Powerboost cooling/heating louvers

[Norris McCarty]

Does anyone know if the louvers in front of the intercooler and radiator have a “fail-safe” mode. If they ever happened to fail closed it could be a big problem.
They both operate electrically by a thermostat somewhere in the system I suppose.
I just happen to notice them this morning. I had driven about 10 miles in 85 degree temp and they were closed. Out here in west Texas we need all of the cooling help we can get.
No big deal…..just curious about this type of thing.
i guess that I could unplug them and see if they stay open.

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[Tosh]

Howdy! from a native San Angelo-ner....

I've noticed that my louvers are almost always partially open when I have the truck parked in the driveway (I assume they stay in whatever position they were at when I got home and turned off the truck). However, last weekend when we were over 115 degrees F, I made a short 3 mile run to the store for some cold beer, and when I got home the louvers were closed.

Not sure what to make of that, but I'm curious to hear from anyone who knows the answer - will the louvers default to an open state if the controller motor fails?

 

[F-150 Prius]

I think your idea of unplugging the louvres is worth doing. The louvres probably don't move once there's no juice (I don't see any retraction mechanism and the resist manual adjustment, so that would be the motors) but there should be an error code. Also, while I know there's no such code, there should be an error that detects a steady increase in engine parameters (oil, coolant, head, exhaust temps) but there's only a dull warning of "power reduced to lower engine temperature" which is "horse is out of barn … close door now" … pfft! : )

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