Nasty Hybrid Cooling Fan Grill After 90k Miles (photos)

That big of a mess on the filter, coupled with that warning message would encourage me to check out the entire airflow path, up to and including the fan.

 

I made a filter for my 2009 Gen II from a piece of cardboard, a chunk of pantyhose and Velcro - I'll post pictures later (in the middle of doing the biannual TractionBattery recondition at the moment). The fan was cleaned when we fitted the Prolong Harness almost a year ago, the fan was only slightly dirty - nowhere near as gunked-up as that in the OP.

 

Are you the original owner? If not, how long have you had your Prius? My 2010 did not come with a screen is this something you fabricated and installed? Did you clean the fan out as suggested earlier in the thread? What did the fan look like?

 

Maybe this ?? .....

 

^^^ agree ^^^ that is not 'normal. most people find a light coating of caked on dust, unless they transport pets a lot.

what do you do to put 90,000 miles on in 2 years?

 

2010 - 2013

Doesn't look like it'll work for a 2014.

 

I was on when the OP was trying to inspire a response to the great questions asked earlier. But to no avail.

I do not consider San Francisco a very dusty area, but do not know the history of the vehicle or previous locale.

Maybe @CivicRydr will help us with the answers to help the forum understand how it happened.

Thanks for the support !

 

Did they change the inlet to the fan during the Gen 3 run?

After seeing the result of the OP's screen, I know I will stick with cleaning the fan every so often. 'Cause if I found that on the mesh, I would be a cat where the curiosity would kill me and investigate the fan anyway.

But for $15, not a large risk either.

 

there is something missing from this picture.

 

you need live temperate data from the HV battery to monitor it while driving. excessive heat will kill the HV quicker.

 

My guess was an avid rideshare driver.

 

at 60k, my grille and fan blades look factory new.

 

Toyota sells screens, you can all so find them on eBay.

 

I looked at what they were selling, and sort of dup'd. it, with residential, black-painted, aluminum, window screen: the stuff with about 1/16" grid spacing. My piece had been in roll, so had a slight bow to it. I cut a piece the required size to fit on the inside with a little overlap, installed it so it was convex bowing away from the stock grill at the middle, then secured with a couple of lassos of black string, pulling it concave against the grill. When installed thus there's two discreet bits of thread traversing the grid.

 

Great ingenuity there. There are window screen bandaid type of product that sells in hardware stores, its window screen precut sqauares and rectangles the size of 3 by 5 cards with one side adhesive applied so you can patch up window screens around the house. Get those and put it behind the fan take air passage that can use a screen filter.

 

Some of us love our prius and will drive it until it completely dies therefore we'll do anything to keep it running at a low to no cost maintenance. Ideas such as this and oil catch can protects our investment, we'll nerd out in here but ideas get better and improves overtime.

 

I did the same thing Mendel did, except using HVAC filter material, the cheap fiberglass kind. I can't see it has caught much of anything, so far.

 

Historically on Gen2 dogs in the rear was one risk factor...I have been too lazy to check my fan and it is 12 years now (Gen2 had no filter). Some here are shocked about my poor performance on this matter...