Having an awful experience with a Prolong kit.

I'll get onto that tomorrow morning - and I guess it's no surprise either. Two or so years ago I found that the shop (one of "the lads") forgot to plug back in the fan and was sorted free of charge; but lss that wasn't the issue, it was corrosion of some small wires behind the left-side trunk lining disabling the fan.

Besides, I haven't paid yet him yet
but he also knows where I live so.....

 

yeah, those corroded wires that run the hybrid cooling fan is a common problem that takes 5 minutes to fix. Of course if you go to a Toyota Stealership odds are they'll say only fix is brand new hybrid battery for thousands of dollars and then when that doesn't fix it they'll try selling you a hybrid battery ECU and a new cooling fan and then once you given them thousands more, they might finally figure out that the problem is a 5 minute fix.

 

Ah! I absolutely hate that but hey, we live in a society.....
Feels good to have solved that fix on my own, even if money (200) was wasted on a junk yard fan and service. Plus 4 months of driving a car that threw codes after 30 minutes driving.

But in all honesty with stealerships, they aren't trained or prepared for anything other than costing and selling, one time refusing to change the transale oil when I asked them, because "the book" said it was a lifetime oil . They once flogged my Ma €150 for a "battery health check" which they probably only plugged into the OBD socket to read. and on that same day they somehow crashed it parked with a rubbish truck. The insurance premium more than doubled for her.

Haven't been in a dealership in over 4 years when I took ownership of the car, I did depend on the aforementioned mechanic. He's sound - says he can't believe how Priuses last so long with only minimal maintenance, unless he has an 09-11 taxi with its guts spewed out.

 

You have lots of experiences that have made you smart to the ways of a Prius... And who needs a Toyota Stealership when you got PriusChat?

 

Like family here!

 

Yes! Good idea!

Maybe the easiest thing to check since you can't drive it with the plug not seated.

 

I just signed up for Priuschat bc of this thread even though I’ve utilized this helpful site before and since purchasing my 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid AWD base in 11/2020. It had just under 110K miles and CarFax indicated majority 1 owner for it’s life whom religiously followed Toyota specs for maintenance protocol. Even the only other owner adhered to quality and timely maintenance so this vehicle is almost like new

But knowing some basics of battery health and wanting to preserve the integrity and longevity of my NiMH, therefore in May 2021, I purchased the Prolong Deluxe kit for charging and discharging.

So I finally just got around to installing the harness this past weekend and was planning on performing the full 3 cycle reconditioning. Mind you everything was performed per instruction-except that for the Highlander Hybrid instructions there is NO mention of disconnecting the 12V battery during installation which I found odd considering almost all of the other instructions I skimmed read stated to disconnect it. In the time prior to my installation, I was reading all of the Prolong information guides and doing additional research trying to obtain information specific for first gen or even second gen Highlander hybrids. However sources of this is few and far between which has ultimately led me here to post as there are many knowledgeable folks on this site and I know there are more similarities than not for Toyota Hybrids especially older gens.

Anyways, it actually took me 2, 8-10 hour days to just install the harness. Doing it solo and saved by another recent torque wrench purchase for using for the seat bolts which were understandably tight! And rereading multiple times to make certain everything was in order and safe.

So all tests passed successfully. But I did end up disconnecting my 12V battery prior to installation because of the time duration and doors being open for so long and such.

Then I removed the hybrid battery disconnect again and proceeded to reassemble the necessary parts for safely performing the reconditioning process. I then connected the main battery disconnect plug/switch and latched it in place and also connected my 12V again because I thought it necessary since the Prolong instructions never mentioned to disconnect it.

Upon attempting to connect the harness to the charger (not connected to AC), I also experienced the arc flash backlight screen pop that the original thread creator had experienced. I was startled to say the least and then proceeded to recheck everything which I found to be in order and correct, again and again, repeat lol. So I attempted a second time to connect the harness and expecting the possibility of spark pop, which occurred again, I managed to connect the harness assembly.

I have learned and observed that sometimes these sparks can and do occur when establishing electrical connections and can be considered normal. And I never smelled any electrical burning or smoke so I assumed it was safe to proceed. I was slightly worried that my charger may not boot up when I connected to AC but that turned out not to be the case.

Unfortunately at this point and to my detriment based upon time constraints, I did not document the data from my initial charging. But everything seemed to be working properly and I began charging Saturday at 745pm and checked numerous times over the course of the initial filling and balancing phase which I ultimately terminated at 1145am Sunday.

