400K Miles, One Prius/One Owner

A long time overdue update ... unfortunately it is not with the best of news

Ema is now past 478,000 miles and I am pushing to 500K with the original engine and original hybrid battery. It does not look like she will be able to make it however because on the way back to my hotel from the plant I am in here in Georgia she threw the red triangle of death. I didn't boot up the Techstream software on my old laptop but did read some codes from ScanGauge. Yeah I know they aren't 100% accurate but one of them is the P0A80 battery module and its probably accurate.

I cleared them and drove some and the battery SOC did the bouncy bounce thing from full to empty so battery it is in all likelihood. If I can limp her home tomorrow from west of the ATL to Charlotte I can put here on my hybrid charger and do a full charge/discharge and see if I can rebalance the battery. If that fails she made a good run at 500K but after 11 years and 478,000 miles I will have to put her down

The next questions will be Prius IV or Prius Prime? Knowing that most of my miles are highway I am leaning towards the IV but kind of want to try the Prime.

I will post again with an update when I know more. Thanks to all the members with all the help with Ema over the years especially Patrick!!!

Happy driving,
Chris

 

Ema Update - Thought I got lucky ... thought wrong .

Well, I limped her home from West Atlanta to Charlotte and when I got home I started looking over some records and realized I hadn't changed the Optima since August 2000 Bad Deadpool!!! LOL So I went to Advanced Auto dropped $189 on a new battery that was needed regardless, made sure it was charged and put it in. Thought I had her fixed but halfway through the test drive she coded again.

Limped her home and up to this point I hadn't dug out my Mini-VCI and old XP laptop but figured I had to now. Sure enough along with the P0A80 which I actually could read on my ScanGauge there was a P3023 - "Battery Block 13 becomes weak"

So I dug out the Hybrid Auto Grid Charger and she is on her first "Fill" and "Balance" cycle now. I actually thought about doing this for the last 3-4 months just haven't had the time. Ema decided she wasn't waiting anymore. I don't know if a 3 cycle charge/discharge rebalance can fix her or not but its worth a shot.

Here are the actual codes if anyone is interested:
P3000 – Battery Control System
P0A80 – Replace Battery Pack
P3023 – Battery Block 13 becomes Weak
C1241 – Low Battery Positive Voltage or Abnormally High Battery Positive Voltage
C1259 – HV System Regenerative Malfunction
C1310 – HV System Malfunction
B1421 – Something about Passenger Solar something or other (LOL, I think that is always there.)

As for replacing her. I have been looking at the Prius Prime Advanced in Magnetic Gray Metallic with Black Softex interior. Options are illuminated door sills, shifter applique' (hate Stormtrooper white) and carpet mat package. Would like to have the vehicle etched VIN glass but not a biggy.

So if anyone from Toyota or the Prius Team is out there listening and wants Ema to study that's what I'd like to have in return, LOL. In all honesty though I am a little surprised some local Toyota dealership doesn't want her since the battery, engine, trans-axle and all major components are original. I've done 99% of the service at Toyota dealerships and have all the records. You think a dealerships marketing department would have a field day with that?

I will update again when the re-balancing is done. Everyone hope for the best!!!!

Happy driving,
Chris

 

Update - For those of you only watching this thread.

I have been posting a little over in this thread:

Reconditioning Experience with Hybrid Automotive's Prolong System | Page 13 | PriusChat

She has been drained down to about 130 VDC and then fully recharged and drained down to about 35 VDC and is on a long 24 hour+ recharge now. In between I had to move her about 6' to work on my garage door opener and she coded. I didn't read it with Techstream but it was HV battery related. I'm thinking Module 13 (P3023) is shot and needs replaced.

Unfortunately after 11 years and 478,000 miles I don't plan on putting anymore into her and will start the search for a new Prius IV or Prime.

I will post again and let everyone know who has been watching over the years how she ends up.

Chris

 

Ema update Sunday morning. I gave her a good 30 hour recharge session hoping to get Block 13 back up to voltage but it just didn't happened. I did see 240 VDC on the charger for the first time in a long time but Block 13 is still low and she is still throwing codes. I attached a photo from Techstream and you can see Block 13 is the culprit.

All the other blocks look good so its sad that one or two modules (25 and/or 26) that are in Block 13 put an end to her run at 500K. I kind of would like to take her apart and fix her but I don't have the time and the wife is not keen on the idea and wants me to let her go ... that's hard

She has easily been the best car I have EVER owned and I really did want to push for 500K. I just found this company in Charlotte:
Auto Service and Repair | Hybrid Service | Tires Hybrid Shop of the Carolinas / Auto Shop of the Carolinas Charlotte, NC (704) 525-3092

They do battery reconditioning and cell replacement. I will give them a call on Monday to see what they charge. Does anyone on PriusChat have experience with these guys? Looks like they just become a Hybrid repair shop in January. Seem to have great reviews on FaceBook and one of their videos offers a 2 year warranty. I guess it can't hurt to make a call.

Thanks for everyone's help in diagnosing and troubleshooting Ema with me.

Best Regards,
Chris

 

Update on Ema,

Well, I called Hybrid Shop of the Carolinas and took Ema over to them to fix. Their cost is essentially based on what type of warranty you want with the repaired battery. The longer the warranty the higher the cost. They walked me through their shop and showed me several batteries from various hybrids including Prii in various states of repair. I also saw a cylindrical setup that looked like 2K1Toaster's new battery but I didn't read about that until after I was there and didn't ask about it. They remove the battery, load test it and will replace any blocks/modules not within spec. Again, the tighter the spec the higher the cost and longer the warranty. Do you want all batteries within 10%, 5% or 3% type of thing. Then they will recondition it and rebalance it. I didn't ask a whole lot about that since I plan on doing it again myself here in another month or so. Along with the battery work they also clean the buss bars and the cooling fan. Apparently my bus bars were pretty bad. My fan was clean as I have cleaned it before and don't have pets in the car.

Anyway, along with the Block 13 (Module 25/26) they also deemed Block 14 (Module 27/28) bad and replaced those 4. I picked Ema up on Monday and have driven up here to New Jersey for work covering 600+ miles so far. Her MPG's may be a little bit better but as anyone on here knows there are A LOT of things that can affect MPG. And I also replaced the Aux battery before having the HV battery repaired so it could have been that.

Obviously there is 0% chance of making a 500K on "original" equipment since I have 4 repaired modules but there is essentially a 100% chance of getting there. Hybrid Shops of the Carolinas gave me a 1-year warranty on my repaired battery. It cost me $1,495 for everything and took them about 3 days to do it. Originally I thought this price was a little high and still lean that way I guess but as a business owner myself I can't begrudge people for making a profit. They have overhead, labor, insurance, etc... to pay for so its a fair price. Not a great price and not overpriced but fair, IMO.

Ema will have a little sister if Southeast Toyota ever gets their heads out of their a** and allows Primes into the area. Its freaking ridiculous that we have to look out of state and out of area to find one!!!! Annoying!!!!

Thanks for watching this thread and wish Ema well. She seems to be happy again

Happy driving,
Chris

 

JC91006,

Dormans are hit and miss at least they were. Plus I would have had to remove and install the battery myself or paid someone to do, then tried to resell the old modules to recoup some money, etc... Plus I wanted check out this shop for future reference and reporting on here. Like I said seems like a very high quality shop and worth their good reviews but just priced a little high. And as I said I can't blame them for that there is A LOT of cost and overhead in running a business especially in Mecklenburg county.

What I really wanted was my Toyota Service Manager that I have worked with for over a decade to step up and sell me a new Toyota battery for that price but they didn't. Actually they didn't even offer to sell me one and install it for free or anything. Basically he said let me do some checking and then I never heard from him again. Ema is being serviced at a new Toyota location and my Prime will not be purchased there ... oooppppssss.

I don't understand the "6 month" comment you made or the low capacity one? If another module fails in less than a year I take it back and have it replaced for free that is what the 1 year warranty is for. As for low capacity? That is why each individual module is load tested and any that are suspect are replaced. I originally only had 1 block coding on me and through testing there was another one with low capacity so it was replaced.

I have put about 1,600 miles on Ema since the replacement and she is behaving like her old self. Like I posted earlier the MPGs may be a little bit better but there are a lot of things that can contribute to that. I am about 20K from 500K and will make it there but am picking up my new Prius Prime Advanced on 8/22/2017. So Ema will have a little sister to talk to then. Thanks for watching everyone.

Stay well and happy driving,
Chris