Prius hv battery maintenance ( check hybrid system )

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by zoeboi954, Nov 30, 2016.

  1. zoeboi954

    zoeboi954 Junior Member

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    So my prius check hybrid system came on and I took it to the dealership and was told that the hv battery need to be replace. I decided to do it myself because I have some basic knowledge and working with electronics. So after watching a couple of YouTube videos I took out the battery and began to test it. I already bought a cell module online. but my problem was all the tested out good all showed above 7.7 volts. this left me stuck cause I was expecting a bad cell. I even tested by pair getting around 15.5v.

    the only thing I could think of is the fan because it was extremely dirty but can that cause a check hybrid system and give the code bad battery pack?
     
    #1 zoeboi954, Nov 30, 2016
  2. mrbigh

    mrbigh Prius Absolutum Dominium

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    you should measure the individual battery modules under load, that procedure will indicate witch module is not passing current and the Hybrid battery disconnected from the car.
    It is a dangerous job having exposed HV, this should be made in a controlled environment and with appropriate instrument and tools like, Safety rubber gloves for HV environments.
     
    #2 mrbigh, Dec 1, 2016
  3. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    Also, you should get tools to read the codes for your car.
    As you do this kind of work on your car, you'll be running blind without it.
    Errors will come up and you don't want to do the error code reads yourself.
     
    #3 ericbecky, Dec 1, 2016
  4. FuelMiser

    FuelMiser Senior Member

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    As far as I know, the Check Hybrid System light can also signal inverter issues, inverter cooling, etc. But, I suppose your dealer did the appropriate diagnostics and came up with HV Battery...lets's hope. Assuming this is for your 2010 Prius (unknown miles), you're still too young to have HV battery failure.

    Clean out your HV battery cooling vent/fan and put it back together. Does your Check Hybrid light clear?
     
    #4 FuelMiser, Dec 1, 2016
  5. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    Gotta' know the codes. Flying blind without them.

    Unfortunately, that's going to mean putting the battery back in as with it out you should get all sorts of errors and possibly many of them being red herrings.
     
    #5 fotomoto, Dec 1, 2016
  6. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    I would ask the dealer for what codes they found.
    That would help you hone in on whether it was a vblock that was bad or something else like a High Voltage leak to ground.
     
    #6 ericbecky, Dec 1, 2016
  7. stockdaddy

    stockdaddy Member

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    When the HV battery fails, it should give a specific code to which battery block failed. Your going to have to put it back together and get a bluetooth code reader or the Mini-VCI Techstream. Then drive around to see which battery is weak. Should be one block that is at least 1v difference from other blocks.
     
    #7 stockdaddy, Dec 1, 2016
  8. zoeboi954

    zoeboi954 Junior Member

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    Well here an update, today has been a long day. I did more testing on the battery and I still couldn't find nothing. I used my subwoofer to do a load test (only thing I could find) 2 min on each module, all of them pass. So i gave up on the module. I was left with just cleaning it..... and here where things went bad.... I broke the fan. I had the fan in my hand using a compressor to clean it. when I went to pull the trigger to blow the air, I forgot the compressor was turnt all the way up and poof it flew out of my hand and on to floor breaking 1 of the screw mounts holding the motor. I glued it back together hoping that all that happened. now i went to clean off the nuts and bus bars on the battery. when I was putting the nuts back on I over tighten one and broke one module... I know im full of fails... so I ended up using that spare module I bought. But it was ok because it made me clean underneath the module which was extremely dirty also, but WOW it pain in the nice person to put those modules back together. I put the battery back in and drove it for about 2 hours and no message or lights came on...... so I guess It was because it was dirty causing the check hybrid system. now that makes me wonder why the hell didn't toyota put a filter for hv battery...
     
    #8 zoeboi954, Dec 1, 2016
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2016
  9. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I hate to ask, but are you sure you're out of warranty? And where in the world are you? How many miles on the car?
     
    #9 Mendel Leisk, Dec 3, 2016
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