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.

On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 00:31:12 +0000, Steve Firth
wrote:

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.

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

He also required the mechanics in the shop to keep at least 20ft from
the car during the removal of the battery.

I don't suppose that was difficult ;-)

Apparently the batteries have
been known to explode covering anyone in the area with caustic gel.

Not 'special Toshiba' batteries though? ;-)

Makes me glad I drive a nice safe petrol car.

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

Steve Firth wrote:

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

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

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.

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


--
Cheers,

John.

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"Steve Firth" wrote in message
...
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.

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

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

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.

How much???????

mike

"mike ring" wrote in message
. 1.4...
"mrcheerful
Makes me glad I drive a nice safe petrol car.

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.

How much???????

mike

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

"mrcheerful ." wrote in message
. uk...

"mike ring" wrote in message
. 1.4...
"mrcheerful
Makes me glad I drive a nice safe petrol car.

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.

How much???????

mike

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

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

On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 00:31:12 +0000, Steve Firth
wrote:

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.

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

In article ,
mike ring writes:
"mrcheerful
Makes me glad I drive a nice safe petrol car.

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.

How much???????

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.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
mike ring writes:
"mrcheerful
Makes me glad I drive a nice safe petrol car.

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.

How much???????

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.

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...

On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 15:57:07 -0000, "PC Paul" wrote:

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

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

On 18 Dec 2005 11:08:28 GMT, mike ring
wrote:

Basically the main hazard is electric shock as they run at several
hundred volts.

How much???????

You'd prefer a higher current instead?

PC Paul wrote:

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

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

In article , nbkm57
@hotmail.com says...

"mike ring" wrote in message
. 1.4...
"mrcheerful
Makes me glad I drive a nice safe petrol car.

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.

How much???????

mike

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,

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

--

Hywel
http://kibo.org.uk/

Steve Firth wrote:
PC Paul wrote:

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

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

:-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...

In article ,
mrcheerful
. wrote:
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.

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

--
*Be nice to your kids. They'll choose your nursing home.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Hywel Jenkins wrote:
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,

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

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

--
*If at first you don't succeed, avoid skydiving.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
mrcheerful
. wrote:
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.

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


It is in the brochu all synergy drive components have an eight years
warranty:
http://www.toyota.co.uk/bv/leads/pdf...fSubject=Prius

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

mrcheerful

In article ,
mrcheerful
. wrote:
It is in the brochu all synergy drive components have an eight years
warranty:
http://www.toyota.co.uk/bv/leads/pdf...fSubject=Prius

This appears to need a password.

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

Some saying 5 years.

--
*Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

[Mrcheerful
.] :
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.

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.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm
[Latest version QSEDBUK 1.12 released 8 Dec 2005]

[PC Paul] :
Theres an inverter that turns that into 3 phase AC for the drive motors

Presumably there is a reason for not using a DC motor ?


--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm
[Latest version QSEDBUK 1.12 released 8 Dec 2005]

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 12:11:17 GMT, Tony Bryer
wrote:

Presumably there is a reason for not using a DC motor ?

DC motors are horrible things - they need to pass a huge current through
brushgear into the rotor. A polyphase AC motor is _much_ simpler
mechanically (thus reliable) and electrically more efficient. With
modern electronics it's also easy to build a variable frequency inverter
to power it. Pretty much every large motor design these days is 3 (or
more) phase AC with a dedicated inverter as its controller - even if
they're powered by 3 phase AC to begin with.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
mrcheerful
. wrote:
It is in the brochu all synergy drive components have an eight years
warranty:
http://www.toyota.co.uk/bv/leads/pdf...fSubject=Prius

This appears to need a password.


Try just going to Toyota gb and looking for a brochure for a prius, that was
how I got to the above link.

mrcheerful