Prius

[Steve Firth]

One of the local garages is a Toyota dealership. A bloke who works there told me they recently had a Prius in for warranty repairs (failed battery pack). They aren't allowed to touch the pack and had to call ina specialist from Toyota. He arrived and before removing the battery dressed from head to toe in a rubber suit, then put on a face shield and a face mask.

He also required the mechanics in the shop to keep at least 20ft from the car during the removal of the battery. Apparently the batteries have been known to explode covering anyone in the area with caustic gel.

Makes me glad I drive a nice safe petrol car.

[T i m]

Could turn out an expensive d-i-y job then? ;-(

I don't suppose that was difficult ;-)

Not 'special Toshiba' batteries though? ;-)

Does diesel give of similar fumes as petrol (benzine isn't it) at the pump though (joking aside and out of interest)?

All the best ..

T i m

[John Rumm]

Oops, you have probably just summoned the Troll...

Ah, rubber suit.... that is probably why he likes them!

[mrcheerful]

There is a nice big pack of info on the Toyota site detailing all the precautions that first response emergency personnel should take. Basically the main hazard is electric shock as they run at several hundred volts. Obviously a shorted battery can explode, same as a normal battery.

mrcheerful

[mike ring]

"mrcheerful >> Makes me glad I drive a nice safe petrol car.

How much???????

mike

[mrcheerful]

The battery pack is IIRC circa 200 and a bit volts that is put through an inverter thing to give nearly 500 volts for the motor. A very interesting car that is great to drive, and very economical on fuel, but too expensive overall to be any real saving over its life. the battery pack is about 2000 pounds worth, but does have an eight year guarantee.

mrcheerful

[john]

Obviously a proper Health and Safety Risk Assessment has been carried out and the precautions are being followed. Better than risk an injury and then claiming for compensation.

John

[Andy Dingley]

Sounds perfectly normal. if it looked easy, the mechanics would do the next one themselves.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Friend of a friend was talking about them in a pub (so take with a pinch of salt, etc)... IIRC, something like 270V. Apparently, 140V is used by other dual fuel vehicles.

[PC Paul]

274V - it's 38 7.2V batteries in series.

Theres an inverter that turns that into 3 phase AC for the drive motors and also runs backwards under braking to turn the AC into DC charging voltage.

It's high, but not ridiculous.

It's the 20,000psi in a diesel injection system that scares me more...

[Andy Dingley]

20,000 psi in a liquid is nothing. Get an air bubble in there though and it's quite another matter.

[Andy Dingley]

You'd prefer a higher current instead?

[Steve Firth]

Isn't that 228 1.2V cells in series and 273.6V?

[Hywel Jenkins]

Though, as rumour has it, not as economical or as much fun to drive as a Golf 1.9TDI.

[PC Paul]

:-P

It's packaged as 38 7.2V packs no doubt made of 6 1.2V tagged cells each.

And you know damn well it's only a *nominal* 1.2V per cell, so it's probably ranging from 1V/cell when discharged but off load (228V) to a max of

1.78V/cell when charging, at typical temperatures (405.84V)

In a crash situation, which is where we came from,presumably it would not be charging, hence the upper limit would be more likely to be 1.4V/cell, i.e.

319.2V.

But anything from 228V right up to 406V in realistic situations should be treated with the same level of safety measures, so it's a bit immaterial...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Can you give a URL etc that states this warranty for the UK?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's reasonably economical as a town car in heavy traffic, but poor on the open road.

[mrcheerful]

It is in the brochure: all synergy drive components have an eight years warranty:

you google for 8 year prius warranty there are loads of hits

mrcheerful

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Some saying 5 years.

[Tony Bryer]

[Mrcheerful .] :

Unless you want to drive in the London Congestion Charge zone. But I guess that if loads of people bought Priuses the discount would disappear.