     
    #9 jdcollins5, Oct 4, 2015
  10. dorunron

    dorunron Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2011
    3,318
    1,103
    0
    Location:
    Houston, TX
    Vehicle:
    2013 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    jd is 100% correct on R&R of the service plug.

    Here is a PDF file that discusses the service plug on the Gen II Prius.

    FWIW, I don't believe the OP will need to fool with the service plug. Just respect everything and use common sense.
     

    Attached Files:

    #10 dorunron, Oct 4, 2015
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)