Bad hybrid battery problems

welcome! i know nothing about rebuilding batteries, but there are numerous technical threads here you can search and peruse. all the best with your project car, i applaud your tenacity!

 

You can order a rebuilt battery from Dorman through most local automotive stores; Advance Auto, Auto Zone, etc. Re-Involt , a company in Sanford, NC, has been rebuilding Prius batteries for years now and several on here have installed their batteries with continued success. Dorman bought Re-Involt and made the batteries available through automotive stores.

For a new battery you can purchase at your Toyota dealer and install yourself.

What kinds of problems did you encounter with the salvage batteries?

 

Go to mellor's automotive as they are a good, independent Hybrid repair facility in Florida. Getting a salvaged HV battery in a hot climate is unlikely as heat is the enemy. Our HV batteries do not do well in southern climes.

JeffD

 

I would recommend you find someone with previous prius pack knowledge to help you.
A rebuild can be done successfully, from what I've read, but from my experience with the other brands pack
it's no walk in the park kinda deal.
And there are lots of different methods posted on the net with varying levels of rebalanced pack results.

I would have never gotten my unbalanced pack back in serviceable condition without a bit of hand holding as I learned how to use the
tools to fix the pack.

I'd suggest contacting someone who will answer your questions about the rebalancing process in a way you understand and then follow that lead.

My understanding is that hobby chargers, even the superbrain or a quad, will take at least a few weeks to balance one pack, with dubious results, but it is a learning experience if nothing else.

jdenenberg
Jeff, do you know what year insite that is pictured on mellor's automotive Welcome page?

 

Ask EricBecky
Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement | Page 24 | PriusChat

 

If you have the tools, you can do it yourself, or there many people that rebalance for $350.
Where are you located?

 

No, the battery needs to be able to spin the engine (ICE) as the 12v battery is not used to start the engine in a Prius.

If I needed an HV battery today for my Gen2 (2004) Prius, I would get a salvaged Gen3 battery from a wreck in a northern clime and rebuild it's modules to swap them as a group into my existing Gen2 battery. Since I live in a northern clime, it is likely that most of my existing modules would recover to a reasonable capacity when balanced and could be sold in blocks with documented performance characteristics to others rebuilding their HV batteries. My cost would then be about $300-$500 using current material valuation (~$1000 for the salvaged pack minus ~$600 selling refurbed modules.

JeffD

ps. no I don't know the year of that car.

 

Cell reversal is a fairly extreme fault in the pack, and requires module replacement, if the module / modules are in fact revered and not just low.

I wouldn't have pulled the original pack until I knew the pack I was replacing it with was better than the pack in the car.
Are you reading the odb codes before and after you switch packs?
Find out which pack is healthiest and use the others as crash test dummies.

But that's just how I see it, as always YMMV
and good luck.

 

In one of your posts above you mentioned the mechanic has rebuilt packs for sale at a price that is too high for your budget ( paraphrasing)..
And you are looking to spend around $350 on the repair initially?
If you already had the tools to charge the faulty packs it would still cost more than $350
Look at jdenenburgs numbers above. They are consistent with what I've seen for salvage prius packs, and it appears he knows a bit more about prius packs then I do.

Tinkering with HV module reconditioning but not seeing improvement | PriusChat

 

That is certainly a consideration you have to account for.
If I were confident in the condition and warranty of a new pack for the other brand, I probably would have gone that way myself for my 06

 

If you buy a low mileage Gen3 battery you will get better (younger) modules that after rebalancing (4 chargers gets the job done in less than two weeks), load testing to determine effective series resistance ( a few hours) , and equalizing (30 minutes - put them in parallel) you swap them into your existing HV shell. Done carefully, your rebuilt battery should be good for several years. You then get to play with your old modules and see if any of them are good enough to sell to others for about $30 each (plus shipping).

I opted for a ReInVolt (now Dorman) 2+ years ago at $1600 plus $400 installation by my Toyota dealer to quickly get my 2004 going at 195k miles (2.5 years ago) which gave me the opportunity to educate myself using my old modules (27 of 28 were still serviceable) Now at 260k miles the Prius is still going strong.

Note that even the $2000 cost was only $0.01 per mile and I cleared about $700 selling my 27 (the 28th had a reverse cell) refurbished modules.

JeffD

 

Cores from salvage yards are a crap shoot.
They are more than happy to take yours back and give you another. Since they are not the ones doing the labor to install/remove.

With big companies like doorman in the mix, the price of junkyard batteries has risen dramatically. Especially in my neck of the woods.
When you get to the point that you need some modules, let me know.

When you get through the initial rebuild, remember to keep some extra since you will need to do it again sometime in the future.
Don't be in a hurry when charging them. Slow and steady is better. I see too many people on this forum making a race out of it, rather than being gentle on the cells when they are on the ends of the SOC range. Unless you go slow, the cells will be unable to dissipate the extra amperage safely.

Best of luck in finding what you need. You may even want to consider a junked car if you can sell the other parts, but keep the battery pack.