Advise Please: exploded hybrid battery on road trip (outside of Louisville, KY)

If you brought the title with you, donate it as scrap for local charity & claim the tax credit.

If you don't have the title with you, get somebody to mail it to you ASAP so you can get rid of this thing.

 

16 year old car......

Yeah, I think the "change owner" light is on.

 

look on the internet for hybrid repair shops.
compare rebuilt battery prices to new at a dealer.
at 157k, there's a lot of life left in her. i'd throw in a new one if i could find something around $2,000.

 

There's still plenty of life left in your car... If you lived near me I would of put a loaner battery pack in and fixed your pack before it went from bad to worse. Your car is still valuable to someone with spare a spare battery pack lying around.

Hopefully rebuilder on here in your area see this and makes an offer for it. The smoke and explosions are going to be contained inside the metal case, so swap out the pack, and I suspect clean out the battery cooling fan and it will be back on the road for someone else or yourself.

 

A buyer might have to wonder, though, if there had been any other issues with the car that had also been dealt with in the same proactive and diligent fashion....

 

Sounds like the HV battery fan could've became excessively clogged with dog hair and organic matter.

Wonder if @TMR-JWAP would have any interest if taking this on, or getting it back on the road for you.

 

Some fighter pilots die, because they refuse to bail out ... thinking they can bring it in .... flames & all. You have to know when to fish, and when to cut bait. One limp mode is enough ... two? It's at one's own peril. This - coming from a risk taker.
Don't forget to post your experience with Prolong Battery Systems. Extending the life of your hybrid. — Hybrid Automotive
Maybe they'll help with what to do.
.

 

Well that's possible, and yes there was a dog and dirty car that makes it highly likely, but if you have a bad cell that's heating up and you keep forcing the vehicle out of limp mode and continue to drive it, even a clean fan wouldn't help that much.

 

That's a bit out of my range. But, one could always peruse the local craigslist to find a mobile repair person. They usually rebuild the HV battery on site or swap it out for about $400. May even come with a 30-6-90 day warranty. Don't forget to have them remove your prolong harness

 

If this is your bottom line feeling and approach, you don't have too much choice.
It doesn't even matter too much what shape the vehicle is in, in all other regards, not running, and with a totally failed Hybrid Battery, 2004, it's not worth much. You're I would assume, be selling pretty much for scrap. Exactly what that might be, I'm not sure, but it's not going to return you much.

I would also be concerned about the health and ecological safety of the situation. Especially if you are using the adjective "exploded", and smelling different chemical odors. It may be a situation where you don't want to touch, or breath anything. It could be dangerous. I'd call around to different scrap yards, etc, and give full disclosure, and see what they say.
Safety first for everyone involved at this point.

 

Since @TMR-JWAP is out of range, put it up for sale "as-is" on here : Prius Cars For Sale | PriusChat

Then post it on CL in the auto parts section, as the cars and trucks section costs $5 these days.

Someone would be happy to take it off your hands, most likely around 1k.

 

SFO may have the best suggestion....if back at your residence...Craigs List, parts car, as is, does not run, needs to be towed.
Is the car back at your residence or still "abandoned along your trip Louisville?
If abandoned...also mentioned above, try a charity, yet based on your tax return this may not have a monetary benefit to you.
You've mentioned you don't wish to put a battery in it or repair.
If you change your mind as to a repair, as a preparation or to help in that decision, you can remove components to access the 12 volt and the hybrid battery.
Smell indicates to look for a burnt wire or electrical arcing.
I have no insights for the "popping" sound, except a battery case explosion.
Good luck.

 

I'm still concerned about safety.
There's a lot of chemistry in a battery you don't want to mess with.
There's a lot of voltage too...

If the OP is smelling "chemical" smells and the battery has "exploded" it may not be safe to be around.

 

The amount of toxic chemicals in any car is great in number. Just the grease under an engine is off the charts in all kinds of toxins... The Prius battery is very well designed for failure events like this and the steel sheet metal the battery pack is mounted inside of is more than strong enough to handle modules popping their plastic lids, which they're designed to do if they overheat.

Also soon as the orange safety plug is removed the pack is no longer high voltage. There's also additional disarming access points that are designed for firefighters if a car has been destroyed in an accident...

As for the electrolyte, I'm friends with people who've repaired these after they've popped and they aren't that messy to deal with, no where near as messy/toxic as engine work. And yes the electrolyte is highly caustic and you need to work clean, but there's no serious risks as long as you follow basic safety practices.

 

I don't care.
The OP uses the adjective "Explode" and say's she smells chemicals.
That has really NOTHING to do with grease in the engine bay, or how anything including the battery might be designed.
You or I have not seen the damage, so speculation as to how minor it might be, how well the design has handled it or not, is unfounded.

In absence of any hands on knowledge of the extent of the damage in this "explosion" I'm going to recommend caution. It COULD be dangerous.
To my knowledge the OP has NOT removed the orange safety plug, nor does she profess to be trained in rescue recovery or Hazmat materials handling.
I'm just going to say POTENTIALLY dangerous. Be careful, safety first.

 

Both myself and my friends have direct hands on knowledge of how these events happen and what they're like to clean up and repair... If you have some specific knowledge you'd like to share that's helpful please do so.

What's not helpful to anyone is you promoting fear with no basis in fact or experience to back up your exaggerations. PriusChat is to inform and help people... You're clearly misinforming and not helping...

 

99% of the general population have no business working on high voltage batteries. But some of them try and rely on false statements like the above.


High voltage is present in a Prius battery until all bus bars are removed from one side of the battery.


Removing the bus bars requires working on a live high voltage circuit. Unlike house wiring, the circuit can not be turned off with the simple flip of a circuit breaker.

Safety is almost never discussed here. This can make a DIY'er think there is no danger in trying to fix their battery.