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Hybrid TechnologyUnique topics related to the GS450H model hybrid drivetrain and other features/options found only on the GS450H. Please use the main 4GS forum for discussion about shared components with other fourth generation GS models.
The following information should be both interesting and helpful in solving the mystery of the GS 450h traction battery cooling blower/fan filter.
From what I understand, beginning in 2015 Lexus started using a filter directly underneath both the driver and passenger side GS 450h air intake vents located at the rear seats next to the door jamb. This intake filter has a webbed porous initiatory surface area to trap larger debris with another secondary filter media that has more density beneath. The purpose of this filter is to prevent the traction battery cooling blower/fan - as well as the associated connected ductwork that feeds clean air to the cooling blower/fan - from accumulating debris that could cause the traction battery to overheat or to reduce performance efficiency.
The traction battery intake air filters can get clogged-up overtime with debris (e.g. airborne dust, dirt, clothing fabric fibers, hair, skin flakes, etc.). Without the protection of the intake air filters in high humidity climates, heavy moisture-laden dust and debris can layer the interior surface walls of the ductwork and create a coating on the cooling blower/fan’s blades, and blanket the traction battery. It can also be the source for mold and bad smell/odor.
Lexus has a warning message (image from owner manual below) that is displayed for the maintenance interval applicable to the vehicle to have the air intake duct filter cooling component/part for the hybrid traction battery serviced. I do not know what the interval (presumed to be time, not mileage) is. Also, I do not know exactly what is entailed with servicing these easily accessible air intake filters (i.e. cleaning/blowing-out the filter media or actually replacing the filters with new filters).
The 2012-2014 model year GS 450h did not have filters at the intake air vents located at the rear seats next to the door jamb. Instead, Lexus incorporated a filter at the supply end of the ductwork where it feeds air to the traction battery cooling blower/fan. So, to be clear there is indeed a filter - and a filter is indeed thought to be needed according to Lexus repair manuals and maintenance information.
It is my understanding that for pre-2015 GS 450h vehicles, accessing the cooling blower/fan filter located at the supply end of the ductwork can actually be made from inside the vehicle (not from the trunk). This is made possible by unlatching the rear seat and folding it forward toward the front of the car. Some minor unbolting is required and then some easy disassembly of the various non-metallic ductwork pieces that run from the intake vents located at the rear seats to the cooling blower/fan location is also required.
This explains the mystery of why 2015 and newer GS 450h vehicles have traction battery cooling blower/fan filters in the rear seat area intake vents but the 2012-2014 model year GS 450h vehicles do not.
This timeline of information likely applies to other Lexus hybrid vehicles as well.
I’ll post some images I came across in a future post soon that will be helpful in understanding what is needed to access the traction battery cooling blower/fan filters for the pre-2015 model year GS 450h.
Below you will see images of my 2018 GS450h traction battery intake air filters through the intake vents; one for the driver side and one for the passenger side.
2018 GS 450h Driver Side & Passenger Side Traction Battery Blower/Fan Air Intake Filter
I hope this information is helpful. I'll make a duplicate post of this in both the threads in this 4GS Hybrid forum with the filter subject title so others can be sure to learn about the topic.
This added post contains information and images dedicated to accessing the traction battery cooling blower/fan filter in pre-2015 (2012-2014) GS 450h vehicles. This can be done entirely from inside the car!
First you'll need to remove the back seat. To do so, 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 - on either side of the retainer and pull upwards very hard on the seat. It will unlatch eventually! Repeat this process for the other side. Now move the seat base forward a little and you should find two electrical connectors at the back, one on each side - disconnect these connectors. These are likely for the 'seat occupied' detectors.
To remove the seat from the car; it will be helpful to first remove the three rear seat headrests. 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'll need to lift it rather high because the retainers are unnecessarily long.
Swing the backrest forward as shown in the image below.
Fold the heat/sound insulation upwards and rest it on the back shelf.
Remove 5 trim clips to release the center section of the vent duct. One clip is hidden above and behind the duct - It is easily reachable from inside the car - just don't drop it!. Manipulate the center part of the duct away from the side sections and the cooling blower/fan air inlet.
