Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement

Sometime it take a few tries of pressing the power button on and off before the triangle clears.

Or sometimes folks do not properly insert the orange safety plug.
1) insert
2) swing handle upwards
3) slide handle straight down until it clicks.

Hopefully you have a code reader and can tell us what the current error code that is coming up.

 

Hello, I believe this is my first post. I signed up in Prius Chat when I first bought my Prius in 2007. Well after 240K miles I have my first problem with my Prius the red triangle and I also have a “main” battery icon on. My traction battery has two cells that are down to 6.67 and 6.77 volts after setting overnight. All of the others are between 7.92 to 7.99. I purchased the Venom Pro Duo charger. I am going to try to regenerate the capacity in those two cells and hope it works but since I have never had to put anything into repairs for this Prius other then tires and brake pads, I have no problem spending $1950 for a new genuine battery. But I have a question, when I called the Toyota dealer the parts department quoted the $1950 for the battery and said I needed to talk to service about the cost of installing it. They quoted $750 to install it and said $750 was because they also have to reprogram the computer. Since the traction battery removal was so easy thanks to such great post and videos, I was just going to install the new battery myself. But I need to know if the computer really needs updated because of the new battery and if so, is that something I can do myself? I am somewhat thinking of letting them install it just for the extra two years of warranty but wouldn’t mind saving the money because although this is my daughters car now, I am saving to buy a new Prius, as soon as they move speedometer and gages back in front of the driver.

 

Those modules may actually be shorted out.
Fun to try but be very careful. Since they are already compromised they may burst.

You do not need to do any computer update.

No need to have them install it just for the warranty.
Tell you what, pay me $100 and I'll warranty it another 2 years. Why? Because it is not going to fail in 3 years!
I have never had a new one that I installed one fail yet.

Please take time and have an inch-pound torque wrench handy to properly torque the nuts on the battery posts and contactor. No guessing!

 

^ what he says. The computer does not need to be reprogrammed! Also, the two dead cells are essentially 1.2v lower than the rest, so they are either very low in capacity - or directly shorted - so do be careful when trying to fix!

 

Thanks guys! I am installing the one I discharged and charged the cells on tomorrow. I hope I got lucky and those cells were just low. I was regretting not having the time to have ordered replacement cells before I started, but I have a felling I might not have needed them. This is my daughters car and she really needs this or a different car. The cool thing is if I have to get her something else, I am going to redo the battery correctly and maybe also do some of the hacks to it, like the EV mode, and the rear camera on whenever or plug it in. Honestly, this is my favorite car ever.

P.S. I bought a 1/4 inch pound torque wrench just for this, but they also had the 3/8 and 1/2 for the same price!!

 

I installed the battery back in my Prius and took it for a test drive and it was like my Prius was a new car. In the past I had noticed what almost sounded like a rod knocking when you were at certain speeds on the interstate but the sound would go away if you accelerated harder. On my test drive I did not hear this at all and I wonder if the gas engine was not getting enough assistance from the electric motor and it was struggling? Unfortunately, about 20 miles into my test drive my battery gauge went down into the purple and recovered so quickly I knew it wasn't fixed. Torque Pro showed that block 12 was now a solid volt lower then the rest. Just as I pulled into my neighborhood all of my error lights came back on. I know the 23rd cell is my bad one and I could just replace it, but the car ran so good with the full charge that I am just going to put a factory new battery pack in it. The good news is I found a Toyota dealer that will sell the new battery for $1699. More good news was that I also have been driving this Prius for so long with just the trip odometer on to remind me to check my oil every 500 miles that I was surprised to see I only have 219K on it, not the 240K I thought. I know some people might think putting a new battery is too much money to put into a car this old with this many miles, but I really like this car and my teenage daughter feels confident driving it. And if by chance something else like the transaxel fails within the next year, I would think I should be able to get half of my battery cost back, even if I have to part it out one cell at a time. Thanks again for confirming a new battery does not need any computer re-programing.

 

They are great cars, and secondhand transaxles are dirt cheap, simply because they fail rarely - there is an excess of 'good' engines and transaxles in the scrapyard. Make sure your daughter knows to check the oil regularly - these cars are pretty much designed to burn oil - the amount of fuel saved is nothing compared to the oil burnt, but it is too easy for the oil level to go too low without checking regularly

 

P.S. I don't know the details, but the module with the dead cell (where it went to purple then fully charged again) shows that the dead cell is basically at 1% capacity so it fully charges and discharges in a few seconds. If you were keeping this car and wanting to experiment, there is a thread where people add potassium or sodium hydroxide to top up the cell where it has dried out, and it came back to life! But, for your daughter, you can't argue with a new battery from Toyota for reliability

 

Thanks for the tip Landspeed! I wish I had more time to try to recondition the original battery but I had to have it running by Monday. I am really glad I went with a new battery because it just runs so much better then it has for the last several years. I forgot how much they will run just on battery and it was so nice to have the battery gauge in the middle of blue section all of the time There also had been a sound that I thought was either an exhaust leak or a rod starting to knock. It was strange because it only happened at certain speeds and loads on the engine and if you would press the accelerator down further, it would go away. Anyway, that seems to be gone now. I am curious what the mpg will be now. Over the last couple of years I averaged 42.1 to 42.7 with an equal mix of driving and that is in Iowa with cold winters and hot summers. I will say this has been a really fun and I am so thankful and impressed with all of the post and videos that helped me along the way. The Torque Pro app for $5 was invaluable. And one thing I can pass on to maybe help others is, the OBD Bluetooth dongle I found to work flawlessly was called Micro Mechanic and I found it at Walmart for $11. They are found in the As Seen on TV section, in the front of the store by the cash registers. I originally purchased the $10 translucent blue one from Amazon and it was not visible at all on my tablet when installed into the Prius. I then tried it in my Caravan and it actually caused my van to act like the fuel pump was bad and keep it from running. Out of honor for our trusty Prius, the maiden voyage after the new HV battery install was to return its old battery core back to the dealer. Thanks again to all of the help I received from the members of Priuschat!

