GenII HV Battery Fan cleaning and testing

Hello all, still have the 06' and it has been no problems. I never use the AC as the last few years I noticed
that really sucks the HV SOC way down. Being an old battery pack (13years now) with no problems upto now,
I recently went on a rather strenuous short trip on a 100degF day up steep hills in direct sunlight etc. etc.
In other words, it was HOT as heck but I never did hear the HV fan come on, no dtc's nothing.
Someone said recently "no problems, don't find one". Well I decided to clean the fan which was very clean,
ducts were spotless, so I blew out the fine road dust from the motor impeller assy with no problems.
It looks new, but I also noticed the motor/impeller shaft is somewhat stiff to turn, with absolutely no
freewheeling at all. So I used a beefy 10A 12VDC bench power supply to test it. I was surprised at
how much current it draws at startup! At initial start up it has an initial around 10A spike and as it comes
up to speed goes down to around 4-5A continuous. This all happens within 1 second of course. It has
good airflow! BTW, I am an experienced electronics professional and I am surprised at how much power
this fan motor draws. Then I thought ok, well it's a vehicle..

My question to any gurus here:
Is this normal for these fans to draw that much startup current?
Where is the relay that would switch this current located?
Perhaps with that much current it could've fried the motor relay contacts by now?

 

Good point @richmke, Yes I thought that was way too much for a fan, I mean I work on RF amplifiers that have blowers similar to this but they are mostly 115vac, but when testing it sure blows a LOT of air.. for that 60W! probably in the neighborhood of 180 to 240 cfm. Probably needs that much pressure to force it through the pack. You would think one would hear it when it decides to come on. I have pretty good hearing too..that's my point and what started this, I've not hear it in quite a while. The pack seems to be ok and still stays around 60 SOC with reguloar around town driving. Ok guess I will keep the trips short until I can find another blower similar to it. The car is conditioned for around town mostly, on the highway the SOC drops like a rock! Because it's not "conditioned for that" We stay away from the highways, use the Mustang GT for that now. But for just around town it consistently gets 50-55 mpg. I think if you notice it no longer gets that mileage, it's time to look at the battery pack. Not yet on this one however. The fan conn says 12V so there are many possibilities I guess. As far as going to the dealer, I got turned off by them years ago when they consistently overfilled the engine oil by half a quart ea. time after it was new. This went on for
breakin and a few months after. As soon as I found that out, I do everything on this car myself thank you. So they will not want to help.
I can read their minds, "here comes that guy"..

 

Oh forgot to mention, another reason I'm asking is because with that much current on startup and continuous 5A draw when stable, I'm also
wondering if that could've damaged anything like a driver or something. I notice a small relay near the fan hanging off the harness, I wonder
if that is the fan relay and the contacts have long ago been vaporized..

 

@ bisco, yes I was wondering the same thing, I bet the system is only capable of say a couple amps of current which would not be enough to start the blower! Oy No blown fuses either...it just sits there nice and quiet..

 

Oh it never comes on, and like you said that's why it was so clean.. Tomorrow I will call Toyota and just see how much they want6 for a new blower. But that doesn't guarantee there isn't something else wrong with the circuit now. We shall soon find out. You would think in the code they would detect this and throw a code. Never got any codes or lights. And this year we went on a hot grueling ride up the 50 mile hills...
Nothin. Went for the normal 5mile ride today to pick wife up from work, when I got back, I immediately tore out all the panels and felt the side
and it wasn't hot, it was warm tho...Got to save this 13 yr old pack! It has never failed me.

 

After this is fixed guess what? It's emission test time! That's why I bought a hybrid vehicle back when ...to get away from those flunkies at the emission testing places. Totally incompetent about hybrid vehicles! It is a complex subjevt as you know, but the prius GEN-II is the closest and
most efficient type of hybrid tech. Don't you think?
It can also be the most expensive to repair if they break it too.

 

Oh and next will be struts...both front are iffy, especially the driverside... but it was ok! Nothing wrong, no bearing
problems or break problems. I also luv how the rear seats go down and then have a long flat, I actually fit a 6' door in there once
with no problems. What a car!

 

The tissue test is a good idea bisco but it would have to be on the output side not the input side, from what I saw on the test bench, it will probably suck a tissue in that little side air inlet. We do the same with high power RF amplifiers which put out a lot of heat and if the blower ever stops, it will ruin an expensive vacuum tube, so we tape a short piece of paper next to the outlet and when it's on the paper is pushing up.
No on the prius as far as I can demise, it's only detected by the temp sensors in the pack, think there's three of em. But why did it not throw a code? All this time.

 

Here's what I've done during it's lifetime:
Ice water pump, inverter coolant pump (by me) and flush (done at dealer but they did it wrong!)
12v aux battery (on #3 now Optimus)
changed transaxle fluid (once at 50K now 90K)
Coolant heat storage pump (done by dealer)
Shaved throttle peddle (done by dealer)
Brake fluid purged and renewed (at 75k) Brakes still around half life.
we're on the 2nd set of tires and it's doing great.
No alignment or braking issues at all.
Soon will change out front struts ( driverside front makes noises so do both)
I've done all oil and filter changes since it was 6 mos. old...

So in essence, I do everything to this car and no one else.
Not even the dealer.

 

Just checked with local Toy svc dept., they don't have them in right now, it would take weeks to get one in and the price is $464! No thanks. So now I will find a different 12v blower and install that instead. The thing I'm worried about is the cfm required to force the air through the pack is quite high. But even a reduced airflow would be better than none right now on this 13 yr old pack... More soon.

 

This one pops out immediately.

At $75 it's got 320 cfm which is equal to the original one.

 

Sorry eBay is out, I got ID theft from them and PayPal.

 

All of my blowers are 115vac... But is very similar to RF amp blowers. I can use almost ANY 12v blower that has >180cfm and has an outlet of about 3.2" X 2". Just to be able to drive the car.