Reconditioning Experience with Hybrid Automotive's Prolong System

Hmmm... This thread has me considering doing a recondition on my wife's 2015 battery that I put in her 2007 car last May. But it's running so great and getting such great mileage, that I think I can find other things to do for a while longer.

 

Don't just think about it! It's Preventative Maintenance, punk! Go ahead! Make @jeff652 's day!

 

And sometimes after a discharge/charge it does not go well. 10 year old battery behavior cannot be guaranteed so then Toyota would have a screaming customer you ruined my battery.

New parts and drill you for labor is there game.

 

Maybe out here in the Bay Area we might need to invest soon if interest keeps up.

 

He's had my money for over three years. I've done a ton of charges in that time on our Gen2's. But the almost new battery is pretty happy right now.

 

Can keep hatch open especially during discharging. Remove plastic cover and just push hatch latch into closed position...dash lite goes out.

 

I, like many members charge the 12 volt the same time I charge the hybrid battery. One charger up front one charger out back.
A charging bonanza.

Then it does not really matter whats open.

 

Hey Guys! Wow this thread is 30 pages already! Amazing. Thanks for all the kind words and support. Sorry I have not been around, I have been insanely busy working on the ProlongPro line development. It's almost done and I look forward to rejoining the banter here soon ;-).

We will be at VISION in Kansas City and ATE in Seattle this March. If anyone wants to come let me know and I will try to get you tickets. We'll be demonstrating the Pro line at both shows ;-)

Yes this will happen anytime the system is >48V below peak output. It's normal, an effect of the power supplies used. It will self correct as the voltage rises, nothing to worry about

Track ambient temperatures in your data. The high the air temperature flowing through the battery, the lower peak voltage will be.

Prius c has only 120 cells and so uses a smaller charger than the one used for the 168 cell 'normal' Prius packs.

The Pro set is much faster. We have a few dealerships using our systems but the vast majority are independents.


One exciting development on the consumer side: we now offer used modules for people who are rebuilding Gen2 or newer battery packs. You don't need to gamble on unknown eBay or Amazon modules any more:
Replacement Toyota Prius Module - Hybrid Automotive

 

Welcome, stranger!
I am curious. Why differentiate the used modules based on vehicle mileage?
I see you give them a 1 year warranty too.
I am glad business is booming.
After reading another thread I got to thinking that all Toyota dealers need a grid charger to properly diagnose Hybrids. The battery can get run down getting the car to safety. That hinders getting proper trouble codes, so the dealer says the battery needs to be replaced.
If the Pro charger could be separated from the discharger, that might make a good service tool for Toyota dealers if you could get their attention.

 

Cell/module capacity diminishes with age (mileage). If a replacement module is too new compared to the rest of the pack one can experience a 'failure' from an incorrect replacement module match. We have had customers try putting Gen3 modules in Gen2 packs for example. An extreme illustration to be sure but same principle.

Good point on the Toyota dealers. We have independent shops (and a few Ford dealers) using the Pro Charger for exactly this. Extended Diagnostic mode is one of the top three uses cases for the ProlongPro Charger. We do offer it separately from the discharger now as well:
ProlongPro Battery Charger - Hybrid Automotive

 

Good evening everyone.
Newbie here - first attempt at reconditioning the HV battery of my recently acquired 2010 HiHy Ltd with 163k miles. Currently 2nd round of charging going on and after 12 hours of charging is at 328 Volts with the current stable at 340 mA.

I just reread this whole thread again today. I'm in Dallas TX with ambient temperatures in the 60s for past few days. Yesterday was an exception at 80 degrees.

My harness was installed by Matt Sauer of Texas Hybrid Batteries and before we put everything together again we tested (per instructions) by connecting the charger and made sure that all the 3 cooling fans were running.

However, now that the HV battery is charging, try as hard as I might, I am unable to discern any signs that the cooling fans are running. Have put my ears to the air intake vents under the 2nd row seats and the outlet /exhaust and put cotton threads to see if there is any air movement. Nothing /naught at all.

At this point I am almost 99.9% sure that the fans are not running. Is there any way to confirm this? I have seen many on this thread mentioning about how they are able to monitor the HV battery temperature while charging.

Can someone please give me any guidance on what to do? Should I stop the charging process? My 1st and 2nd charges went up to 342 Volts (battery has 240 cells and rated at 288 Volts). First round of charging lasted 24 hours.

One thing I noticed today - which I thought was a bit odd - I happened to pull push the harness while it is connected to the charger - and the numbers on the display started going haywire! I'm baffled by this - a good connection should not be this sensitive.

I will also write to Jeff right now - but my soonest I can expect to hear back is tomorrow morning - and they are 2 hours behind me anyway.

Sanjay Goel

 

I am prefacing this post with I have not used the Prolong equipment on a HiHy before.

