Hybrid traction battery filter

Whenever it starts to look dirty. So far, mine have always been clean. It doesn't seem to be in the warranty and service guide.

 

That filter is a joke. It’s so thin, there shouldn’t ever be a reason to replace unless it’s torn or somehow destroyed. if you blow it out with low pressure air compressor, that would most likely be enough to keep going for several 10’s of thousands of miles. I replaced mine at 100k and the one I replaced it with looked the same as the one I had. What it’s filtering isn’t like it’s for combustion or something like that. If you have a pet, it’s the hair that will most likely get stuck in it.

 

Mine is still as clean as when new. But then - my dog doesn't go in the car often, and he's a non-shedding mini-poodle.

 

I went in and just replaced mine. I took my furry dog once in my car in the last 5 years of owning it and to my surprise I had a quite a bit of dog hair on it from that one time. I agree with others, probably unless its very dusty where you live or moving around furry friends its probably not needed at 100k Miles. FYI if your not super careful with the filter, it will probably tear and should be replaced at that point. I was gonna blow it out with the air compressor but its rather thin and flimsy, not even as heavy duty as your cheapest cabin filter you can buy, it like a foam spongy filter. I went ahead and blew out the insides of my battery while I had the cover door for good measure but doubt it really did anything. The screw panel was a pain. Had to use a panel puller and a screw driver. Definately put some indents into the plastic and the clip pulling it out.

 

Check the fan itself, occasionally. The filter likely only stops a portion of the dust.

 

Little trick on the plastic panel is to get a plastic pry tool behind the grommet and then try to unscrew the "screw". Regardless, each time I used the plastic trim tool and ended up pulling the whole thing out. Engineering corners cut there for sure. Have extras on hand. I splurged on a multi-pack of sever hundred odd shaped/sized ones for when I break them off.

 

First time I checked mine I took my time with the fastener and, since it was plastic, I realized the more aggressive I got with it the greater the chances of breaking it (I know, “duh” ). Used a trim tool to gently pry the door off (realizing, once again, it was plastic and the more aggressive I got…… ).
So take your time (might take a whopping 10 minutes your first time) and you won’t break anything. Then you will think to yourself “this is so simple I should probably do it every month or so until I see how dirty it gets”.
You can see a pro in action at The Car Care Nut YouTube channel if you wanted see just how simple it really is.
As far as the density and thickness of the filter goes, if you realize just how little air pressure it is exposed to it will seem to be more than adequate for the job. Of course, since it is some what fragile “the more aggressive…….” .
I just checked the maintenance schedule. Toyota says to inspect it every 5000 miles or 6 months and clean it if needed. Then adds to clean it every 20,000 miles.

 

According to the The Car Care Nut, it is very advisable to use a vacuum for this task to avoid blowing dirt and dust into the battery and thus defeating the very purpose of the task.

 

I used a Q-Tip on the squirrel cage style fan.

Every time I get down to it I think "this time I'll take it right out", but never quite figure how, give up and get the Q-Tips, lol.

 

I take the fan out of the car, open it up so I can gat to both sides of the squirrel cage, and use a test tube cleaner brush on it. Then blow out all the dust with compressed air.

 

im having heluva time finding how, even where the traction filter is on my 2016 prius v. checked AMD's awesome yt channel which has become my all time fav now for any info on this but it seems to not be there for my exact model. can anyone please point the right direction for this?

 

This is the gen 4 forum. I don't remember 100% for sure, but I don't think the v has an air filter for the battery. I know the regular gen 3 does not. As I recall, the v also doesn't and, since the air intake is so close to the floor, the fan gets dirty fairly quickly.