P3030 Dilemma

What needs to happen is that those modules need to be cycle charged, and checked for capacity to see if they are any good. They have obviously self discharged while sitting. There are numerous threads on here about how to do it.

I don't believe your p3030 is the same as that one but, crazier things have happened.

 

Simply search for how to jump start or how to charge and once started it will charge your battery. then drive it 50 60 miles on freeway to give it a good charge. Hopefully your problem will go away. Good Luck.

 

The HV battery is what starts the ICE not the 12v battery there is no jump starting, you'll need to get the HV battery charged up. If the HV battery self discharged to the point it won't run MG1 (motor that starts the ICE) in 4 months then most likely there are issues with the HV modules.

 

It seems that you measured the voltages of the 38 battery modules (each module contains six cells, not just one), and you found them to be 1 to 3 volts each. A fully-discharged (but not over-discharged) NiMH cell will still be at least 0.9 volts or so, which means you would expect to see at least 4.5 volts on any 6-cell module that you'd have much serious hope of reusing. These 38 modules are probably bound for the nickel recycler.

You could spend the time to cycle-charge them and see how many of them come back (for some meaning of "come back"), but it would make no sense to try to do that for all 228 cells in series. You would want to invest in a "smart" programmable NiMH charger/conditioner, set it for 6-cell series charging, and do one module at a time. If you keep up a pace of two modules a day you might complete the 38 in just under three weeks, and then you could put them in order by their capacities as determined by the smart charger, and see if any turned out to be worth reusing. You can find some threads in this forum where some very dedicated people have gone through that process.

If you did not notice any broken voltage-sense wires when you cleaned up the bus bars, I would ignore the P3030 for now. The battery being dead as a doornail is the more pressing immediate fact. Because voltages of 1 to 3 (i.e. 2 to 6 for a module pair, the way the sense wires see them) are far below what would ever be seen in a viable battery, the computer probably reports such readings as likely problems with the sense wire connections. In your case, unfortunately, they're for real.

-Chap

 

The modules are numbered 1-38 with 1 adjacent to the control electronics. They are measured in pairs, 1-19, again from the control electronics, 1, to the last, 19. But generally speaking, the original modules are significantly weaker than later generations. That is why many buy, test, and match the more modern modules to rebuild their packs.

Search around this forum and you'll find a lot of history. In my case, I bought a ReInvolt pack in November 2009 to upgrade to the newer modules. But today, you have options.

Bob Wilson

 

Voltage under 6v per module is bad. Very bad.

I would not trust a pack that had truly been drained that far and sat for a long period of time.

You sound like a pretty handy person so if you need a pack sent to you I'd be happy to help out.

 

Let me know if you need some modules. I have some available.

 

Ok, well, that's an easy day then. Glad things are working out for ya'.

 

Hi Moe,

Buying a broken Prius and the salvage from a second one is a little unusual. I get the distinct impression working on auction cars is not 'your first rodeo.' I'm curious about what besides the low price might have led you to this first Prius?

The reason I ask is in 2001, we could not justify a new Prius over new Echo. But I kept following the technology until a rain-slick street took away our 1991 Camry.

I bought a used, 2003 Prius via eBay and on the first leg driving it home, Fort Worth to Shreveport, the 39 MPG was so bad I briefly thought about returning to ask for my money back. Instead, I drove home to Huntsville AL at different speeds on cruise control and figured out it would do 52 MPG, sunrise-to-sunset, at speeds of 65 mph or less. This so 'tickled' my engineering ego, my hobby became the Prius version of a 'gear head.'

If you're just out to get it working and sell it for a profit, we'd offer one set of advice. But if there is any interest in understanding "the man behind the curtain," well that would add additional technical details . . . IF there is an interest.

Everything our collaborators have suggested has been and remains 'spot on.' Now I might propose an experimental technique to try and resurrect the old batteries but this would be more curiosity than necessarily a good use of time and resources. But this is really your party. I'm just trying to understand how much theory would be useful to you.

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

 

Thanks for keeping us informed. Others would like to hear updates for sure.
If you ever need a Hybrid Battery Charger/Balancer, feel free to drop me a line.