Prius Battery Replacement Kit (GenII/GenIII) with NEW custom cells

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by 2k1Toaster, Oct 13, 2017.

  1. alftoy

    alftoy Senior Member

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    car-part.com, click on the following link.

    Search Results

    Search results for 2017 Prius nimh battery shows the compatible nimh batteries, modules only. Gen 3, Gen 4, 2020 Corolla. 28 module versions.

    Gen 4 cells in a Gen 2 | PriusChat
     

    Attached Files:

    #981 alftoy, Jul 5, 2023
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2023
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  2. Larryy

    Larryy Active Member

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    I don't know how I missed it the first time. Thank you for the .pdf's. I now have a plan.
     
  3. Larryy

    Larryy Active Member

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    I found an OEM battery from a 2011 Prius for $300. I balanced and swapped the modules, restored my hybrid battery back to original configuration and all is well. The cylindrical celled New Prius Battery was truly on its last breath, throwing codes and limp mode every few miles, economy was down to 30mpg, engine revving fast during accel or climb, and I was constant clearing codes on every trip out. I had high hopes for the NPB but it was just not to be.

    Now it's time to tackle the ticking engine. It's been over two years and 15,000 miles and it still runs well but it ticks like hell. New piston set with rings and wrist pins is only $93
     
  4. Mavi

    Mavi Active Member

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    Same here.. one of my cells from NPB start throwing issues after 4 and a half years. It was a decent run.. but unfortunately, no dice. I'll be taking it out , rebalancing them and hoping to get another year out of them, but not too hopeful.
     
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  5. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    That's a shame. There will always be failures, even Toyota OE has them. Overall we have very few. And keep in mind lots of time the issues aren't necessarily the pack. We had a support chain the other month where he had a failure a few years after install. I suggested checking a few things before blaming the battery but wasn't hearing it. Sent him a new pack, installed it, same errors on a brand new pack a few weeks later. The ECUs in the car are not infallible and we have seen lots of issues with the HV ECUs in Gen2 vehicles in the last few years. It's getting to the point where it's hard to find a good replacement ECU. They used to be almost free on ebay because nobody needed them. Now, a lot harder to get a good one. And the error symptoms are the same as a bad battery, and then "fix itself" for a short period after being jostled during a new install.
     
  6. Larryy

    Larryy Active Member

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    I had removed, balanced, cycled and load tested several times since first getting hybrid battery codes with the NPB. Balancing and cycling helped a little, and the replacement modules you sent me, thank you very much, helped kick the can down the road a bit as they replaced the first two modules that lost substantial capacity, but ultimately the rest started following suit and I was resetting codes every couple miles to keep the car out of limp mode. I replaced the battery computer but it made no difference. My $300 used OEM battery doesn't have new battery capacity, but it is working correctly and not throwing codes. It will do until I can find a fresher set. With these issues and battery replacement costs, I'm afraid I will not give a glowing review on the Prius, and by extension, electric hybrids in general, at least until they begin using durable, inexpensive batteries. I applaud Nick and his efforts and I am happy I tried the NPB. It is a bold step in the right direction. Now the question is can we find a better battery than nickel metal hydride. Something that lasts the life of the car without losing capacity. Then electric hybrids will have the edge. Currently, I am interested in compound internal combustion engines like the "5 stroke engine" from Ilmore Engineering Ltd. in England. We can get the fuel economy without all the electronic complication and have low emissions with no catalytic converter. When the Prius shifts to Atkinson cycle, it approximates the compound engine but the real deal can do it much better. If curious, see Ilmore's video
    .
     
  7. Moving Right Along

    Moving Right Along Senior Member

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    Finding a rechargeable battery that does not lose capacity over time would be a momentous discovery. Currently, all known battery types lose capacity as they age. Lithium ion batteries are more energy dense than NiMH batteries, but they lose capacity as well.

    Most batteries in hybrid and electric cars have an 8-10 year warranty, and the average car on the road is expected to last roughly 12 years or 200,000 miles. If you wanted a battery that would be warranted to last that long with no more than 20% drop in capacity (the current industry standard for capacity loss), it’s probably something that can be developed in the next 10 or so years of battery research.

    But since your profile says you have a 2007 Prius, I’m assuming you mean you want a battery to last the life of YOUR car, which is now 16 years old and considerably older than when most cars become scrap. While it is good that your car has stood the test of time (as has mine at 14 years old), it would be unreasonable for any company to make a high capacity battery with anywhere near that lifespan, because it would be so difficult to develop and so few people would use it. So when you say “the life of the car”, that has to be a defined length of time for a wear component like batteries.
     
  8. royrose

    royrose Senior Member

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    That may be manufacturers expectation but car owners are keeping cars longer for various reasons including how high replacement cost has become.. Time for manufacturers expectations to change.
     
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  9. Moving Right Along

    Moving Right Along Senior Member

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    According to a chart listed in the article https://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2021/06/cars-are-older-than-ever-in-the-u-s/, it took 6 years for the average age of a car to go from 9 years to 10, 4 years to go from 10-11, and 9 years to go from 11-12. While it would be nice if they built cars with batteries lasting 15 years or more, the averages just aren’t going up fast enough to justify a company’s expenditure for another decade or more.
     
  10. royrose

    royrose Senior Member

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    Bottom line, we both have a point. I get the diminishing returns but if the average is 12 years, then nearly half last longer so vehicles lasting 15 years are not so rare anymore. And it is the EVs that don't have the complication of internal combustion engines that are likely to last.
     
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  11. R-P

    R-P Active Member

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    LTO batteries (lithium-titanium-oxide) would probably be the best choice at this point: often quoted to last 10,000 to 30,000 cycles (Wiki shows lower but still impressive numbers). Provided the cycles increase (*) when handled more carefully, they would potentially last for many decades in numerous applications. I just read last week that some company indeed had started producing them for home-battery-applications. They have less energy density than LiIon so it would be logical to start there, even though the high charge-discharge capability would also make them suitable for e.g. cars.

    (*) normal Lithium ion goes from e.g. 500 up to 5000 when instead of 100%-0%-100% cycles only 80%-30%-80% cycles are used. Obviously you're only using HALF its capacity, but Toyota does the same with the NiMH batteries of the Gen1,2,3 Prii to increase life a lot!
     
  12. Mavi

    Mavi Active Member

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    So both my packs failed at 4-5 years each. Problem is now that I want to switch back to a normal battery I don't have an acceptable core. Keep your old core guys, but personally I suggust trying project lithium going forward or stick to OEM from toyota. 5 years isn't worth the initial savings.
     
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  13. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    Very strange you'd have 2 fail so close to each other. But good luck with your new packs whatever they may be. Assuming both of yours failed without any user installation error, you'd have 2 of the single dozen packs total that have failed that I know of. Considering total numbers installed, it's a better reliability number than Toyota OE packs at this point. The air gaps between cylinders really does help assuming it can get air across the modules.

    It's always important to note that every car puts a different strain on a battery. The hybrid system hides underlying mechanical issues really well from alignment issues to even misfires.

    We do offer extra modules as well if you need just one, and can custom make it to match your voltage and resistance profile.
     
  14. dpower

    dpower Member

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    Mine also failed, I couldn’t keep maintaining the battery so I got one installed by a local company. I’ve also got an 09 as well that has a new OEM battery that was $2395 installed. I’ll most likely not be hear when the warranty runs out on that one. I got lucky because the company I had donated my old cells to still had the record and changed it out without the core change.