Just a heads up to everyone. I have a 2020 Rav4 Hybrid LE. The high voltage wires were replaced under warranty after 40,000kms and while they didn't say anything at the time it was due to the wires rusting out. It just happened again, two years later and I'm a FEW kms over the warranty and Toyota won't step up and fix the issue. $7,000 bill. There is clearly a design flaw with the wires under the car that get exposed to salt. The parts have been upgraded 5 times over 3 years so no idea if the problem will be solved but I wish I had known this as I would have bought the plain gas Rav. Just know, if you drive on roads that get salted you WILL have this issue and pray you are within warranty!!!!!!!
Hybrid Cable Corrosion Issue.
2 reading
Rav 2020
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Is it urea stuff?
I saturated my cable with ACF50 last week. It took longer to remove the plastic underbody cover than it took to spray it down. There's no need to disconnect anything unless you plan on unbolting the connector plug. I'll check it again next spring after it's gone through it's first Iowa winter.
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I live in western WA. If the newest redesign of the cable can’t survive our rain and super mild winters, I’ll be very surprised. And I’m sure there will be warranty extensions.
not if you pull the traction battery service plug first
To the OP, when was your replacement cable put in and did it have the full clamshell cover on it ? Based on your mileage, I suspect it was done prior to the current fix (which came out mid to late 2022) and you simply got a cable that was identical to the original one.
Was the full clamshell cover installed on new 2023 RAV4 Hybrids?
No, I have the open version. Car received March 2023
Is it easy to tell without removing anything? I haven't crawled under there yet.
If I remember correctly, there are either 3 or 4 small bolts & 3 plastic clips to remove in order to remove the black plastic under body cover. When removing the clips you'll need a small straight screwdriver to pull down on the outer portion of the clip about 3/8" to release the inner portion of the 2 piece clips. After removing the cover you can see the orange plastic clamshell cover. It is two halves that you can unclip & remove or as some have done you can leave it together & saturate the cable. I elected to remove the clamshell cover in order to fully inspect & spray the cable down. That was the hardest part. I used a small straight screwdriver to pry the clips apart. The entire process took maybe 15 minutes.
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In theory it should not, but you never know how dealer will behave...
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If you’re referring to me (Louosten) as the ‘OP’…I have a ‘2022 RAV4 Hybrid XLE Premium, J-Built mid-year, and have not done anything to the HV cable yet. I don’t have a garage or nice indoor lift to inspect the connection. The rear wheels will have to go up on crude wooden ramps as I lay down in the gravel parking area at our condo, probably next spring.
My 2023 XLE Premium was delivered in mid July from Japan. I’m hoping that by then the improved clamshell cover might have been installed. Will have my dealer inspect during the initial free tire rotation - but in the meantime, I’m not too worried about this, as our roads are not salted here.
The new "improved" cover has been installed since at least my feb 2021 model. However, it does not improve much, my cable is still rusting and I'm just hoping it will fail before I'm out of the warranty.
I have 2022 with "improved" design and cable clamp already had rust one month after delivery. Treating clamp with CRC, reducing water from top of orange cover and filling connector with dielectric grease seems to work - no more rust after one year (opened it for re-treatment). I think without treatment it will be full of rust at the moment and moisture started to penetrate into connector .
Generally connector has faulty design which can not be solved 100% with extra gaskets and opening orange cower. To solve a problem - full redesign required or at least redesign of socket on rear motor.
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349 Posts
My car hasn’t been driven in snow yet, but does anyone know if I rinse the underside of my car after it’s been in the snow and salt, will that keep those wires from corroding?
The garage where I bring my car to wash it has a manual machine I can use to rinse the underside of my car. Can someone tell me the location where the wires we’re talking about are? I’m planning on spending extra time rinsing that area.
stick your head down and look through rear driver side wheel toward transaxle you will eventually
see the orange cover of the cable on rear transaxle. this is the part. toyota says
do NOT powerwash the underside. sure if you rinse this area off it can help but
if there is a fault developing you could rinse this area and electrocute yourself (almost
zero chance but not a completely zero chance)
best bet if you are interesting in talking care if the problem, is coat the braid, clamp,
and connector seam area with an electrically safe TFFC product. that way it just
cannot corrode. just rinsing with water could drive corrosion deeper....a TFFC won't
do that and in fact will start remedying the issue.
it's simple to use a TFFC...the only hard part is... reaching it is not super simple, typically
requires at least laying on ground and reaching in there and dropping the small aerodynamic cover to
get better access for a TFFC spray nozzle.
ultra Thin Fluid Compound (TFFC)
and yes I swear by acf-50 for a lot of reasons, mostly because non-toxic
and it passes real world critical testing for aircraft, and is it extensively tested
and certified for use on aircraft electrical components.
all these offical tests PASS
• Elsan / Racasan Toilet Fluid
• Turco 5854-2L
• Orange Juice
• Coke
• Coffee
• De-icing Fluid NATO S.745
• 5% Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH)
• 5% Hydrochloric Acid (HCI)
• 5% Nitric Acid (HNO³ )
• 10% Acetic Acid (CH³ COOH)
California Air Quality Compliant
• Water Displacement Ability
• Viscosity
• Corrosion Inhibiting Characteristics
Minimum dielectric breakdown: passing score 25,000 volts actual score 38,000 volts PASS
Synthetic Sea Water Displacement No visible corrosion
Corrosivity No visible pitting, etching or dark discoloration. No weight change (milligram/cm²) greater than 0.5 for magnesium, cadmium and zinc, nor greater than 0.2 for aluminum, copper and brass
• Effect on electric components
No significant change in capacitance, dissipation factor and conductance of coil forms and capacitors in the Q and amount of capacitance to resonate the coil. No significant change in the resistance of resistors. A change greater than ½ the allowed tolerance of the component shall be considered as significant. conforms
• Effect on electric connectors
No significant increase in resistance between connected pins or decrease in resistance between adjacent pins
If you lay down behind the rear of the RAV & look at the underside you will see a black plastic cover panel ahead of the muffler & between the rear wheels. Above this plastic cover about 6" to the left (driver's side) of center, you will see an orange plastic cover. You'll only be able to see about 2-3" of this cover. It is a 2 piece clamshell piece of plastic which surrounds the cable. The clamshell cover looks like this.
The portion of the cable which corrodes is silver colored and looks like this.
You may get a bit of rinsing effect on the wire, but it's doubtfull it will be enough, simply because of how well the cable is protected.
Thanks for the tip. You just saved me from buying a 2024 RAV4 Hybrid!
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