I have been reading a lot of stuff on this forum and it has been a great help. Hope I can get some advice here. I'm in Singapore (tropics) and bought this car from a direct owner at about 60k miles. He's the only owner and my mechanic didn't find any problems. I rented it out to 2 Uber drivers who each do 12 hour shifts every day. About 2 weeks later at 67k miles, "check hybrid system" came out. Toyota dealer told me it's P0A80 and since I don't do my oil change with them, there is no more warranty. They wanted SGD 4700 for a new battery and $150 for labor. I took it to my regular workshop and a hybrid car workshop, and I think they all only found one code (P0A80). Best price I got was $4000 for a new battery or $2000+ for reconditioning. My regular workshop cleared the code but it came back after about 2 days and 600 miles. This time, driver said he was just cruising at about 50mph and battery was about 1 bar below the mid-point. I checked the fan and it looks only slightly dirty and not clogged at all. I cleared the code again so I can log some data with Torque. Attached is the data using the Gen III Prius PIDs. I tried to charge and then drain the battery by putting in reverse and ac at max. Maximum voltage difference was 0.63V. It has been a day and about 300 miles, and the code is not back yet. I'm guessing corroded bus bars or loose wires? I think it will cost about $3000 to get a new battery from Japan, or $1500 used. Now I'm planning to take it apart, clean the bus bars and do some charged/discharge cycles. What do you think is the problem, and what should I do? Any help is greatly appreciated! Update: The code is back again after 1.5 days 400 miles
I've heard of used Prius C batteries going for $500 (one on another thread). that'd be the way to go. find a low mileage donor or go for the reconditioned if nothing else. best of luck!
A bit of googling and I found something hilarious P0A80 can mean several things. The first one I found is that you need new cells because they don't have a good enough capacity in them anymore. This is the expensive option. You can try cycling the batteries to restore them, there is a lot of information on that. The other thing, and I think this is the hilarious/bad design thing... The code could be for a clogged battery fan! Apparently some cars came without a filter for the fan that blows air over the battery! Different cars have the filter in different spots, but if yours doesn't have a filter you should definitely take the fan out and clean it (and ofc add an OEM approved filter or ducttape a dollar store scrubpad over the opening)!
Are you good at DIY? Do you have some basic Electrical knowledge? If you do, then there are things you can do to save yourself some $. But first it requires that you remove the pack and get a grid charger for the pack. If you think you are up to the task and have some time to spare then let me know.