Just had a buddy bring me his Prius with 170k miles on it. I opened it up and this is what I see. Any explanation on why this might have happened and any further info I should know before proceeding? Thanks
Looks like he drove it until it wouldn't move anymore. Ask him how long the warning light has been ON. The intake vent and/or fan for the battery may be clogged with dog hair or whatever.
Yah, over charging pressure relief failed to open top cap failed where it is heat sealed to lower portion, mainly because it's the only portion of the modules that is not reinforced either by another module next to it or the bottom steel tray. at least it was only one (with a blown top) and not several at once which could have snapped the clamp plates off the rods. As mentioned by RobH, happens more often on a battery that has already provided a warning that it was in failure mode, but owner continues driving or resets warning and continues driving.
I have only seen this on vehicles that have been driven after the idiot lights have illuminated. My guess is this is it. It was driven a long time by just continuously resetting the codes.
2 of them had the top blown off...a few of these cells have very low capacity. There’s electrolyte all over the case. Probably gonna go with this one is fubar’d.
I wonder if that picture or this thread should be in a sticky that we can reference when people ask if it's OK to keep driving when the traction battery is throwing codes.