I think the initial voltage was approximately 289 and was at 349 for approximately 6 hours. The ending amperage was at 0.351 per the Prolong charger readings, and I know it had been fluctuating slightly from initial connection to the end but don’t recall exact data (which I am going to take the time to document from now on!)

So I proceeded to connect the discharger for the first discharge reconditioning phase and it is for 192 volts. This occurred without incident and took approximately 6 hours before the alarm was sounding.

I should’ve mentioned this before but my vehicle was in the large 3-car garage and all of my windows and sunroof were opened and I was working in and around the garage. So I was nearby to hear the alarm as it first alerted and I immediately disconnected the discharger to resume with another full charging balancing cycle.

Here is where my problem with the charger begins! I connect the charger and the voltage is at 361 and the amperage is (-) 0.00, yes that’s a negative symbol! The initial testing for the harness and charger installation instructions state the charger should read 360 volts which it did.

So despite finding the numbers not as expected, I leave the charger connected thinking it needs to calibrate or something.

Mind you the instructions indicate, without sufficient detail IMO, that an optional step after initial charging is to idle vehicle to allow the ECU and vehicle system to register the new values. But this is mentioned after discussion of not having time to perform the full 3 cycle reconditioning and as an optional step I decided perhaps it’s specifically meant for those only doing 1 or 2 cycles. Idk

So I let the charger run for an hour or two and check it only to find that it’s reading the same values-361V and -0.00a. I turn it off and disconnect it and decide to perform the optional step mentioned above and let my car idle for about 10 minutes which is how long it took for the gas engine to turn off too.

I reconnect the charger and same numbers. Then I reconnect discharger and choose first discharge cycle again of 192V. Mind you, my discharger does NOT provide any data or screens. But the discharger ran for approximately 20 minutes before I manually stopped it for fear of over discharging my battery.

I should have mentioned above that my base model Highlander does NOT provide any valuable information regarding my battery, hybrid or 12V. And also NO codes have ever been indicated per t he CarFax or during my short time of ownership and it’s the original hybrid battery and everything was super clean inside upon my dismantling, but I took the extra time to clean intake exhaust vents and cooling fans (the 2nd owner had the cooling fan cleaning service performed by Toyota circa 2015 or 16.) No swelling or leaking was observed by me nor really any corrosion except for an almost imperceptible residue on the terminals which I proceeded to clean the ones I had to remove and spray electrical contact cleaner on all of the others as I was nervous about messing with them too much!

So I reconnect the charger and same numbers displaying. I then only connect the charger to AC power and same numbers still showing. I then decide it’s time to get out my multimeter and disassemble my vehicle again which is partial thankfully so I can test my hybrid battery.

My meter indicates 316 volts. I did NOT check amps for it because I tested amps for charger while connected and I don’t really know what values, if any, are accurate. My meter indicated 0 volts and amps for the charger which I don’t know what to say about that except that I tested it at the AC side and harness side while connected to vehicle and while connected to only AC. It could certainly be user error as I’m kinda new to multimeters lol

My determination is though that something such as an internal fuse or whatever else, blew during the initial connection to my vehicle and caused the charger to not function correctly. Truth be told now I’m not even certain that the initial charging was accurate or even occurred!??!

I emailed Prolong yesterday morning and included pics and more details than I provide here bc this post is already soooo long and I apologize for that! But I thought the more information the better chance for help

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated and I would value to know what the original poster’s, @ChrisPNW, outcome with Prolong and/or his charger were! Thank you all for the wealth of information this site provides to ALL hybrid and alternative vehicle owners

 

Ok so I received a response from George at Prolong, whom I also spoke with briefly during my installation on Friday to verify some details that were missing from the instructions for the average layperson.

Of course now that my car is completely put back together, he thinks it is just the fuse on the harness.

Would there be any continuity or output from the harness if the fuse was blown? Would the discharger still work if the harness fuse was blown?

I, too had to ask for pinout for charger and harness because I’m not about to dismantle my entire vehicle only to fully verify that the fuse(s) in the charger are blown!

I’ll update after I test everything and have a final result and hopefully working Prolong System soon!!!

 

When the voltage on Prolong reads 360v or 361v it means your charger is not connected to the pack or the orange service plug is not in place so nothing happens. When the charger reads lower than 360v its reading the actual voltage of the pack and is connected.

Check the fuses, check the orange safety plug, check the wiring harness... Once you figure out what's disconnected everything should work out fine.

 

Thanks for your help @PriusCamper!

