2001 Prius self-immolates

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rick Auricchio @ Jul 28 2007, 07:12 PM) [snapback]486846[/snapback]</div>

And don't forget the Ford Pinto, the year that they stapled the rear carpet into the gas tank. My friends and I started calling them Ford Fireballs after that news report.

Another point of perspective - a car that catches fire when sitting idle and empty is far less dangerous than one that may explode in a minor collision, when likely occupied by a driver and perhaps passengers.

Regards,
aeronaut

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dogfriend @ Jul 28 2007, 07:21 PM) [snapback]486850[/snapback]</div>

Funny you say this! The only car I've ever seen burn is indeed a VW Beetle, brand new one. I guess they have a reputation...

 

There is a consistency. At least it is 2001 Pri'i being reported (of which I have one), while having been off for a while. With the Main Relays being open, the most likely mechanism would be a failure of the internal seperator in a cell. Quite possible that the NHW10 to NHW11 transition to the prismatic cell may have not had the quality up to speed desired. Toyota certainly had to do a lot of hammering of Panasonic to get them to make their NiMh batteries in a clean environment rather than the dust filled rooms that they started in.

Just as a note. When I was designing handheld radios many years ago, the battery compartments had to be designed to fracture without fragmenting. The large size LiMnO primary batteries used would have rare seperator failures causing massive outgassing. This started out being a rare but not random, occurance. As the production of these batteries matured, the outgassing failure rate went down to near zero. Maybe same issue here. There is just no way around the fact that on any high energy density battery a lot of current is prevented by a thin seperation, and ceaseless high quality manufacturing is the only solution.

 

This all sounds like a simple case of prius depression. You have to love your prius every day or else it will start to feel neglected and depressed. Aparentaly you haven't loved your prius in such a long time that it was so depressed it committed suicide.