Is the 150 showing any signs of cracked inner guards

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

Yep, had a look today. Whole new design.

What about the Drivers side.... has that changed as well?

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

Does the v6 have the same size main battery as the d4d?

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

What about the Drivers side.... has that changed as well?

Yes both sides are a new design.

Incidentally got a chance to have a close look at a cracked guard and the crack opens and closes as you push down on the battery. So a simple solution is to cross brace the battery tray to another part of the chassis to transfer the load away from the guard. I'm going to have a look at doing that with my car and will post pictures if I do it.

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

Yes both sides are a new design.

Incidentally got a chance to have a close look at a cracked guard and the crack opens and closes as you push down on the battery. So a simple solution is to cross brace the battery tray to another part of the chassis to transfer the load away from the guard. I'm going to have a look at doing that with my car and will post pictures if I do it.

Would replacing the top part of the battery tie-down that goes across the top of Battery - Just extend this across to the Radiator Support Panel & use this as another supporting mount point. This would prevent any forward/backward moment.

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

Would replacing the top part of the battery tie-down that goes across the top of Battery - Just extend this across to the Radiator Support Panel & use this as another supporting mount point. This would prevent any forward/backward moment.

Unfortunately not so simple, need to either strengthen the guard or find a way to reduce the downward force exerted by the battery over bumps. Reducing the size and weight of the battery would be a great first step.

My mate has a much smaller auxiliary battery and that guard hasn't cracked.

[Guest Close Guest]

Might not be so easy transferring the weight to the chassis as the body and chassis are sort of independent. Good luck with it.

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

That's what I've done for my Aux Battery - reduced the physical size/weight + I've added the extra support to the radiator support panel to prevent any fwd/rev movement..... so far so good.....

Unfortunately not so simple, need to either strengthen the guard or find a way to reduce the downward force exerted by the battery over bumps. Reducing the size and weight of the battery would be a great first step.

My mate has a much smaller auxiliary battery and that guard hasn't cracked.

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

That's what I've done for my Aux Battery - reduced the physical size/weight + I've added the extra support to the radiator support panel to prevent any fwd/rev movement..... so far so good.....

Rob, had another look last night and it may help to run a support from the battery clamp. It is possible to run a support from one of the battery clamps back to a bolt next to the fuel filter mount. If done right that transfers some of the load to a completely different area. Any load put on the front near the radiator may still be transferred through the guard. Hard to really know without pulling apart or seeing detailed structural drawings.

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

Rob, had another look last night and it may help to run a support from the battery clamp. It is possible to run a support from one of the battery clamps back to a bolt next to the fuel filter mount. If done right that transfers some of the load to a completely different area. Any load put on the front near the radiator may still be transferred through the guard. Hard to really know without pulling apart or seeing detailed structural drawings.

Will have a look at it when I can....

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

Finally had time to have a look at the new guard design, picture attached below. Also included a picture of an old style cracked guard.

I now understand why the cracking has been occurring and what Toyota have done to address the problem. My mechanical engineering design theory is pretty rusty but I'll try to give a brief explanation.

If you look under the guard you will see that the body, of which the guard is a part, is supported by a rubber mount at the front of the guard next to the radiator. The other mount is at the back of the guard just below the front door hinges. This in effect turns the guard into a 'bridge' and the battery creates a point load on the bridge (guard).

I have attached a diagram that shows what this looks like in terms of force and bending moment. The bottom diagram is the bending moment graph for the bridge, the one above it is the shear force graph.

The failure point on the guard is in tension and more than likely close to the point of greatest bending moment. The design of the bridge (guard) is not a problem in day to day driving but on corrugations or with sudden loads due to hitting bumps etc the force exceeds the capacity of the thin tensile section of guard causing it to fail. Microscopic examination would probably show some necking (thinning) around the crack, which precedes failure in this type of event.

The new guard solves this problem by changing the shape of the area under the greatest load, the bottom of the guard, and by providing double the strength in the high load area through the using of a spot/thermal welded backing strip.

The fact that Toyota have made this change clearly shows that they identified and rectified a design weakness. They will be hard pressed to deny a claim for cracked guards based on this evidence.

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

Thanks for that Steve....

Very interesting to see the difference between the OLD and the NEW designs...... Wondering if the NEW will fit onto the OLD model 150's ??

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

See no reason why not, every thing else is identical. But.....huge job and pretty sure dash would have to come out.

Wouldn't be that hard for Toyota, or someone with the right equipment to fabricate an add on fix.

If I still had access to a fabrication shop id have a go.

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

Steve....

Would a thin strip of zinc anneal sheeting about 1.6mm thick (or less if need be - .8mm) & 20>30mm wide moulded to the contours of the guard and & then bolted in place do the trick ??



rob

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

Thanks for the info krypto, very interested to hear how your mate goes with getting the new inner guards fitted.

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

Steve....

Would a thin strip of zinc anneal sheeting about 1.6mm thick (or less if need be - .8mm) & 20>30mm wide moulded to the contours of the guard and & then bolted in place do the trick ??

rob

I think it should help and I'm thinking of doing the same. I was looking at using aluminum strip.

The tricky part is attaching to the guard, to ensure load transfer it needs to be a good joint which if using bolts means good surface prep and proper tension to ensure proper friction for load transfer. Also unsure about where to drill holes if I do it.