Got a dual battery set up? Read this!!!

[flyology Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close flyology]

A mate of mine has a 2012 Altitude, around 5 months old now. He had a dual battery set up fitted by a large aftermarket company, and has done approx. 3 - 4 thousand kilometers since, some on corrugated roads. His air con (three/multi zone) stopped working the other day and on taking it to Toyota he was told that pipes to the rear? have rubbed together (due to the installation of the second battery), causing the compressor to burn out and rear a/c unit to fail. Cost to repair is over 5 Thousand dollars.

Good news is the business who fitted the second battery are paying for all the repairs, but it is 5-6 weeks before it can be done as parts have to be ordered in.

Apparently this is only an issue with Prado’s that have the three/multi zone air con set up, so best those that have a second battery fitted do some checks............ (He has been advised that a Prado in Darwin has had the same issue as his in the past few days, same company....)

[Ages Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ages]

Where was his battery installed? Drivers side under the hood or in the rear?

[flyology Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close flyology]

Driver's side under the bonnet...........

[krypto Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close krypto]

A mate of mine has a 2012 Altitude, around 5 months old now. He had a dual battery set up fitted by a large aftermarket company, and has done approx. 3 - 4 thousand kilometers since, some on corrugated roads. His air con (three/multi zone) stopped working the other day and on taking it to Toyota he was told that pipes to the rear? have rubbed together (due to the installation of the second battery), causing the compressor to burn out and rear a/c unit to fail. Cost to repair is over 5 Thousand dollars.

Good news is the business who fitted the second battery are paying for all the repairs, but it is 5-6 weeks before it can be done as parts have to be ordered in.

Apparently this is only an issue with Prado’s that have the three/multi zone air con set up, so best those that have a second battery fitted do some checks............ (He has been advised that a Prado in Darwin has had the same issue as his in the past few days, same company....)

If you have a look at the dual battery installation guide this is a known issue. It comes from bending the aluminum a/c pipe, which is double wall, to fit a larger battery. Solution is not to fit a full size battery and to release some of the retaining clips when moving the pipe. I bent/moved mine about 10mm and no problem after 2 years.

I'd say the installation company will be liable for the stuff-up.

[Ages Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ages]

I have the abr tray in mine that has a bracket to relocate the ac pipe. It didn't seem to move it very far. So hopefully it should be okay.
Be interesting to see where it's supposed to have rubbed

[flyology Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close flyology]

I was under the impression that the problems people had with moving the pipe was on installation, breaking the pipe when fitting the battery, not months after installation. I will try and get some more info on exactly what happened.....

[krypto Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close krypto]

The pipe is made of aluminum which is not a very ductile material. Once you put a minor stress raiser (crack) into it and put it under stress it can develop cracks over time.

If you want to see a classic example of this problem Google Comet jets falling out of the sky in the 50s, or have a look at this http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/sme/Inter...Cases/sf2.html

[krypto Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close krypto]

The pipe is made of aluminum which is not a very ductile material. Once you put a minor stress raiser (crack) into it by bending it and put it under stress through vibration or poor mounting, it can develop cracks over time.

If you want to see a classic example of this problem Google Comet jets falling out of the sky in the 50s, or have a look at this http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/sme/Inter...Cases/sf2.html

[Geoffury Find all posts View Profile Close Geoffury]

I know something similar happening to a 2012 GXL diesel here in Perth. Had the set up done by a company in Jandakot, on their trip across to Brisbane the whole air con system stopped working. Turns out the air con pipe was push across, but was just touching the fan belt. After a 1000 or do kms it wore a tiny pin hole, which released all the gas.
Toyota wanted big $ to fix so he had to wait til he got home to have the company who installed it to fix it.

[Tauras Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tauras]

I didn't bend mine but have it resting against my Optima D34, I hope this wont cause any issues?

[rwo Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close rwo]

Any chance of getting your mate to post some photos showing the install and the area of the failure/damage?

I am curious to know if it was the bending of the pipe or extra vibrations from not properly securing it that caused the damage.

[krypto Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close krypto]

I didn't bend mine but have it resting against my Optima D34, I hope this wont cause any issues?

If you look at the pipe you'll see that Toyota have gone to a lot of trouble mounting it. It is not a good idea for it to be touching anything.

[krypto Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close krypto]

I know something similar happening to a 2012 GXL diesel here in Perth. Had the set up done by a company in Jandakot, on their trip across to Brisbane the whole air con system stopped working. Turns out the air con pipe was push across, but was just touching the fan belt. After a 1000 or do kms it wore a tiny pin hole, which released all the gas.
Toyota wanted big $ to fix so he had to wait til he got home to have the company who installed it to fix it.

It takes special effort to stuff it up that badly...... Plain slack.

[VXWesty Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close VXWesty]

I had a problem with my aircon pipe after I moved it to make way for the TJM battery tray. I never noticed that the tail of a hose clamp on the air intake was rubbing on the aircon pipe and eventually wore a hole in it, releasing all the gas. Unfortunately it happened on the first stretch of corrugations on a 10 day trip into Shark Bay (the battery tray had been in for over a year with no problems). We had a week of 32-38 degree weather and it sucked not having aircon, plus we always drove with the windows down and it let all the dust in.

I had a local aircon guy fix it for $600. He removed the pipe, had it welded, refitted and regassed. All good now for 9 months. Totota wanted over $1600 to replace the pipe and regas the system!

VXWesty

[yowie Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close yowie]

I have a TJM tray with an 80 amp hour battery fitted, the installer did not want to fit anything larger. I don't know if/how much the air pipe has been moved, but it appears to be OK.

The power steering fluid container was moved a bit and now sits right on the radiator overflow container. What I did was wedge a piece of hard wearing foam in between to stop any rubbing, check it every now and then, and all still appears OK.

If you are concerned, wedge a piece of leather in between to stop any rubbing effect on any of the pipes.