Trouble Codes you never want to see

P03000 - Battery Control System Malfunction

P0A80 - Replace Hybrid Battery Pack

Yes, it came with a light display



Background

Today on the way to work the battery ran down to one pink in an area where it never would normally. Then it force charged itself up to full green. No lights or driving oddities so I figured it was doing a 'battery conditioning' cycle.

At work I left at lunch to run some errands. The battery was full green but when I pulled out onto the road, it instantly fell to one pink, and the dash lit up. The ICE took over and I could tell it was running ICE only.

At the first traffic light, the ICE was running charging the single pink bar battery, when suddenly the display went to full green. The ICE shut off, then started back up attempting to bleed off excess charge. The battery fell to mid-blue and the ICE shut off. Of course the dashboard display was still fully illuminated. When I pulled away from the light, full green. As I pulled into the first available parking lot, one pink and force charging.

I shut it off to see if it would clear with a restart. When I restarted it, I heard a 'clack clack clack clack' from the hybrid battery area. Clearly a relay of some kind kicking on and off. The car started, but full light display, and full green battery. It immediately started trying to bleed off battery juice.

I called the dealer, and he said if it was driveable, drive it in. Not the call I might have made, but he said if something got hurt they'd fix it.

I made it to the dealer, with a hinky battery display and the ICE having trouble deciding what to do, but generally working ok. I did notice some surge/jerk as it apparently changed it's mind about what mode it wanted to be in every minute or two.

So, they pulled the two codes, put me in a loaner, and said 'at least a week'.

At least my loaner was an improvement over the last time. This time it's a brand new RAV4 with 90 miles on it. Last time it was a Dodge Ram Quad Cab 5.7L Hemi. I'm thinking I'll get better mileage with the RAV4, but I'm sure I'll be missing the Prius in short order.

I'll let you know what eventually happens.

 

Acquired Feb 04 (Mfg Jan 04)

30K miles

Lifetime MPG 54.5

No EV mod

Only modification is mud flaps

I have the 7Yr/100K warrantee already in place, so I'm covered for a bit longer.

 

Nope, never run out of gas even once. No previous problems and all service campaigns performed.

It's always performed flawlessly until today. Only change from routine is that it spent Thursday Morning through Saturday Night in the airport parking lot, but it was fine on the way home Saturday Night.

 

Just talked to the Dealer, and they got a new battery in yesterday. They will let me know when it's in and ready to go.

I don't know any more about what was wrong with it, if anything. I was talking to the Service Writer.

I'll try to talk to the tech when I pick it up, but I don't know if I'll learn anything specific about the 'failure'. I suspect they just followed the diag code to 'replace battery'.

It will be interesting to see if that alone fixes it.

 

I have a pretty good relationship with the techs. The only question was would I make it there after work before they left.

The answer was yes

Turns out they decided to treat the two trouble codes separately, because of the symptoms I described.

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First P0A80 - Replace Hybrid Battery Pack

The battery had one cell showing low (Cell #7 if anyone's curious).

It was at 14V and all the others were at 16V

They took a freeze frame of the battery diag screen (I have a copy), and had to fax it to Toyota to get authorization for the battery replacement.

The Ticket was Replace Battery Assy, HV P/N G9510-47030

Unfortunately, it just shows it as $0 cost warrantee, and doesn't give the regular price. It also doesn't show the allowed hours.

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Second P3000 - Battery Control System Malfunction

Because of my description of the symptoms (The fluctuating battery SOC display), they decided to perform TSB EG023-04. I got a copy of the TSB and a freeze frame printout of the HV Battery Control System Diag Display.

Title: TSB EG023-04 M.I.L. "ON" HV BATTERY DTCs P3000, P3056 AND/OR OTHER DTC's

Model: '04 Prius

Updated July 12 2004

Description: Some 2004 model year Prius vehicles may exhibit Hybrid System and M.I.L. warning lights "ON" with DTC's P3000, P3056, and/or other DTCs. Review of freeze frame data may indicate that all HV battery cell voltages are 0, however the vehicle operates correctly. The following procedure has been developed to improve this condition.

VIN prior to JTDKB##U#40043320 (Mine is 37XXX)

Part Number 82163-47180 Wire, Floor, No.3 and Sponge

OP CODE EG4007 Install Floor Wire Harness No. 3.
Time: 1.1

This repair is covered under the Toyota Prius Hybrid Component Warranty (96mo/100k or 120mo/150k)

This actually involves removing pins from one of the HV Battery connectors and inserting this cable in-line. According to the tech, it has a diode added to the circuit.

For the Curious it apparently installs as a loop between terminals 2 and 12 of the B11 connector on the HV Battery ECU.

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Bonus Info

The TSB calls for removing pins from connectors and putting in new pins.

For those of you struggling with EV installs and such, who may want the right tool for the job.

Terminal Tool - Part Number 00002-217958

The TSB also has a good diagram of how to remove pins

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On the way home, all seemed well. Of course, it reset all my mileages (including trip odometers for some reason), and radio pre-sets. I did check to see that they had re-initialized the auto-window.

Having learned my lesson before on such things, I recorded the screen mileage when I dropped it off, and filled up as soon as I got it back. They had run it about 6 miles in testing and who knows how long on the bench, and had shot my mileage all to hell, hehe.

I was doing better on mileage this winter, but ironically enough, the actual mileage on this one was the worst since 2/23/05, exactly one year ago to the day.

I also wanted to fill up right away to see if there was any noticeable change either from a better battery, or from a battery break-in if one is required.

I'll report back after I've driven it a bit.

 

I'll ask next time I'm by, but maybe one of the resident techs or galaxees hubby could provide more info.

My best guess though is that the diode is to prevent an opposite polarity reading across those terminals, which likely was confusing the computer.