Hello everyone, I just post to let you know about my battery reconditioning and to know if I do everything right. I read a lot here on PC. So, I have a 2005 prius with 212000km(~131000mi) on it, red triangle and P0A80, P3018. Now I have my battery on bench and here is my voltage readout at 2 days interval : 1 to 28 =from Battery ECU to Cooling vents #1 : 8.08 / 7.75 #2: 8.10 / 7.82 #3: 8.08 / 7.81 #4: 8.09 / 7.82 #5: 8.08 / 7.81 #6: 8.09 / 7.80 #7: 8.08 / 7.79 #8: 8.09 / 7.80 #9: 8.06 / 7.75 #10: 8.08 / 7.80 #11: 8.07 / 7.79 #12: 8.08 / 7.79 #13: 8.06 / 7.75 #14: 6.81 / 6.51 #15: 8.06 / 7.78 #16: 8.08 / 7.80 #17: 8.08 / 7.80 #18: 8.09 / 7.80 #19: 8.07 / 7.78 #20: 8.08 / 7.78 #21: 8.07 / 7.78 #22: 8.08 / 7.77 #23: 8.07 / 7.78 #24: 8.08 / 7.79 #25: 8.06 / 7.77 #26: 8.08 / 7.78 #27: 8.09 / 7.80 #28: 8.08 / 7.73 So obviously 14 is dead but, I'm charging it right now to equilibrate cell inside and see the result. What you guys think about #1 #9 #13 and #28 they dropped a little more than the others. I can do an internal resistance test to check but, I only have 1 charger... Also I planned on only replacing module #14 charging it up and discharging it to same voltage that other module. No balancing/cycling the pack because I only have one charger and I saw here on PC, some guys that get 2 years off there battery just replacing the bad module. Thank you in advance for your help.
All looks fine, save yourself some time and change out 14. No need to mess with it. This will be a bandaid temporary repair, unless you recondition the entire pack
Yep. Buy a module. Band aid fix. You will be back in again. Please take the time to properly torque all electrical connection fasteners.
Are we talking about 1 year at least ? Or less ? If I drive with it the time I find enough chargers from friends and have time etc.. Will it hurts the pack more ? I just don't have the time right now and need the car now and for a 5000km trip in july but, after that in august, I can recondition properly the pack. Should I recondition it when I can or, wait for a code to be thrown ? Can you tell me the torque I should put on those fasteners ? Thank you !
1 year? Hard to say. I wouldn't bet on it. I'd hope at least 30 days. But even then I couldn't say it is guaranteed. You might be able to up your chances if you buy/build a battery charger/discharger. Buying would be $700 or more. Building would be under $100, but it will be much less safe and more inconvenient. It totally up to you how to attack the problem. If you were stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere but happened to have a spare module and tools, then yes, opening it up and stuffing in a replacement module might be "good enough" and you might get lucky enough to get home. But beyond that it is a crap shoot. Doing more work provides incremental hope, but involves more time and usually more money.
I like my home built charger, but definitely not as safe as the ones you buy. If you ever break down on the road, you would need to wait until the battery modules cool down before you can change it out. So it's not an immediate repair remedy.
You talk about a grid charger ? I have a brusa NLG513 it can charge the battery but, this won't equilibrate the modules ??? Also can you point me out the post about DIY grid charger ? (Except maybe if I set a very low current and manualy turn fan on and trickle charge ??? I also can have a 250V Unregulated power supply)
If it is the right voltage to charge the whole pack, then do that after you replace the module. Then discharge the pack. Then charge it back up again.
What would be the perfect voltage, to charge ? To discharge ? It can do 200V to 520V we use it to charge our 300V electric car. For the discharge I read that I can use classic 100W bulb in parallel is that correct ?
You should be load testing all those modules to verify their condition before assuming that 14 is the only bad one, standing voltage only tells you if a cell has completely dropped but others may exist with weak cells as well and you need to find and replace those too if you want this effort to last at all. Then after that do your grid charge / deep discharge cycles to help with capacity before putting it back into service again.
Right now I'm reinstalling the battery in the car, I did a internal resistance test on each module : Batterie : volt0 volt2d Ir volt3d #1 : 8.08 / 7.75 / 22m / 7.69 #2: 8.10 / 7.82 / 22m / 7.78 #3: 8.08 / 7.81 / 23m / 7.77 #4: 8.09 / 7.82 / 22m / 7.78 #5: 8.08 / 7.81 / 22m / 7.76 #6: 8.09 / 7.80 / 21m / 7.76 #7: 8.08 / 7.79 / 21m / 7.74 #8: 8.09 / 7.80 / 23m / 7.75 #9: 8.06 / 7.75 / 20m / 7.69 #10: 8.08 / 7.80 / 20m / 7.76 #11: 8.07 / 7.79 / 21m / 7.71 #12: 8.08 / 7.79 / 20m / 7.75 #13: 8.06 / 7.75 / 20m / 7.69 #14: 6.81 / 6.51 / 53m #15: 8.06 / 7.78 / 21m / 7.74 #16: 8.08 / 7.80 / 21m / 7.75 #17: 8.08 / 7.80 / 21m / 7.75 #18: 8.09 / 7.80 / 22m / 7.75 #19: 8.07 / 7.78 / 21m / 7.74 #20: 8.08 / 7.78 / 21m / 7.73 #21: 8.07 / 7.78 / 21m / 7.74 #22: 8.08 / 7.77 / 22m / 7.72 #23: 8.07 / 7.78 / 23m / 7.73 #24: 8.08 / 7.79 / 22m / 7.75 #25: 8.06 / 7.77 / 21m / 7.72 #26: 8.08 / 7.78 / 21m / 7.74 #27: 8.09 / 7.80 / 22m / 7.75 #28: 8.08 / 7.73 / 21m / 7.67 I charged / discharged each module to reach 7.73 +/- 0.3V
You should really be load testing them too but your call........not a big deal if you're in there already.
Yes old data, no data on day3, I just came back from a 20km trip no red triangle and every block seems well equilibrated.
Hey just an update, 1500+km(1000mi) later, everything is good, all blocks are within 0,1V to each other right now. Averaging 47mpg mostly city. Now I have other things to fix like my exhaust system .. Will open a new thread about that. Then I'll start my plug-in experiment, already start developping my battery ecu replacement using a particle photon and a ti tm4c. Thank you for your help a lot of good information here on pc.
wiwild, Thank you for the update. Too often people kind of drop off the face of the earth and we don't get to hear results. Good luck with you other experiments!