 

Hello,
I want to buy a charger and I found this charger (from foto)
Is fit for charging and balancing Prius cells?
I read a coupule a pages back, and I see something similar....but is the same thing?
Thanks!

 

No - it says 'for LiP' - so it is for Lithium-Ion (Lithium Phosphate) batteries; Prius has totally different batteries.
Is your Prius the one with the cylindrical cells in the battery (if still a 2000 model)?

What you need is a charger that can do NiMH batteries, up to 7 cells at a time. The charger will actually be a *lot* cheaper than the one shown also. The one you show won't work for NiMH, but also has four cooling fans, so is likely a 'fast charter'.

I have one that cost $80NZ, about 40 UK pounds, which does LiP, NiMH, lead acid (various types), Li-Ion, Li-Polymer.

Is there a problem with your car (red triangle or other problems)?. The two options are to do one module at a time (but there are lots of modules in the Prius), or to do full charge / discharge cycles. This can be done using the 'Prolong' system, to charge and discharge the whole battery, or to do individual modules using one or more 'hobby' chargers (that are usually used to charge small radio control car / etc batteries).

What exactly is the issue, and, what year is your current Prius?

 

I have the P3017 error - problems with cell block 7 .
I replace the block 7 with other 2 cells and now the car runs good...but in the future...who knows?
So I want to be prepared...
I have 5 Prius in my family - 2 Prius gen.1 and 3 Prius gen. 2...so almost sure that I will need a charger.
Regarding this charger, in the description on the site, bottom page, is a sign with type oh batteries , and there is NiMh:

 

LE: what is the commercial name of this "Prolong" charger system ?

 

It is made by Hybrid Automotive and the owner is on here: @jeff652 .

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

Maybe this device can be some help?
What is this? | PriusChat

 

Yes, that's the one to have. You'll need an external power supply to go with it.

For power supplies, I've been buying secondhand eFuel 30A ones from eBay.

Have a look at: Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement | Page 117 | PriusChat

The Turnigy Reaktors changed a while ago. Apparently the Charsoon Antimatter chargers are the same as the older Reaktors.

Incorrect (sorry).

The Charsoon Antimatter chargers can charge NiCad, NiMH or LiPo.

 

Same with the SkyRC chargers and in particular the SkyRC D400. I made the mistake to buy one. It is well built and can discharge at 5A, but at the end of the discharge/charge cycles it doesn't show the mAh for each cycle, which makes it useless for my needs.

 

Thanks Phildo for your answer.
Can you be more specific about the power source for this charsoon?
What are the requirements?

 

I usually set the Reaktors (same as the Charsoon) to 5A charge for each module.

Four channels = 4 x 5A = 20A, and there's a Charsoon 23A power supply so I'm guessing that's the one to get.

Personally, I've been buying up secondhand SkyRC eFuel power supplies on eBay. There's a 20A version and a 30A version.

I'm in Australia, and this stuff is too specialised to be commonly available here, which means that whatever I buy is going to have to come from overseas.

I'm now using one 30A SkyRC eFuel for each charger.

I bought:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/133092761409
SKYRC Efuel 30a switching DC power supply for RC Lipo | eBay
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/133046369106

 

I’ve got a P0AA6 error.

I rebuilt this back in April. I combined the best modules from three different 2004 battery packs.

I cycled the modules on a Turnigy Reaktor. I found the capacities to be hard to believe (ie some were showing almost-new levels), but went ahead and the battery worked fine in the car until a few days ago.



This battery has worked extremely well until a few days ago, when I got the dreaded red triangle. A check with Techstream showed a P0AA6 error, along with 526 and 612 sub-codes (which indicate that the fault is within the hybrid battery).

However, I also got a P0A37 code, which indicates a fault within the transmission. The fluid in that is Gulf Western Syn-TS, which has been approved for use in Toyota CVT transmissions (I rang Gulf Western to clarify).











I’ve removed the hybrid battery and pulled it apart, expecting to see an obvious electrolyte leak somewhere.



The nickel-plated busbars that I used all look like they’re still brand new. Zero corrosion. At the time I tightened each busbar nut (stainless steel) to 5.4Nm (48 in.lbs) with a torque wrench.



There’s corrosion in the bottom of the tray, but I can’t remember if that was there before I rebuilt the battery (it was one of my first rebuilds).





I’ve had a look at each individual module and can’t find any signs of liquid leakage.



For now I’ve put the modules back on the Turnigy Reaktors to cycle again and measure the capacities.



I had expected to see fluid leakage from a module, replace that module with a suitable one and consider the problem solved.

But, without any signs of fluid leakage, how do I troubleshoot this?