Really Bad Battery Repairs

Jeez, now that's one sloppy repair.. even a DIY repair would do better then that.

 

Yes all these tips can be found in the CraigsList Whack-A-Mole installation guide.

 

It could be over-torque, but isn't it common for torqued bolts to require higher value when removing. I'm not sure.

 

Wow, can't say I have ever seen a textured bus-bar before...

 

I just about sprayed coffee on my computer at the first photo. Nice. Count the modules...maybe there's only 27 and they needed to reverse the clamp plates to take up the gap ( just foolin..). I've seen used copper with a texture like that before, it's just slipping my mind on where I saw it and how it came to be....old age kicking in...

As for the textured bus bar, possibly media blast with heavy grit and then wire brush?

I clearly remember a post soon after I joined where a guy was having problems with his DIY rebuilt battery. He just couldn't understand why it wouldn't work. I don't know, maybe it was the stud and nut that you broke off a module and then attached the bus bar using JB Weld? Nah...couldn't be that. I remember flipping a bit about him being a perfect example of messing with things that one has no business messing with if you don't have even a fundamental understanding. Great way to get yourself, your kid, your wife or someone else dead when your car dies in the middle of 70 mph traffic .

 

We should have a thread of pictures like this to show the newbs who want that Prius with the freshly rebuilt traction battery.

 

That might still be what Mendel was getting at, though.

It seems to have been my experience ... torque something down as correctly as you please, leave it alone for a while, it gets real happy where it is, takes more than the original torque before it'll budge in either direction.

Might have to open that thread up to more than just battery repairs....



When I was in electronics class in college, the textbook we used would end each chapter with a bunch of bad circuits.

I see that in the decades since then, the book has a web site now, and the bad circuits are on it.

 

The term 'butt splice', does not mean lovely tush.

 

That poor battery; why. Why??!! (note - I have never removed a battery, just the ECU I’m working on).

This person could have taken a little more time (or taken photos??) or going to Priuschat. I am OK with bodging things where they need to be (am thinking a 500 ohm resistor swap to HV ECU then 500 ohm in the loom will prevent whisker plasma fires!). But, this is something else.

In fact, here in NZ (or the UK), it may be different. But, in the US surely a private seller could be liable if doing truly dangerous repairs?

 

I think you're probably giving yourself too much work here, which is why I suggest experimenting first to find out what the effective impedance of the ECU voltage inputs really is.

If it turns out, for example, to be 10 MΩ or higher (as voltmeter inputs often are), then you'd be crazy obsessive to actually modify anything on the board to account for a 500Ω or 1 kΩ resistor you're adding on the other end ... just add the thing, you won't drop the reading enough to care about.

Of course, I'm only assuming the effective impedance is that high, but it's easily checked by experiment.

 

How did they get the white plastic covers wrong? I can't even understand; I've only opened 3 batteries so far, but they actually made more work for themselves!

I really need to get in touch with the guy I bought the battery with a single bad module from - he probably has a 'reconditioned' one now - I hadn't thought of that at the time but he is probably heading for a failure in 3-6 months time!

 

Picture 1) The case is original metal and not a Dorman (Orange paint) or a GreenCrappyBean (Green paint).
Picture 2) Don't know.

 

Brad is sneaky on this one....it's pretty subtle and probably not something a normal DIYer will pickup, but it's a fantastic example of what to look for when hunting for a replacement battery, and what not to do if you happen to purchase a brand new one to install yourself.

At first glance....

The dual stickers on the outside case are a great "first glance" indicator that it's a Toyota factory replacement instead of an originally installed battery.

The plastic flow blocker is missing from the clamp plate on the ecu side of the battery assembly, allowing air flow to effectively bypass the battery modules. The air will flow across the top of the modules from the left side of the photo toward the right side, but not be forced to go down between the modules. Instead, a major portion will just continue straight and exit through gaps in the electronics cover.

There may be some "it got really hot" concerns for the health of the modules, but it would all depend on how it was driven, much it was driven and under what weather conditions.