I get to do my 2nd EBH Install.

I've had my EBH installed for 10 months now. But I now get to take it out and install another one. The wiring fried right in the anti-strain area next to the plug. Fortunately, it was still under warranty (Thank-you MetroTPN!). The first sign we had of a problem was when my wife was unplugging the car in the early morning darkness and saw a spark. She didn't continue with it and fortunately I pulled out a flashlight to investigate before trying again. The insulation was visibly melted away. I'll try to get some pictures of it to post if any-one's interested. Has anyone else experienced something like this?

I haven't had the problem, but I've thought about the possibility.

You may only need to replace the plug. The strain relief area does get a lot of tugging day after day. You could also check that the resistance of the EBH is about 32 ohms. (and not a dead short.)

Routing the cable took me longer than the EBH install itself.

Do you have to raise the car up to install the EBH? I've been thinking about installing mine before winter sets in.

Yes, unless you are unusually thin you should need to raise the front end up.

If you raise up the front...can you install EBH from below with out taking out the wiper tray and all that to come in from the top?

Yes. Removing the wipers is unnecessary. You DO have to remove the plastic cover over the radiator area, but only to route the power cable once the EBH installation is completed.

Did you have to use two jacks to lift the front up entirely?

I would never crawl under a car supported only by jacks. Jack up one side, put a jackstand under the wheel, jack up the other side, put a jackstand under the other wheel. Or, get some ramps and drive up onto them.

Several of the installs I've done have had this happen. It appears the cord just behind the strain relief is a weak point. Now I use a wire tie and fasten the extra wire loom I use to the strain relief as an extra measure. Also I now teach everyone to hold the EBH plug solid against the car body the plug/unplug the extension cord.

Wayne

Any chance you could post a picture of how you have the end attached to the grill? I can see this problem cropping up for me in the future and I'd sure like to avoid it. I'm not sure I understand exactly what you do to prevent it.

That makes me wonder... is there some way to lock the plug rigidly, using the fat part of it? It'd have to be a clamping device that could be then attached to the car. Or I may want to attach one of those cord extenders, so the ORM plug is not seeing any strain.

Almost the exact same thing happened to one of ours last week. The plug was melted badly, fortunately my wife noticed before grabbing a hot wire and unplugged the extension cord at the other end instead. I clipped the plug off with the intention of just buying and installing a new one from Home Depot, Lowes, etc.

Seems odd that it could be that weak there, though I have heard of others failing. Ours was installed in March, so was only 7 months old, though used just about every day.

Zhe Wiz

I think I'm going to take another look at my installation and try to change things to avoid this problem.

If my picture uploads, this extender may be helpful.


These can be bought online at Cyberguys.com - Computer Parts, Cables and Accessories. Hard to Find Computer Parts

I like it. I might see if I have something like that kicking around in my office computer junk drawers.

What PaulHS is showing looks really close to what I used. (yes, I now have the replacement EBH installed, with an extender). But I was really concerned about wire size, since this is pulling 400 Watts. I happened to have an extender that's 14 AWG. But all the ones I could find on the Internet are 16 AWG or even 18 AWG. (For those who don't know, smaller AWG means bigger wire size, & better for high current situations.). I wish I could remember where I'd bought the 14 AWG ones.

In my install I wire tied the extender in 2 places - each on a different grill piece. And I sealed the connection between the EBH male plug & the extender's Female, with Electrical tape. It's more to ensure it doesn't come unplugged from vibration than to seal out water.

Aces,

The 14 gauge carries 15 Amps. 16 gauge should be sufficient. It is rated at 6 Amps and the EBH draws only 3.5 Amps. 18 AWG is definitely too small however.

I haven't run across anyone who has taken and uploaded good pics of their power cord plug end installation. I tried it myself, but the lighting (sunlight) concealed more than it revealed. Mine is well secured to the lowest horizontal grille bar, but it juts out like a dog's tongue.

Here are two pictures of the way I have my extender tied in place.


Darn! I can't seem to get the pictures to show up in my post! Here's a link to the album I created to show the two pictures. http://priuschat.com/forums/members/aces-albums-cord-extension-ebh-install.html

Aces,

Your setup looks good. (Nice pics too) But doesn't that interfere with grille blocking? Or don't you block your grille?

The EBH and grille blocking work well together.

Attached is my plug install just to show a different option. I cross-tywrapped the plug body (not the strain relief) to the grille next to the foglight. The pipe insulation blocking the grille is obvious.

I don't Grille Block (yet). If I do, I suppose I'll need to cut the Pipe insulation on either side of the plug.

I hadn't even considered blocking until recently, when I came across a thread here, with 200+ posts on the subject. Seattle has a really mild climate. And I haven't seen the really bad FE drops here. Today it was 40°F out, and I still got 68 mpg on a 19 mile commute. On the return trips, it's warmer, but no place to plug in my EBH. So I'm about 59 mpg with it 55°F out.