Installing the Service Safety Plug Help

My first thought is "who did the conditioning, how on earth did they forget the plug, and should they come back and make it right? Oh and maybe do a test drive or something??".

That aside, see attached:

 

@Mendel Leisk's picture is worth a thousand words. You don't want to forget that third step of sliding the lever home.

There is no need to wear gloves when installing the safety plug. You are not able to touch any high voltage conductors. Got to the 4-minute point in this video to see how it installs. The video shows the battery with the cover off of the end that has the relays, service plug, etc. and you can see that you're far from danger plus you'll have the cover in place and won't even be able to see the internals.

 

No need to overcomplicate. No need to fuss with the 12 volt battery. You won't be live-plugging the service plug as long as the car isn't READY, and the car won't go READY with the service plug out.

Just push it all the way in, click the handle over, done.

Toyota does recommend gloving up before pulling or inserting the switch, probably just for that much extra insurance for a tech who never knows if the car had a kid in it who poured Diet Coke down the back seat and left a sticky conductive trail over the plug.

You could find your own comfort zone anywhere from Jerry's "no need to wear gloves" to Toyota's full-on class 0 freshly tested certified gloves, or anywhere in between, like wearing some relatively nonconductive gloves you already own.

It is definitely not the same level of risk as poking around inside the battery with the cover off.

 

Actually, the error code for a orange service plug not being plugged in doesn't self-clear once its triggered. So if you don't have an OBD2 or techstream to clear the error code the 12v battery disconnection is necessary to clear the code.

 

Good catch ... I had never noticed that. I do see that where the manual talks about removing and installing the service plug, it has steps to disconnect and reconnect the 12 volt. So I won't officially advise skipping those steps (though I might still, in a pinch, skip them myself ).

If I were doing it, though, in a Gen 2, I would just unplug the cables at the little fuse block on the 12 V battery + terminal; faster than fussing at the − terminal with a wrench. Still, you have to reset all the same things later (auto windows, radio presets, etc.) after reconnecting; nothing changes there.

I see that the Gen 2 manual says, for the P0A0D code, "If the safety devices are correctly reinstalled, it will resume the normal operation after the power source is supplied again." Which I could read a couple of ways, since the HV ECU has both an always-on "BATT" supply connection and a switched "IGSW" connection. A lot of codes will get rechecked if you just cycle IG power (with the power switch), but if they mean the B supply here, that would only recheck the code after unhooking/rehooking the 12V battery (or the fuse supplying the ECU, at least).

I see that in the Gen 3 manual, they have clearer language for P0A0D. There, it says "If the safety devices are re-installed correctly, the system will return to normal when the power switch is turned on (IG)."

I can't tell if that's a case of them just clarifying the wording for the Gen 3 edition, or actually changing how the code behaves, and there isn't a Gen 2 handy for me to go see for sure.

 

I do usually wear mechanic's gloves though. But that's because I'm generally removing or inserting it while in the process of replacing the battery and there are lots of sharp edges.

 

Yeah...

Yeah, that's what's awesome about Priuschat. Had it not been for a specific Prius I was working on at start of the week, I'd not of known that particular info. As in two heads are better than one... Or in the case of social media a few dozens blabbering crazies seeking to help but mostly fishing for as many likes as @bisco is almost as good as two heads are better than one.

 

Gloves or not won't make a big difference disconnecting the 12 volt I've never done that in the Gen 2 or 3 as many times as I've taken these batteries out that's interesting. What you will need to do is on the last step of inserting the plug you need to get some leverage behind slamming your finger down to lock that last sensor doodad into place so you insert the plug it slides in pulls in and you're ready to slide it down Don't just casually slide it down and think you've done something you need to slam it it should make a loud clack. If it doesn't and you have no display or the red triangle turn it off unready go back lift the thing up you don't have to pull it all the way out again and slam it down I'm not saying you need to hammer it with a hammer but you need to pull it down smartly.

 

"Smartly"being a couple pounds of pressure. All it takes is enough to overcome the little detent that holds it in place once it's latched. Just push till it moves and you feel the detent and then the hard stop.

 

Well, that's the kind of question that could get this kind of answer:

First, it's worth looking at how Toyota designed that service plug and cover to work. There's that service plug, and then there's that separate orange thing that won't let the cover come off until you unlock it, using the removed service plug as a key. So, clearly, they built all that to ensure that most people will never be near a live battery with its cover off.

So, does that mean you can't have a good reason for doing what they built it to make sure most people won't do?

Well, maybe you can. It gets like the familiar label "no user-serviceable parts inside". Most people stay out, but maybe some unusually capable users can service the parts inside.

But going into that territory calls for a careful conversation with yourself about whether that group includes you yet. Sometimes the answer sounds like "if I have to ask basic safety questions, maybe not yet", or it might sound like "are there some courses nearby (or online) I could take that would move me into that group", or something like that.

 

Yes we had our cover off for about 5 days just to make sure I wouldn't bolt it all up to have to change the temp sensor or something this was a brand new battery from the dealer I just had the top cover off and then if I was going somewhere and had to carry something I just set the cover on top of the battery and go do what I had to do. Then when I was sure everything was good I put the cover back on properly I had broken the little orange plug thing that just got thrown away The big fusible plug of course you have to have and that's what we're discussing here. I didn't know that would be a problem running the thing around with the bus bars covered and the cells exposed but silly me would have made a cool video if it blew up or caught fire or something oh well.

 

Yes, the swarm intelligence at PriusChat is truly awesome. (Not to be confused with "crowd intelligence" which is generally not as good as swarm intelligence.)

By the way, do I recall correctly that there is some kind of fuse inside the service plug? So if it doesn't work with the service plug properly installed, its continuity should be checked?

 

Yeah I think it's $125 amp a fuse and you can buy them if you look hard enough I have a few here they say you have to buy the whole plug for I don't even know what 25 50 bucks who knows. I found a comparable fuse from a supply house it goes on some kind of a board or something but it fits right in the in the plug no problem