Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement

Yes. It can be done while in the car, but it is muuuch more involved than hooking up jumper cables. You need to access the internals of the high voltage battery as well as tap into the wiring of the cooling fan.

 

How much longer can a failed pack last after it's re-balanced? Can this be done over and over again on failed packs?

 

Ha, ha. It's not as simple as I am making it sound. There are all sorts of reasons packs fail. Depending on why yours failed will determine how recoverable it is.
For example. A older car that sits unused over winter may throw error codes in the spring when first started up. Why? Imbalance voltage between modules. Clearly a charger can help out that pack.
But what if one of the cells has an I internal short? No charger could ever fix that, so the module must be replaced.

 

What a joke, who do you think you're fooling anyway.........so much for grasping simple concepts like module balancing.

X2

Depends alot on why the hybrid ECU has thrown the code (ie cell imbalance from sitting too long vs actual bad module). If you've been driving the car all along and it suddenly gives a weak block code you probably have a bad module.

 

Update: took the prius into the mountains, got back with no issues. Was 44mpg avg after the trip. Reset my computer to record city only mpg, so far so good! This 18 miles was on 30 to 45 mph streets with plenty of stoplights hit.

 

The Gen 1's are awesome in the city huh (unless you use AC)? Love them.

 

I'd probably only run it on the highway. Im fine with the windows down around town.

 

Your HV battery does not like heat and is cooled by air taken from the passenger compartment. Use the AC to keep you and your battery cool.

JeffD

 

I am sorry but I actually do, remark was about different topic.

 

Ill do a mpg test in city with the AC on and see how it does. Guess the drop in mileage may be worth it as battery insurance. Or maybe just run it on days that are above say 85 degrees...

 

So im curious if anyone has any input on why with this degraded pack am I getting 53mpg? Could it be that the prius charging system is injecting a far better charge than my bench top charger was, now that the pack is healthy and matched? Or??? Ive put more miles on and we're pretty much right there on mpg still after nearly 50 miles.

 

That's great news especially for a first generation pack getting 53 mpg

 

Great news yes! I just want to know why were in that neighborhood after getting low capacity numbers during rebuild. Hows your cycling going?

 

Its going I only have about 6 modules I`m happy with so far but the process started off slow with 2 chargers . I wish I just got 2 of the 4x chargers and not bothered with the single ones . My 4x Hitec charger came today and its purring along and now have 3 single chargers so by the end of the week I should be done If I was to get in this business I would be looking for some with a higher discharge rate charger as around 1 Amp takes forever . Also when you make little mistakes like not changing the time limit to 720 minutes and the power going out it throws all your charging into disarray

 

Yeah more chargers make quick light work. It must be a justified investment in your case. After all, time is money. I disabled time limits. The charge limit will cutoff before the time anyway. Mine were delta peaking in a way that prevented balancing but hell I must have done something right at 53mpg.

 

What sort of mileage were you getting before replacing the bad module?

 

53 Mpg is not unheard of in city driving for a Gen I (esp without ac use). Do this once, drive a steady 45 mph (engine on) on a flat surface and you'll find the instant mgp readout is above 50 (usually closer to 60). The car is a city car and the "C" is its direct replacement. They basically improved on the Gen I and made the "C".

Additionally, you don't really need that much capacity to benefit from the hybrid system. The real benefit to HSD is regen braking/coasting. Charging the battery with the ICE is actually a loss of energy. Charging it with regen and using it to take off/maintain speed is using energy other cars simply waste.

 

Don't know, bought it with the bad pack and pretty much parked it in the garage.

 

That is why we use 5 Amps load for discharge and Industrial UPSs to avoid any power loss related problems. And we charge the whole pack (28 modules) all at once.

 

Attached is what's going on so far