Battery problems please help

I think your battery is past recovery given the very low voltages recorded in blocks 3-15. You would be better off making a decision about buying a new or remanufactured battery, or buying 38 2G or 3G battery modules to swap out the original modules.

 

You can try to use the low voltage approach where each module is charged separately via the use of RC battery chargers, but I believe you will find the modules are damaged to the point where the traction battery ECU will log errors and the car will refuse to start.

If each module showed low but similar voltages, a short-cut approach would be to rig up a high voltage charger using a Variac, a bridge rectifier and filtering capacitors; but that involves some technical skill and the risk of injury or death if you can't safely handle high voltage DC.

Here is a recent example of work done on the Classic battery:
got some young 2012 modules | PriusChat

The OP may be willing to sell his original but still serviceable Classic battery modules if you contact him.

 

Our patent pending Prius Grid Charger would be perfect for charging the pack and allowing you to start and drive the car. It is the only system available that safely allows rebalancing the entire battery pack cells at the while still installed in the car.


It won't resurrect cells that have already failed, but if imbalance and/or discharge is your issue, this will fix it. The 2004-2009 Prius system is available now for $399, and will be reflected on our website and eBay in the next 48 hours.

 

Best of luck with the launch, Jeff. I'm having trouble talking myself out of one of these...

Mike..

 

The 12V charger is doing nothing with regards to charging the traction battery. The traction battery block voltages need to be within 0.3V of each other, or else the traction battery ECU will log a fault and the car will not start.

 

I believe that is intended for a high voltage charger that Toyota makes available to its dealers, and unless that is available to you, I don't think the connector would be very helpful.

Anyway, if you had a high voltage charger you could just open up the battery cover and connect the charger directly to the first and last module.

 

No. Please don't connect your 12V battery charger to the HV battery. That would be a crazy thing to do!

BTW. The HV battery charger mention above looks like it is for the Gen2 battery (201.6 volts nominal), so it may not be suitable for your gen1 pack which is more like 273.6 nominal volts.

 

Good point, I didn't catch that. The 99-03 Charger looks like this (for now):


They cost a bit more, $549 at present, due to the necessary case fabrication labor and additional internal components required to get to the 340V unloaded required by the larger hybrid batteries. Our Mechanical Engineer is already working hard on a new case that will significantly reduce the price. This new lower priced version should be to market in July.

 

Have you tried to start the car? The 01 I recently bought had 2 blocks with low voltage and a weak 12v battery. It jump started right away and after about 10 minutes of idling the battery graph on the display came up into the blue. I then drove the car before buying it.
When I got the battery pack out, module #38 had a hole burned through at the top and the casing on #37 was melted. The main battery cable was crisp and stiff and the sensor ring terminal that connected to the last battery was not in existence any more. I was also able to get the capacity of the other bad block back up around 5300mAh for each mod. I replaced the pack with a newer one while I was reconditioning my original since I didn't have very high hopes for it. Now I've got 36 good modules that I plan to sell and I've got enough gen2 mods to redo the whole pack.

 

The dealer can grid charge your hybrid battery but who knows what they will charge and they may just come back and tell you it needs replacement. If you really want to do this right I would open up the battery case and cycle every module with a Hitec X4 AC Plus charger (around $220). That will give you an idea of the state of health of the modules and allow you to replace any damaged ones before the pack goes back into service.

If the idea is just to try and get it back in service asap then you're best off trying Jeff's grid charger setup as mentioned above. As mentioned it will not help with dead modules or tell you which ones are bad, it will just grid charge the battery pack as a whole. Working on hybrid batteries with the proper tools is not cheap but it will save you alot of money in the long run vs going to the dealer and just playing parts replacement.

 

In my experience, I have come across dealers who refuse to charge up hybrid batteries. Replacement is the only option they offer. (Grrrr!)

No one I know rents hv chargers, but at my shop I do one-time charging of packs when needed.
This is usually a mobile service where I go to wherever the car is located, as opposed to them bringing the car to the shop.

For example I had a guy who had a fuel/spark issue and drained his pack down after cranking it over too many times.

I see you are in Colorado, if you are near Boulder, check out Boulder hybrids, and if in Denver, try Mile Hybrid Automotive. They would likely be able to help.

But if you are doing the work yourself, I would suggest buying a charger of your own.
Once you own it, you could lend it to others for free.

 

Gen1 batteries are easy to charge in the car if you have an appropriate HV charger and a mating connector to the "plug to nowhere". No need to remove seats or battery cover. Gen 2's require you remove the battery cover (way more work) and tap into most negative and most positive terminals on the battery or the battery side of the main relays.