Does 'PA080 Replace Hybrid Battery Pack' always indicate a replacement necessary?

it's best to get the sub codes with a prius aware scanner

 

close to always, not sure i trust doc prius either. certainly worth cleaning everything up and seeing what happens

 

autel-maxi-ap200-go-buy-this.232861

 

gen2-obd2-app-review.232741

 

get techstream bootleg on ebay or amazon and a cheap laptop if you're paranoid

 

You can reset the code and drive a bit further.

But how much further?

You can also keep squeezing a tube of mustard until you get every last milligram out. It comes down to how much work you put in vs. the benefit you get out.

When you reset a dying battery like that, you'll see a pattern of shorter and shorter drives between the resets. Eventually it does the bad smell and then it won't go READY anymore.

How old is that battery? Toyota built them to last about 10 years. Some have made it to 12 years. The Aqua/Prius c battery does not last as long as the big Prius battery.

 

P0A80 is triggered only when the voltage difference between two modules grows larger than a set threshold on two separate trips. Sufficiently high temperatures will trigger different codes, not P0A80.

You could figure out which modules are weak and replace them, and this method might extend the pack life by up to a year, or not at all. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to find replacement modules whose charge-discharge characteristics match those of your existing good modules closely enough.

Erasing the code does not remove the problem, so it will pop up again very soon. The fan or fan filter don't really have anything to do with a P0A80 detection. If any of those are resulting in insufficient cooling, there will definitely be other codes first. And corrosion is only relevant if it is under the bus bar nuts or on the terminal threads (it usually is not).

NiMH batteries start degrading from the moment of manufacture. The battery smart unit monitors the pack continuously throughout its life, and there eventually comes a time when it detects that one or more of the modules have degraded enough to warrant replacement of the entire pack, and that is when you get the P0A80.

 

The P0A80 trouble code for a Gen 3 prius only has one detail or sub code, which is 123, so there is only one troubleshooting procedure listed in the Toyota service manual for this trouble code. So, in this case, a better scan tool will not help with a P0A80 code.

That being said, it is always best to use a scan tool (like the Autel AP200 that you linked to in post #4) that is capable of reading all the trouble codes that might occur in the Prius.

 

thanks! i thought it would give you info on the bad modules.

 

Second this. I diagnosed my failed hybrid battery and replaced it on my way own, saving lots of $. Bootlegged techstream should run around 40 including scanner

 

I wonder how they came to choose that particular number, a tidy little sequence of numbers?

I know Japanese culture is somewhat tetraphobic, given that in Japanese, the spoken word 'shi' means 'death' or 'four' depending on context.

I couldn't know if it's deliberate, but I posit that it could be seen as a wonderfully sneaky way of suggesting what's next for the battery. Nerds rule.

ein... doi... tres... shi♩
♩ time to buy a bat-tery♫