Back seat hot and brake smell

I agree the car will let you know if there is anything wrong. The battery is behind the rear seat and I don't think it heats the seat at all. The fuel tank is underneath the rear seat. The seat is just a foam pad on a plastic base, and sits on the floorpan. Outside air is probably what is heating it.

 

I've never noticed any heating with our back seat. As stated above, the battery is behind the seat, while the vent intake is on the passenger side of the back seat. I haven't noticed the smell either, but perhaps it's not as hot where we live.

Tom

 

I have been in the backseat of a Prius for a 3-4 hour roadtrip and not experience any heat issues at highway speeds. So I'm not sure what the heat issue could be. It seems logical that it could be related to the battery, but without a CV or something monitoring the temps, I couldn't say for sure.

 

Not sure why the seat is hot , but the odor could be the new plastics gassing off.
leave you r windows down the most you can for a week or two.
Ours had "that new car odor also" but the smell was not what I remembered from prvious cars, but todays cars are mainly plastic.
I guess thats why.

 

I drive the car *really* hard sometimes and have never smelt anything, or noticed any heat in that area.

There is a cooling fan that's thermostatically controlled and will come on to ventilate that area if it overtemps, but I've never heard it come on, either. Do you hear it running at any time?

I've also heard it said that it's best to drive the car with the A/C on (unless the windows are down, of course)...helps to control the battery temperature.

If you could actually feel heat on the back seat, I'd be curious. The seat cushion pops off really easily if you're interested...(but with 1300 miles on the clock, I don't blame you if you're not!)

I'm no expert, but I'd keep an eye on the condition...I don't know what the normal range of operating temperature is for the battery, but I can't imagine it'd get hot enough where you could feel it through the rear seat.

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You don't think the parking brake failed to disengage, do you? Might explain the smell...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Aug 15 2007, 04:05 PM) [snapback]496349[/snapback]</div>

I've done that before, but not in our Prius. It's not a good smell.

Tom

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(firstprius @ Aug 17 2007, 09:30 AM) [snapback]497764[/snapback]</div>

HA! :lol: