Best Battery swap in Northern Virginia

Craigslist may not be the way to go be the way to find people and then you have to be able to know how to weed them out and warranty geez it's not what it's cracked up to be so there's a lot of things at play here another two or three years a decent rebuild should make that unless you're doing something with the car that's putting a lot of stress on the battery some people that can be there driving habits so you know. Some guys are into doing this stuff it's like a hobby to them like maybe some hobby type electric guys here they might even be engineers and they like to play with electronics on things that interest them like now cars you know Rich rebuilds and all that stuff so there's always that I found the guy here and you're probably looking for similar I would say first and foremost try the hybrid doctor up and what's it Fairfax Is that northern Virginia My brother lives in Bethesda I'm in North Carolina I go back and forth sometimes so stopping by the hyper doctor is not a problem although I've never needed to He also comes to North Carolina I think once a month and if things get busier he'll make it a point of doing it more often so there's always that I bought one or two batteries from him and one is on two years now and the other one is I don't know about a year and a half no issues at all I think his name is Ernesto but I'm not positive of that I always forget I have to look through my phone to find We know each other when we see each other I know a couple of the guys in the shop All nice guys good people predominantly Spanish speaking oh well. I point and grunt well and some of my Italian will help get me by. I've also found a guy locally who's a millwright for a large factory like RJ Reynolds tobacco or something and he just happens to be into batteries for some reason and he likes hybrid cars and so on and so forth so he bought him a rig a setup where he can run through like 48 or 60 modules at a time just because he wanted to and so there's always those kinds of people he'll redo a battery for me for like 450 bucks That's tumbled the bus bars and nuts and look brand new new and or cleaned up cables as needed within the battery pack cleaned and renewed or swapped out HV battery ECU then he has some sort of test rig he puts them on and runs them through their paces without them going anywhere and so far his stuff is worked out very well I did have an isolation fault with a battery he built and he called me right up and was like well do you want me to come out there or do you just want me to give you some modules or how do you want to handle it and I told him and you just give me a couple modules and I'll I'll take care of it no problem it's just faster for me to do it that way and he gave me three modules that were tested and all the right business and I put those in and the battery's been stellar ever since so there's all kinds of work arounds you just have to find these people just like I've had to do I didn't find them on craigslist this guy I'm talking about up in Brown summit He actually advertised on the marketplace and it was a funny thing that happened the way we met but that's another whole story.

 

tl;dr ;-)

 

I think I have 2 Prius 20 batteries that are worth selling, but I'll have to check first to see if that's the case. One is from 2012, a replacement from Primearth, and the other is Panasonic from 2008, I think.

 

No matter how you clean copper, it will oxidize after cleaning. I've tried all known methods for cleaning copper bars, including tumbling. Tumbling would probably be the best cleaning method, but cleaning bus bars with liquid methods blackens them very quickly on the module side, which is not good at all.

 

Is this better?

Looking for reliable people to fix your car's battery? Consider trying the Hybrid Doctor in Fairfax. They have a good reputation and can help you out.

Alternatively, you may want to search for local battery enthusiasts who enjoy working with electronics. They may be able to rebuild your battery for a reasonable price.

When looking for someone to fix your battery, it's important to find someone who is trustworthy and knowledgeable. Avoid using Craigslist, as it can be difficult to weed out unqualified individuals.

If you're interested in learning more about battery repair, many hobbyists enjoy tinkering with electronics and can offer advice. Keep in mind that it's important to find someone who is experienced and can provide quality work.

Remember, finding reliable help may take some time and effort, but it's worth it in the end.

 

You can buy bus bars made out of other metals I don't know if the resistance in these metals changes enough to make any difference If you clean and tumble copper and then on reassembly if you put something on the copper that helps stave off the corrosion it turning darker whatever it is it happens to the copper it gets a patina like pipes I don't know well I do know I see it but oh well but yet when you undo the nut underneath the patina all around it under the nut is still shiny copper. So what I've done the last two times I've had my battery apart or batteries apart not the same one after I tumble the nuts with the real fine abrasive begins with a c carbon something . After that's done and I'm getting ready to reassemble and I have the little bus bars in the orange strips to make the assembly I spray the back side with this red stuff that's made for connections to help them not oxidize and then I put that strip on the battery spray the front side add the nuts so on I just took one of those batteries covers off to 3 days ago right here and looked at all that work that I did I don't know 6 7 8 months ago and the bus bars still look like they just been tumbled and all that. Another battery that was newer from the dealer was installed in another car and none of this was done just went in straight out of the fancy container from the dealer dropped in the car that vehicle is showing signs of the bus bars turning the darker brown color getting ready to go black so on. So I pulled that battery out pulled the bus bars off tumbled and did all that sprayed them up put it all back together and we'll check that in a year or two and see if that's doing well. I just got another battery out of a junkyard the other day because the guy told me if it's here they're dead you're welcome to have one for parts. Pop the lid open on two or three batteries saw the bus bars going dark and nuts or frosting and all that but one battery which had a nice silver case on it Toyota factory with the labels all the labels looked brand new when I lifted the cover off of this battery all the bus bars looked brand new the modules had stickers on every module from the factory perfectly legible all the wiring under the cover was bright orange like it was brand new let's say 5 months ago at the at most. Battery was showing 211.9 volts there was no green or blue corrosion on any of the crimped connectors on any of the wiring so I took that battery home cleaned off the mess. Reassembled and threw it into the green car that I'm driving the '07. And in that car all kinds of little subtle problems went away immediately just from the battery.

 

In 2021 I bought a 2006 Prius that had a battery with a Hybrid Doctor sticker on it. There was an isolation code and I replaced one leaking module and restored the remaining capacity. The car has been driven for a little over 2 years (~15k miles) and the isolation code has returned. This time I checked the weight of all modules and it was mostly below 1030 grams, some 1022 grams. 2004 modules. I measured the capacity of 2 modules and it was 2000 mAh and ~2400 mAh.
Based on my observations of leaking modules, I came to the conclusion that when one of the modules leaked in a battery, then the modules in that battery were of very low weight. Having replaced one, another is on the way, then a third one and so on.
I recently trashed the battery from a 2004 Prius with 210k miles. The weight of the modules was 1027-1032 grams and modules were failing one by one just sitting in my shop.
I don't know when Hybrid Doctor installed that battery, but I hope they are more selective in their choice of modules today. Most of the 2004-2005 modules are already trash nowadays.

 

This is the greased bus bars from the battery that was pulled out of 2009 prius at the local recycling management. That battery was dead. I couldn't get more then 60% while i was testing the battery in dr. prius or 10 minutes of being loaded with 6.5 amps.
I killed one battery when i was playing with greasing bus bars. Not anymore.

 

No no I'm using a CRC spray that's made for similar applications no grease I don't even think there's any oil in the mess anyway no worries no I wouldn't plan on using any kind of grease that would be kind of really messy I think I don't even like grease I mean it has to be used in some places but.

 

I have no idea what he's doing I know he's very busy and covers three states seems to do pretty good work as the Gen 3 battery that he rebuilt for my generation 3 which is failed miserably is still just fine starts the car drives the car around rattling like crazy whatever I don't do that much but the battery seems to be good I'm not one to be weighing modules or any of that sort of thing and generally like a Duracell commercial when my flashlight stops working I get new batteries and I like to get new batteries for my personal Prius whenever that arises generally I'm not rebuilding batteries other people are and I may buy one from them for a car that rarely gets used or I'm not going to be driving or whatever because we have so many cars there's no reason to have brand new batteries in every car when two or three of them predominantly sit which is the worst thing you can do to a Prius so let it sit with an old battery in it when I want to put it into service full-time I'll put in the real battery because somebody's going to be driving it while it sits not so much.

 

I'm interested to know his method for repairing Toyota hybrid batteries. I don’t need his secrets, I have my own secrets that I tell about. I would like to know his repair method in order to decide whether to recommend this company to people or not.
I do not repair hybrid batteries for the public and i do not want to do this, since repairing a battery so that it lasts 3 years or more is not a simple process that takes a lot of time. Checking the capacity after reconditioning is not all. By installing the battery on a car and testing it in the real conditions, the next day this capacity may drop twice, or more on some modules. I realized this when I was trying to recondition a few weak prius batteries with RC chargers. I only repair batteries for Priuses that I sell and for people I know. I have prius 20 and prius 30 that i use for battery testing on the road.

 

That's what my guy up in browns summit does he owns two Priuses and he puts the batteries and one of the two cars and drives with them so on and so forth and all that That's that's exactly what how my battery guy locally does the one that does it as a hobby has a shop behind his house and he's a millwright for like RJ Reynolds tobacco company or champion knitter sportswear god knows who about 47 years old like I say he's got a rig that can run about between 58 and 66 modules at a time He runs them to all kinds of paces and you know I don't really get into all that personally I know that he seems to build a good battery I've got two of them in use right now we'll see how it goes nobody can get new modules apparently or the cost is so prohibitive the battery would be $3,000 that price is like 16 and $1,700 from the dealer I'm not really terribly worried about rebuilt batteries That's a stopgap measure so I can be on the road immediately and be sussing out other things on the vehicle and then if the vehicle turns out to be worthy we put a new battery in it and it's good for 8 to 10 apparently most of the ones I'm taking out or you know just above their 10-year mark or so.

 

Is the hybrid doctor repairing your battery or sells complete refurbished packs? Also, do they travel to your place? I can not figure it out from their website.

I bought my 2006 Prius brand new. 4 years ago I used a local guy who is not in business anymore. He repaired my original battery by replacing 4 modules, 1 module was not reaching 6000 mAh, while 3 more modules were reaching capacity after 4-5 cycles but when he load tested the battery were losing charge faster than the rest of the pack. Anyway, battery still works but I am sure I would need repair anytime now.

 

Okay apparently this place is grown some or something now they have people answering phones and all kinds of funny business going on It seems like I haven't driven up there in a while I'm due anytime probably go see my brother I'll stop by there I don't think they've gotten in another location looks like they're still in the same place Yes they run vehicles to you You can go to them they are not going to refurb your battery while you sit there or anything like that they've got them ready to go and heck they'll if you've got the carpet and the nonsense out of the way they'll drop it in your car run an app check it out Make sure you're good to go and off you go something like that 6:50 I think maybe 750 now after the pandemic I don't and I'm not really sure I did mine mid pandemic with him really nice guy You know it didn't I didn't get the feeling that he was running any kind of BS game at all apparently he's at goes to some trade shows out near Vegas and whatnot seems like a pretty straight up guy I did not ask him about battery weights and module weights and any of that kind of stuff because I don't know that much about it and all of that.