No filter? No problem! Will the traction battery's cooling blower get dirty or clogged-up? Maybe just a tiny little bit like this one!
The filters will likely be rivetted to the duct, so you'll need to deal with removing the rivets and installing new ones.
Traction Battery Cooling Blower/Fan Cleaning Cautions: ► Do not attempt to clean the traction battery cooling blower/fan while it is installed. Doing so may cause dust and debris to enter the battery case. ► If cleaning the blower/fan with compressed air flow restrain the fan to prevent it from spinning. Failure to secure the blower/fan blades while cleaning with compressed air flow may result in electronic circuit failure due to overturning.
On reassembly, make sure that the ductwork is properly reattached and located on the blower/fan inlets.
Relocating the backrest is a bit awkward - you will need to lift the backrest quite high. Also, don't forget to reconnect the 'seat occupied detector' wire connectors when replacing the seat base.
I hope this information with images is helpful.
Last edited by bclexus; 12-09-22 at 09:59 AM.
Reason: orthography
@Vlad2000 - Now we know why pre-2015 GS 450h vehicles don't have a filter at the air intake vents for the traction battery cooling blower/fan.
For some reason Lexus decided to forgo filters at the air intake on early model GS 450h vehicles and instead put filters at the end of the supply duct where air is made available at the cooling blower. It is unclear if all pre-2015 GS 450h vehicles had filters at the end of the supply duct nearby the cooling blower.
This 2013 GS 450h owned by @peasodos (image below with trim removed exposing the intake duct) is a good example of a pre-2015 GS 450h with no intake filter.
By the looks of some nasty looking clogged-up cooling blowers (good example of this clogged-up blower below) it appears some early model GS 450h vehicles might not have had filters at the supply end of the duct feeding air to the blower, or those filters were removed and never replaced.
Last edited by bclexus; 12-09-22 at 09:59 AM.
Reason: orthography
It’s not just the GS, abut ES and RX and Toyotas too around those years.
What made Toyota add user replaceable filters was their findings to city taxis when lint clog the fans due to many passenger enters/exits at the rear. This caused cooling issues.
It’s not just the GS, abut ES and RX and Toyotas too around those years.
What made Toyota add user replaceable filters was their findings to city taxis when lint clog the fans due to many passenger enters/exits at the rear. This caused cooling issues.
I've heard stories that some service centers charge as high as $600 to either clean or [maybe] replace the filter when the filter is on the end of the supply duct at the blower. I suspect the job likely has at least a 2 hour or more labor charge associated with it if the service instruction calls for the rear seat to be removed, etc. And I doubt that would include cleaning out a clogged-up cooling blower/fan, which would take a fair amount of extra time and effort to remove the blower assembly, scotch the blades and use compressed air to clean it out. Also, it wouldn't surprise me that if the tech determines that the traction battery itself needs cleaning because it is subject to being imperiled by the existing dirt/debris from unfiltered cooling air, that may be an additional charge to boot.
It will be interesting to learn what kind of shape owners find their cooling blower/fan and filter if they decide to delve into checking it themselves. Personally, if I had a pre-2015 model I would definitely be curious and significantly concerned about it - most importantly afraid that I'd be shortening the life of the traction battery, and secondly I'd be somewhat bothered that the traction battery's performance capability had deteriorated from the neglect of providing adequate cooling over time. Degradation of any battery is expected over a period of time, but undue heat from lack of adequate cooling is known to really cause damaging effect.
Maybe we'll have a couple DIY owners concerned enough about the condition of their traction battery cooling system to tackle this maintenance project and let us know what they find, hopefully with pictures. I think @peasodos who enjoys DIY maintenance on his 2013 GS 450h and advocates it for others would be the perfect candidate for doing this.
How 'bout it @peasodos ?
Last edited by bclexus; 12-09-22 at 09:58 AM.
Reason: orthography
Here are the results from various vehicles where the owner ignored maintenance of the filters and blowers, which clearly they needed attention a long time ago.
