Is there a guide to how to rebuild the battery pack? How many cells does it need?

Kevin,

My 27 good modules were rebalanced to regain their 6.5 Amp-Hour capacity and sold to 6 individuals who used them to repair their Prii. I have none left.

Go on eBay and get modules from 2010 or later Prii with low mileage and then you can rebalance them using a hobbyist charger/rebalancer (I used a SuperMate DC6). Make sure that all of your modules have the same voltage (a little less than 8v is good, but equal is required) before reassembling your battery. If you are willing to get 4 rebalancers, you can rebalance all 28 modules in less than two weeks.

JeffD

 

hi Jeff, thank you for your reply, your time is much appreciated. I will try my best to find modules for the repair. Do you have any additional advice as to what educational material are available regarding hybrids as I am interested in this technology but do not know of a good starting point. I feel you are very knowledgeable from your posts and replies hence all the questions . Thank you again, Kevin.

 

Kevin,

Read Seilerts' posts in the the first page of this thread. He has done more battery refurbishings than I and much of what I learned about the rebalancing process came from him and careful experiments with my old HV battery.

JeffD

 

A different Jeff - JeffD

 

I would like to know where I can buy 2 new cells please somebody post .My DTC code is P3014 MOD 03 .Thanks for any help or suggestions.

 

There's quite a few on ebay. Search for "Prius battery". They're used though.

 

You end used replacement modules.
You will not want brand new ones since they probably would not play well with your used ones.

I have some used ones available and could send them tomorrow.
Drop me an email for details.

 

You really should be testing your old ones to know what condition the current ones are in (both capacity and load testing). This way someone like Eric can sell you some good modules that will work with the rest of the modules in your current pack and not throw another code hopefully for a long time. This does take a bit more work/time but you also get a much better end result as well.

 

It is prudent to always start with a charge cycle. This will result in some initial balancing and reduce the chances of reverse polarizing a cell during the subsequent discharge cycle. You need to set up the charge and discharge parameters, and most people disable the safety timeout feature as it doesn't necessarily protect the battery. Most of the chargers can either perform a series of Charge/Discharge cycles or Discharge/Charge cycles. I typically run a single charge cycle which typically requires a couple hours. Then I run 3-5 Discharge/Charge cycles, recording the results of each in a spreadsheet. Although the batteries are designed for 6500 mah, I am happy with anything over 6000 mah and aim for that on all the cells.
I limit the maximum charge current to about 8500 mah, I have needed that in some occasions, to get the cells balanced.
Note that most of the heat is generated near the end of the charging cycle. Be cautious about charging adjacent cells, and be very careful with features that re-peak the battery for multiple cycles, since this generates a lot of heat. You can permanently damage these, so space out the cells under charge and take yout time.

 

ow many of such chargers would be required to balance a complete pack?

 

You only need one charger..... just will limit how many modules you can do at a time.

If the charger can do one module at a time and you can only do one per day.... then it will take 28 days.
But at least you only need to have one charger, right?

If your charger can do 4 modules at once, and you can do 4 per day, well then that will only take 7 days.

In either case, you still will create some variance, since not all will be done at the same time.

 

Thanks a lot Sir.

 

X2

This is why if you use RC chargers then quad style ones like the Hitec X4 finish the work much faster although grid charging is the fastest since you can do an entire pack in one shot. You still would need an RC charger to check the individual capacity in the modules though.

 

Hi. I don’t want to over simplify the process but could I just purchase 28 new cells for my hybrid battery and install them?

Or how do I find out which series is damaged and replace the block?

Please advise.

 

welcome!
simplest, smartest and best bang for your buck would be to buy the 'newpriusbatteries.com'

 

Absolutely. Buying 28 new modules (168 cells) is the best option. The problem with that, is PrimeEarth won't sell them to you. End of story.

Yabo makes look alikes but that's all they are. They look the same, but have 1/3rd or less of the battery goo required to make it 6.5Ah.

Your only options for brand new modules are from the Toyota Dealership (which has reduced their wholesale price considerably in the past 2 years) or NewPriusBatteries.com.

Everything else is used.

 

You could try looking through the threads. The answers you seek are not very hard to find. Battery repairs and replacements are one of the most talked about subjects here.

Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement | PriusChat

 

I too have just ordered from NewPriusBatteries and look forward to extending this 06' prius with no other problems. I dabbled in module
reconditioning back in gen1 days and I'm here to tell you the success rate is not high. As others have said above, you got to have balanced
batteries within the pack, and that means current capability AH and voltage sag recovery etc. Not so easy to do. If one block (two 7.5v modules) ever goes below 1.5v lower or higher than the others, guess what - Triangle of Death. Plus I'm sick of those smelly modules!
I think of them like 6AH 7.2V drill batteries. Well now we'll get rid of them finally and go with NewPriusBatteries which are cyclindrical batteries Similar to D cells maybe slightly larger than D's with no outgassing problems like the modules. Best of all they're new! Air flow is still required but not as stringent, and it's like having a new battery. In any case, when all cells are "the same age" it will work much better and balance them selves.