Some questions:

• Did you help Matt install the harness?
• Where are the fans located?
• Can you disassemble some trim to access the fans?
• If it is not sucking cotton threads through the vents, could you try a paper towel across the whole vent and see what happens?

One option if you are concerned would be to remove all the trim and turn a fan onto the pack. Leave all the windows down.

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks for the prompt attempt to help out Raytheeagle - appreciate that.

Answers to your question -
1. Matt installed the harness all by himself. I was standing ready to answer his questions or give him various items as requested by him. He read the instructions on the laptop and connected all the 3 black boxes on the harness to the fans and zip tied them per instructions. After that (we) connected the charger and made sure that the cooling fans were running fine.

2. The fans are located towards the rear of the 2nd row of seats and under them (obviously).

3. Nope - not possible. Only way to get to them is to first remove the 3rd row seat, then all the side paneling, then 2nd row of seats and only then it is possible to open the metal battery cover that is screwed on by over 20 nuts/bolts. After finishing up the job Matt remarked that he is glad he doesn't work on the HiHy - it is so painful to get to the hybrid battery.

4. I tried a thin sheet of plastic bag (which the zip ties came in) but absolutely no effect at all.

I emailed pretty much the content of my above post to Hybrid Automotive. One thing is certain, I am not going to try to do the 3rd cycle. Temps are in the mid 50s with the garage being in the 60s, I am hoping nothing goes wrong with the battery.

And even if my battery is fine, I don't think I have the stomach to spend 400 bucks to pay to Matt to reopen everything to make sure that the fans are running....

Just a random thought came to mind - do we need to remove the orange HV Battery connector for doing the Charge / discharge cycles?

 

How long ago was the harness installed? Are there any codes for the hv battery fan not working correctly?

I was doing some “experimenting” this weekend and if the harness is unplugged to the fan, it throws a “check hybrid system” message in the HSI display. There is also a code, but I didn’t write it down as I knew why it was there.

Jeff will get back to you, but try calling them tomorrow when they open. Call Matt too as he might offer some support.

 

Harness was installed 13 days ago on a Monday afternoon. Haven't had any codes at all on the car so far. Upto the time I parked the vehicle Friday morning to start the charging there were no codes. I haven't turned on the car since then obviously - so I don't know.

Will call Hybrid Automotive first thing in the morning.

 

I did an extended charge only on my G2. Charged for 32 hours and never got above 238 volts. I did notice though as I was watching it for a while is I can hear the battery fan go radically up and down in speed. I can hear it go really slow and then slowly speed back up to max speed and then 30 seconds later do the same thing. Not really in a pattern like something is not right.
After I discovered that I stopped my charging.

When I received my system 2 years ago that outboard fan circuit board was a mess so poorly soldered a wire had fallen off. I posted about it then and posted pictures.
I re soldered it back up but I suspect its not that board but the main round charger unit because the fan in that unit is doing the same thing. And if i jiggle the main round unit the fan in the main unit speed changes also.The fan in that unit does the same thing it wanders in speed.

Looks like I have to go into the main unit now.

But if no battery fan on any of these units I would not do a charge or a discharge for sure. Battery will over heat and damage it.

Watch out for it. Make sure fan is at max speed.

Going to talk to Hybrid today and see If they will send me a schematic.

 

Smoke is the best indicator of air moving. Get some wooden matches. They smoke when you blow them out. Hold in front of inlet vent and blow match out.
They sell smoke in a can for the fire alarm install companies. Sometimes handy to have a can of that. And freeze spray too. I always keep a can of that great for getting out stuck bolts and spark plugs..

 

I was afraid you were suggesting they let the "magic smoke" out!

 

At 11 PM it was at 328 Volts. Since the weather was relatively cool I let it charge overnight. At 5 AM the it was at 331 Volts. At 7 AM it was still at 331 Volts and even though the weather is cool, but not able to determine that the cooling fans are running, I disconnected the charger and made the car ready for going to work later today at 9 AM.

I suppose 2 hours should be sufficient for the battery to cool down.

Feeling a bit sad at the aborted attempt at reconditioning the battery. Starting Friday morning to Monday morning I could not even complete 2 full rounds

Will try to connect with Jeff later today - however from past experience most likely it would be one of the guys who work for him.

Will update this thread later.

 

Not sure how easy it may be in your Hyhy to hear the fan but in a G2 model its very clear behind the interior panel. Your fan like mine should be on full speed during any operation either charge or discharge. Full speed fan is pretty loud in my car.

See if you can get a schematic of your system also. I'd like to see it. There may be an engineering boo boo in there circuit.

Matt knows his stuff so doubt it was bad install.

At this point I may just use a 12 volt wall wart to power the fan instead of the main round unit. If the fan circuit dies in the middle of a long discharge you may not notice it and that could be disastrous as the battery would overheat and you would never know till you smelled some funkyness.

Good Luck.