Hybrid battery cooling

[Pops1]

Just some info on how to clean the ducts for the hybrid Battery cooling fan.

In my case its a 2014 gs300h with 120000 miles which is used as a taxi. 

First remove the upper trim panel in the boot so that you can remove the trim panel that fits behind the rear seat, all this is to remove 1 retaining pin. Next is remove the rear seat base, it just pulls up, now remove the 4 12mm bolts holding the seat backrest in place and pull the base upwards, no need to remove the seat belts but pull the backrest towards the front seats to give a bit of room, behind the felt there are 3 black vent tubes that connect from each side of the car to the cooling fan, there are a few retaining pins to remove and then there is 1 of the retaining pins has to be removed from the boot side, at the fan end of both the side vent tubes is a mesh which gets clogged

 Can't upload pictures but both of my vent tubes were about 90% clogged.

Was an easy enough process and well worth doing. 

Hope this might be helpful, 

John

[Pops1]

Got two pics of the clogged vents

[johnatg]

Those of you who have watched the videos I posted links to recently by Car Care Nut may be a little concerned about the Battery cooling fan and filter state - see pics in post above. CCN emphasises that keeping the cooling filters and fan clean is critical to traction Battery life. Whilst researching this, I came across some interesting items, including a TSB (TSBs are public domain in US - why not here in UK?).

GS450h TSBs are here: https://www.carcomplaints.com/Lexus/GS_450h/2015/tsbs/ and in other places.

I chose the 2015 (in US parlance 'cos that will be closest to my GS300h 2014) (GS300h not sold in US but pretty well everything but the drive train is the same as GS450h)

OK - this TSB relating to HV Battery Cooling System Maintenance -MC-10179691-9999.pdf

I also found a youtube video where a guy was quoted $750 or so to get the filter cleaned on a RAV 4 at a California Toyota dealer - and it's a bit easier than on a GS!

So I thought I'd have look. I followed John's (Pops1 - John in Galway) instructions except that I didn't do anything in the boot - the whole job can be done inside the car.

First you need to remove the back seat. Lift the corner of the seat which will help to locate the retaining prongs, then on one side grasp the lower front edge of the seat either side of the retainer then pull upwards VERY hard. It does come eventually! Repeat for the other side. Move the seat base forward a little and you will find two electrical connectors at the back, one on each side - disconnect. I assume these are for the 'seat occupied' detectors. Remove the seat from the car.

Now it helps to remove the three rear headrests, then undo four bolts (12mm socket) at the lower edge of the backrest. Lift (a strong lift!) from the bottom of the backrest at each side to disconnect the top retainers - you need to lift it quite high as the retainer things are unnecessarily long.

Swing the backrest forward as shown.

 

Fold the heat/sound insulation upwards and rest it on the back shelf.

Remove 5 trim clips to release the centre section of the vent duct. One clip is hidden above and behind the duct - I guess this is the one that John dismantled the boot trim for but it is easily reachable from inside the car - just don't drop it!. Manipulate the centre part of the duct away from the side sections and the fan inlet.

(That's why GS seats don't fold down or even have a 'ski- hatch'!)

My filters were fairly clean but I gave them a good blast of compressed air to clear them - stupidly they are rivetted to the duct. If you need to clean the fan note the instruction in the TSB to retain the fan to stop it spinning with compressed air flow.

On reassembly make sure that the duct is properly located on the fan inlet. Relocating the backrest is a bit fiddly - as I said you need to lift the backrest quite high. Don't forget the 'seat occupied detector' connectors when replacing the seat base

My conclusion - if your use of the car is you and maybe your partner only and you wear reasonably lint-free clothes, you probably never need to do this. But if you have frequent back seat passengers, maybe kids and a hairy dog - you should probably check the filters and fan after say 50K miles. YMMV!

PS - apparently the filters are only fitted from 2014 on (US 2015 model year) GS cars

Keep away from the orange cables!

[Pops1]

Good to see the process updated and with pictures, your vents were pretty clear but it shows the need to check them 

[Xdriq]

First of all, thank you so much for detailed instructions of how to get through this procedure. I've manage to do it only because of your help. Many many thanks! 

I've cleaned ducts and they were nearly completely clogged (as on pictures), 

Now, when I'm about to put it back together, I've switched on car just to see if hybrid cooling fan is working.

Unfortunately, it doesn't start spinning, however, I did some research and apparently, it might be activating only when needed (i.e when hv Battery is getting hot), so I guess there is no way to check it without actually driving the car. Code/warning "maintenance required for hybrid Battery cooling parts at your dealer" is also still on (as I would expect). Was trying to clear the code via obd2 wifi, but no obd app is recognising error cod/warning so can't delete it to see if it will pop up again. 

Wondering if you may know whether hybrid Battery cooling fan should start spinning straight away after car is switched on and how to get rid of mentioned warning. 

Would like to check it before putting all parts back 

 

 

[ColinBarber]

35 minutes ago, Xdriq said:

how to get rid of mentioned warning

It should clear itself once you start driving (it may take a little time).

[Xdriq]

2 hours ago, Xdriq said:

Wondering if you may know whether hybrid battery cooling fan should start spinning straight away after car is switched on and how to get rid of mentioned warning. 