Last edited by bclexus; 12-09-22 at 09:58 AM.
Reason: orthography
I've heard stories that some service centers charge as high as $600 to either clean or [maybe] replace the filter when the filter is on the end of the supply duct at the blower. I suspect the job likely has at least a 2 hour or more labor charge associated with it if the service instruction calls for the rear seat to be removed, etc. And I doubt that would include cleaning out a clogged-up cooling blower/fan, which would take a fair amount of extra time and effort to remove the blower assembly, scotch the blades and use compressed air to clean it out. Also, it wouldn't surprise me that if the tech determines that the traction battery itself needs cleaning because it is subject to being imperiled by the existing dirt/debris from unfiltered cooling air, that may be an additional charge to boot.
It will be interesting to learn what kind of shape owners find their cooling blower/fan and filter if they decide to delve into checking it themselves. Personally, if I had a pre-2015 model I would definitely be curious and significantly concerned about it - most importantly afraid that I'd be shortening the life of the traction battery, and secondly I'd be somewhat bothered that the traction battery's performance capability had deteriorated from the neglect of providing adequate cooling over time. Degradation of any battery is expected over a period of time, but undue heat from lack of adequate cooling is known to really cause damaging effect.
Maybe we'll have a couple DIY owners concerned enough about the condition of their traction battery cooling system to tackle this maintenance project and let us know what they find, hopefully with pictures. I think @peasodos who enjoys DIY maintenance on his 2013 GS 450h and advocates it for others would be the perfect candidate for doing this.
How 'bout it @peasodos ?
Probably worth at least taking a look to see what kind of dust is on the fan after 128k miles.
@Adicar - Thanks for the image of your traction battery cooling blower in your 2013 GS 450h. Appreciate that! The blower is not very dirty at all!
Being that your 2013 model year car (likely built in 2012) was 'imported from Japan a year ago' it's important to know how many total miles the car has been driven to receive this very minimal amount of dirt buildup on the cooling blower.
Can you confirm that the car did not have filters at the air intake vents and the blower, and to your knowledge had never been cleaned since the car was built ten years ago?
Whatever mileage you have put on the car in the past year or so (since it was imported from Japan a year ago) the balance of the mileage was obviously put on the car by it's previous owner over the car's first 9 years of ownership. Can you help us with offering this mileage information?
Can you tell us how difficult it was to access the traction battery cooling blower, and if the information provided in the previous posts of this thread was helpful to you?
Enjoy that clean Ireland air!
Originally Posted by Adicar;11424044
For me, the car was imported from Japan a year ago. Lexus gs450h. 2013.
Last edited by bclexus; 01-07-23 at 10:34 AM.
Reason: orthography
@Adicar - Thanks for the image of your traction battery cooling blower in your 2013 GS 450h. Appreciate that! The blower is not very dirty at all!
Being that your 2013 model year car (likely built in 2012) was 'imported from Japan a year ago' it's important to know how many total miles the car has been driven to receive this very minimal amount of dirt buildup on the cooling blower.
Can you confirm that the car did not have filters at the air intake vents and the blower, and to your knowledge had never been cleaned since the car was built ten years ago?
Whatever mileage you have put on the car in the past year or so (since it was imported from Japan a year ago) the balance of the mileage was obviously put on the car by it's previous owner over the car's first 9 years of ownership. Can you help us with offering this mileage information?
Can you tell us how difficult it was to access the traction battery cooling blower, and if the information provided in the previous posts of this thread was helpful to you?
Enjoy that clean Ireland air!
The information was enough to deal with in about an hour.
The car did not have filters at the air intake vents and the blower.
Mileage 137,000 km.
I don't think the fan has ever been cleaned. It's just that the car is in very good condition.Mileage in Ireland for the last year approximately 20,000 km.
12-04-22, 07:14 AM
GS 450h Traction Battery Blower/Fan Filter Mystery Solved
I hope this information is helpful. I'll make a duplicate post of this in both the threads in this 4GS Hybrid forum with the filter subject title so others can be sure to learn about the topic.
