Replaced 2 Transaxles and the HV Battery and Still Not Working... advice please.

Another procedure worth a try is to disconnect the Neg lead on the 12V and reconnect after 10-15 min. Called rebooting, just like a computer. It may help to do this three or 4 times. There is also a procedure for disengaging the parking prawl so the car can be pushed in neutral. I don't remember the reverse for engaging parking prawl again, should be in archive. Also if switch on brake pedal is mal- adjusted the car will not go into ready. The check for this is when you push the brake pedal the rear brake lights should illuminate, if not the pedal is out of adjustment. Going back to starting procedure and rebooting, after brake pedal check, MAY remove some trouble lights. IF: you get car in ready and driveable, DO NOT shut the car off! Leave car running for at least 8 hours to fully charge the 12V and the HV Battery. This will not hurt anything. In the interim you can also force-charge the HV ( also in archives ). Good Luck! :rockon:

 

Once the car is READY the 12v is taken out of the equation completely and the HV battery is used for everything. So once ready, when you move it back and forth, you are using the electric MGs only. The engine is also spun by the MG's through the HV battery. It sounds like it is low on charge. Especially since you are adding insult to injury by moving it around while dead making it even worse.

One test to do: Turn the car to READY and wait... Wait 7 seconds. Is this when it grumbles?

If so, then your HV battery is too low on charge to spin the ICE fast enough to get to fuel injection speed. It is a chicken and egg problem. You need the engine to charge the battery, and the battery is needed to start the engine. When all is well, no problem. But once you get to 40% low on charge, the car complains. Once you get to 20%-ish you die like what is happening to yours. Also the longer you are discharged out of the 40% minimum or overcharged with the 80% maximum, you are permanently damaging the traction battery.

If you are very electrically inclined, then yes you can force charge it yourself using a grid charger. However this is very high voltage DC and high voltage AC. This is not something to mess with if you don't know what you are doing. You can kill yourself easily.

The Toyota dealership can fly in one of the very few Toyota designed grid chargers for this exact scenario and charge your car for you. They will park it outside away from everything, wrap it in caution tape, plug in the HV charger, fool the computer into turning on and count the coulomb input, and charge to just over 40%. Then the engine will be force started to charge it to about 60% (where it is happy) and all done. This is expensive, and you will more than likely need to give them a goods heads up because there are very few in existence. The common reason for needing this is running out of gas, then running on EV only. But even then, the car will stop before the no-restart threshold. But if you then restart the car to eek out more, the continuous spinning of the ICE will drain the HV battery even more to the point of it just not working anymore, like what you have.

 

Wow you are to be complimented 4 your persistence

 

A DIY battery charge is best done with a smart charger like those used by radio-controlled car/airplane nuts. You can configure it to add 1 amp hour at a 5 amp rate, and do all 28 modules that way.

Dynam Supermate DC6 DC Multi Function Balance Charger/Discharger 1-6 cell Lilo/LiPo/LiFe, 1 to 15 cells NiCd NiMH

Call for a quote on getting the battery charged at the dealer. I have heard it is very expensive.

Check out the blog post at Luscious Garage for transaxle failure modes. Does yours sound like #4?

Luscious Garage | Blog | Gen 2 Prius (2004-2009) Transmission Failure, P0AA6, P0A92, P0A7A

 

Actually if the battery is so low that there is 1 or 0 bars, it will start immediately. 7 seconds is for 2+ bars.

 

Hmm...only four seconds this time, that does imply that the HV battery is getting low. It is hard to tell what noise it is making. I admit, I've yet to hear the "rizz" noise, but I'm sure it will happen someday.

Another thing to look at, watch the serpentine belt while someone else tries to make the car Ready. If it moves, then the battery may be low. If it doesn't move, there could be a problem with the battery, but it is more like that there is a problem with the trans.

 

If you listen to the noise, you will hear the relays click. After they stop clicking, the HV battery is fully connected to the system. The sound comes almost immediately after the inverter would have built up a charge ready to spin the MGs. I would check the belt as mentioned, but really it sounds like the battery is just too low to spin the electric motors fast enough to turn the engine over.

Do you have any electrical background? Is high voltage DC something that will fry you? If no and then yes were answers to those questions then do not grid charge it yourself. However, you may be able to grid charge it modularly. Take the entire HV battery out open the case, remove the modules one by one, and put them on a CCCV (Constant Current, Constant Voltage) charger. Or a PSU that you can current limit and then voltage limit. Once they are all happy, assemble the whole pack and try again.

 

Woe thats really bad. I would jack the front of the car up a little and get underneath it right there to listen to the trans/mg so its isolated and see if its the MG/trans making that noise.
Or is it just the Inverter? I can't really tell if its mechanical for sure but it Sounds like somethings broken in the trans and slipping.
Is it possible the engine is seized and the mg is slipping or swamped trying to turn it over?
A listen under the front of the car will tell if its mechanical. Whatever it is it sounds very expensive.

 

Is it possible that the torque limiter (clutch plate and pressure plate) between engine and transmission is broken or worn.

 

Try turning the crankshaft with a wrench.