So I took it for a ride, and after approx 1hr, /20miles/ it started spinning again! 🥳 

So for those, who would wonder in the future, hybrid Battery cooling fan doesn't necessarily start right after switching car on, it activates when hv Battery reach certain temperature. I've seen info that apparently it has 6 speeds. This might be particularly helpful for those, who would start considering fan failure/exchange. I guess it's worth checking. 

As to warning message

"Maintenance required for hybrid Battery cooling parts at your dealer"

Thank you for your advice @ColinBarber 

will update if it will clear itself automatically after some time, so far it didn't, but cooling system wasn't put back together yet, so fan was blowing litteraly nowhere. I would guess it will dissappear once I put it back together and fan cooling will be correctly diverted via clear & unblocked now ducts. Thanks 

[pacio41]

 

Hello all.

I just want to say thanks for this thread. I did that today to my 2013 GS for the first time. Super easy and well worth the 1h I spent doing this. The ducts were heavily clogged up, yet no message on the dash.

Thanks again.

 

[Notamech]

On 3/3/2022 at 3:26 PM, johnatg said:

Those of you who have watched the videos I posted links to recently by Car Care Nut may be a little concerned about the battery cooling fan and filter state - see pics in post above. CCN emphasises that keeping the cooling filters and fan clean is critical to traction battery life. Whilst researching this, I came across some interesting items, including a TSB (TSBs are public domain in US - why not here in UK?).

GS450h TSBs are here: https://www.carcomplaints.com/Lexus/GS_450h/2015/tsbs/ and in other places.

I chose the 2015 (in US parlance 'cos that will be closest to my GS300h 2014) (GS300h not sold in US but pretty well everything but the drive train is the same as GS450h)

OK - this TSB relating to HV Battery Cooling System Maintenance -MC-10179691-9999.pdf

I also found a youtube video where a guy was quoted $750 or so to get the filter cleaned on a RAV 4 at a California Toyota dealer - and it's a bit easier than on a GS!

So I thought I'd have look. I followed John's (Pops1 - John in Galway) instructions except that I didn't do anything in the boot - the whole job can be done inside the car.

First you need to remove the back seat. Lift the corner of the seat which will help to locate the retaining prongs, then on one side grasp the lower front edge of the seat either side of the retainer then pull upwards VERY hard. It does come eventually! Repeat for the other side. Move the seat base forward a little and you will find two electrical connectors at the back, one on each side - disconnect. I assume these are for the 'seat occupied' detectors. Remove the seat from the car.

Now it helps to remove the three rear headrests, then undo four bolts (12mm socket) at the lower edge of the backrest. Lift (a strong lift!) from the bottom of the backrest at each side to disconnect the top retainers - you need to lift it quite high as the retainer things are unnecessarily long.

Swing the backrest forward as shown.

 

Fold the heat/sound insulation upwards and rest it on the back shelf.

Remove 5 trim clips to release the centre section of the vent duct. One clip is hidden above and behind the duct - I guess this is the one that John dismantled the boot trim for but it is easily reachable from inside the car - just don't drop it!. Manipulate the centre part of the duct away from the side sections and the fan inlet.

(That's why GS seats don't fold down or even have a 'ski- hatch'!)

My filters were fairly clean but I gave them a good blast of compressed air to clear them - stupidly they are rivetted to the duct. If you need to clean the fan note the instruction in the TSB to retain the fan to stop it spinning with compressed air flow.

On reassembly make sure that the duct is properly located on the fan inlet. Relocating the backrest is a bit fiddly - as I said you need to lift the backrest quite high. Don't forget the 'seat occupied detector' connectors when replacing the seat base

My conclusion - if your use of the car is you and maybe your partner only and you wear reasonably lint-free clothes, you probably never need to do this. But if you have frequent back seat passengers, maybe kids and a hairy dog - you should probably check the filters and fan after say 50K miles. YMMV!

PS - apparently the filters are only fitted from 2014 on (US 2015 model year) GS cars

Keep away from the orange cables!

Hi. Thanks for this. Is yours a premier? I think the premier comes with rear ventilated and heated seats so was wondering if the seat disassembly is the same or if theres anything else to watch out for?

[johnatg]

Yes - mine is a Premier. I don't think it has heated/ventilated rear seats - as I remember there were only the two electrical connectors I mentioned. If yours does have seat heating / ventilation, there will just be more or more complex electrical connectors.But really just the same procedure as above.

[Notamech]

On 10/29/2024 at 6:16 PM, johnatg said:

Yes - mine is a Premier. I don't think it has heated/ventilated rear seats - as I remember there were only the two electrical connectors I mentioned. If yours does have seat heating / ventilation, there will just be more or more complex electrical connectors.But really just the same procedure as above.

Had a look at full specs of the new to me car today (facelift gs300h) you are right it doesnt have ventilated seats in the rear but does have heated seats. Looked up the workshop manual on that russian site and it sounds pretty much like you described it. Just need to pull up the seat base and disconnect the 2 wires. Will clean the fan and filter when the weather gets better. Probably in the summer. Thanks for the instructions. Very few resources out there for the GS compared to the IS.