2007 - Dr Prius Battery Life Test = 83%

Well the only question I have is are you the second owner of that Prius? The reason I ask is because I have an 09 Prius and it currently has 254k on it & I'm currently tending to the hybrid battery pack as I received the dreaded lights that indicate the hybrid system failure. So far you're in good condition. One thing you have to understand is that each driver will use a Prius for different reasons. That being said, maybe the previous owner used the car strictly just to drive to work & get groceries. With yours being 15 years old, I still would definitely recommend that you at the very least get the bus bars cleaned because I'm very sure that they have some form of corrosion on them. Getting the bus bars cleaned up will help to delay getting the modules worked on some, but that will definitely have to be worked on at some point after 200k miles.

 

So aside from possibly getting a 'post purchase' inspection done, I do hope that you will find your mechanic in the near future. But if you happen to have some space in the backyard or even a garage and a neighbor who can help lift heavy stuff, it is possible for you to clean the bus bars, if you're open to trying it yourself. The annoying part is lifting the battery pack out as it's stupid heavy.

 

Once you have got the battery opened up and out of the car you might as well do what you need to do to the battery If you see a few modules that need to be swapped out might as well do it while you have the thing sitting there with the bus bars off The bus bars original copper can go into a child's rock tumbler with some carbundurum abrasive. They'll come out like new You're in Brisbane Australia The Toyota mods crew is very strong in your area look up the Toyota mods list people like blizzala on the net. Toyotas very strong in Brisbane Australia You should have no trouble finding people that know your car your marque and all that.

 

it could be a replacement battery, but why worry about it?

why are you sitting in reverse for 15 minutes, and what is nerve wracking?

 

I think that is what is required for part of the Dr. Prius life expectancy test. Yeah, not sure why that is nerve-wracking.

 

Well, I would think it likely. Before it was replaced a few months ago the original battery in our 2007 (around 130K miles) was testing at roughly 50%. No codes, but the SOC would collapse when driving slowly in a parking lot with the headlights on. There is a sticker on the battery which says when it was made. I don't recall now if it was on top or on the side that faces into the trunk. If the latter then just pull stuff out like you are going to change the tire and look forward to read it. If it is on top of the battery you must pull up the panel over the battery to read it. Look at some videos on battery replacement for details on how to do that. Be aware that pulling that panel up will probably break one or more of the white clips which hold it to the battery, most likely the top "button" will tear off. I replaced some with clips from Ebay labeled "OE: 91503-SZ5-003". Not from Toyota, but they seemed to work OK.

 

Yeah all my buddies on the Toyota mods list from your area have Holden Commodores too Very popular Chevrolet variation that sold there The Prius has been sort of culture shock maybe I thought y'all had the auris in that market,?.. You will get it this stuff that we're talking about here is really stupid easy If you have a son or a brother two people can lift the battery out of the back of the car but you can just take a piece of plywood and put it over where the spare tire goes and just slide the battery so that it's sitting over the spare tire get yourself a bar stool or a two-step step ladder step stool the kind that folds up you can sit on the top step it's wide and you can sit there and undo all the nuts on your bus bars and all of that and then put the bus bars in a rock tumbler if your kid has such a thing they're cheap at the toy store whatever and they will tumble to like brand new look like brand new plumbing pipe from the pipe supply store clean and copper colored You can do the nuts too and then you can soak all that and stoddard solution paint thinner anything that will get all the microscopic pieces of abrasive off let them soak them hour to shake them around in the little jar they're in. And then if while that's all being done you tested your modules with your voltmeter and you got your doctor Prius business you can look at all the module voltages and what have you and make educated guesses on which ones you probably ought to replace say there's three or four then you call around just some hybrid battery builders which there are some in your country and you try and source out the three or four modules you need they'll be all charged balanced all done All you need to do is unsqueeze the rack pull the ones you want out slide these in squeeze them back up before you do anything else and then add your bus bars nuts and put the wires back on properly You've taken pictures of all this is nothing to it My daughter could do it she works on computers for a living changes out RAM installs power supplies builds computers for gaming no problem It just wouldn't go fast enough for her You know she's liking her twenties so she's used to instant gratification.

 

And I would say 83%, I wouldn't even be wasting my breath on this list talking about it I'd be driving that car until it started going from blue to magenta to green to blue to magenta and green again in say 4 mi nonsense like that Matt starts happening your battery will be will be on its way seriously out You will have already been here talking about 30% soc . And your fan in the back will be running on full tilt anytime you sit in the car your gas engine will never shut off and you'll be getting the equivalent of 37 to 39 US miles per gallon whatever that is in your country and even then that's better than the hold and commodore You could drive like that a couple of weeks while you hemmed and hawed over. Which route you were going to take. Like I said I don't know your personal situation there but you really need to get on the Toyota modifications list just because there's a big group in your area and these people know about modifying Toyota automobiles extensively You don't need nothing that extensive at some point you're going to need a battery but at 83% that's pretty doggone good for 2007 I'd be driving that until it died and that looks like it'll be I don't know $150,000 miles You can keep it out of the heat try to park in the shade Don't beat the hell out of it in the heat make sure the fan is running at the battery in the back and the ways are clear. The vent by the back seat on the right side is never blocked so on and so forth All of this is in your owner's manual and places like here.

 

Perhaps unreasonably good. Pretty sure that battery has been replaced and the OP might want to know if the one in the car now is quality pack or one of the not so reliable rebuilt ones. If the former it should be good for a long time, if the latter, most likely not.

 

Well I thought the 83% business was with what was in the car now that he's driving with? But anyway yeah I guess so I'd be riding it until the tires fell off or the battery plummeted and engine was running all the time put a new battery in it I guess. I mean if you own one of these cars and you got a 6 mi commute every morning you know you're probably not going to really come out ahead in this game for people that are driving 300 miles a week plus probably do a lot better If I only had a 6 mi commute and on that commute route is my grocery store my barber shop whatever and I'm not going to be making much more than that 6 mi commute hell make it 12 I probably be in a Yaris personally makes more sense.

 

Holden Commodores are very decent cars I mean nothing really last a long time out in the bush but oh well nice big V8 engine etc and that's a Chevrolet here I think

 

I think it's right at 90 lb and I'm a little guy basically I can pick it up but I don't I usually slide a piece of plywood that's about 2 ft wide and put it in the trunk right next to the battery pick up one edge of the battery like say the right side swing it around drop it on the board I have gloves on not dielectric just regular gloves so I don't get cut on the sheet metal case of the battery and then I pull the battery up on the plywood about centered then I pull the edge of the plywood across the plastic piece that has the trunk latch in it until the battery is balanced on that piece I'm touching it with one hand holding it there I slide my little table up to the back of the car put my foot against the table grab the plywood with the one free hand and slide that assembly onto my table My table is a little lower than the hatch of the Prius so I can angle the plywood a little bit down and it just slides right out with my hand I'm not lifting anything because I'm lazy.

 

When the pack is in its installed position it is pretty much impossible for a person to lift the whole pack in a safe manner. It is possible, as Tombuk2 notes, possible to manhandle it laterally and up part of an inch onto a board and then slide it to the rear. If it can be dragged over to the hatch opening then a fit person could lift it out from there by themselves, probably without throwing their back out. Better to have a helper though.

Also definite yes on the work gloves, because, as Tombuk2 correctly noted, some of the edges are sharp.