Do you happen to know the readings I should expect on my multimeter if things are correct?
1) what readings should I expect if the harness is working properly? Volts or amps or both?
2) same question as #1 regarding charger and discharger

I have not yet received another response from HA and have time constraints so I need to figure this out ASAP please!!!

Everything is connected properly and during my troubleshooting I connected charger with my batteries both connected and without (main disconnect switch plug removed for hybrid) but charger was still reading 361.
Also do you know the pinout information for the devices and harness. I used my multimeter on the harness and charger yesterday trying to determine where the problem is occurring and I was getting some readings, AC and DC, but I’m not quite sure if I’m doing it correctly and what to expect lol

I’m still searching online for answers but there’s not much I’m finding for this! Thank you very much regardless if you have the answers to my questions

P.S. is there any priuschat user that you’re aware of whom might have info I’m seeking?

 

Two pins handle the high voltage signal and the other two pins handle the 12v signal to the fan box.

You've already used the system when it was operating normally so you can answer that question yourself.

And once the HA charger shows the voltage that your battery pack currently has at it charges you will have solved whatever got disconnected in the harness or charger.

 

The two pairs of pins are opposite to each other (see image below). On the pair that powers the cooling fan, you will not read a voltage. On the pair that is connected to the hybrid vehicle (HV battery, you should read the battery voltage. (If it shows as negative, you have the +ve and -ve probes reversed, which will do no harm, just show the voltage as negative.)



If you are not getting voltage reading on either of the pairs, it is most likely you will need to check the inline fuse (with your ohmmeter) for continuity and replace it if it is blown.

 

Thank you so much for the helpful pinout info @dolj

I apologize for my delayed update, but perhaps it will help others. So after several back and forth emails between George at HA, whom was extremely helpful with answering majority of my many questions, I had to proceed to continue troubleshooting and ultimately again disassemble my vehicle interior to just behind front seats, as I never did receive pinout or answers or advice for my last email to HA.

Anyways, you amazing intelligent Priuschat peeps have helped me tremendously with this entire process and provided the information necessary for my ultimately successful full 3-cycle reconditioning and subsequent gas mileage improvement

I did obtain information from George at HA regarding the fuse specs for the harness and charger. They both require time delay (slow blow) type and the harness utilizes a 5x20mm 3.15a (you can use up to a 5a), 250v slow-acting fuse and the charger specs are the same except it requires a 1.15a (you can use up to 2). They are ceramic too but not mentioned by HA in email. Just to mention so I don’t forget, I had asked about using a higher amp fuse or alternative or disconnecting my batteries prior to try to prevent this mini arc from occurring again and risk blowing the harness fuse every time I connect the charger but George didn’t think the battery disconnections would make much of a difference and ambivalently responded such.

I do not know much about fuses and their other specs and what effects would result should too low or high of an amperage rating be used aside from the obvious safety factors or premature blowing.

During my troubleshooting, before disassembling my entire vehicle again, I first checked the fuse in the charger and had ordered some fuses per the specs I received from HA.

The fuse in the charger as it had been purchased and shipped to me was 3.15 amp opposed to the 1.15amp fuse HA indicated should be installed. I tested for continuity and it tested intact which I didn’t see as good news lol because that meant that George at HA was correct and it was the harness fuse and I’d be taking apart my vehicle again!

So dismantled my vehicle again and test harness fuse which was a 3.15amp 250volt for continuity and it’s testing as intact, fine, good!

Then I decide that it’s something inside the charger such as another user on Priuschat experienced whose name or post title eludes me now, but they had an issue with the circuit board or some internal component that was defective or failed early on.

However, due to my time constraints and hesitation of contacting HA about this problem again and seeing posts about the lengthy periods of warranty and shipping processes, I decided to continue to troubleshoot.

So, I installed the correct specified fuses as the charger fuse was incorrect and perhaps other fuse specs unknown to me were causing a problem with the charger since it was a different amperage rating and therefore other ratings could be contributing to the charger failing or defaulting to testing mode.

And a reminder that my discharger was always working and reading accurate voltage of my hybrid battery at this point which is what led me to identify the charger as the faulty culprit.

After testing the fuses with my multimeter, I used the charger fuse with the 3.15amp rating in my harness just out of curiosity and had installed the new 1.15amp fuse I purchased and proceeded to perform the charging cycle. And everything checked out ok! The charger was reading correct voltage and the amps were fluctuating crazily like they’re supposed to during first several hours prior to stabilizing.

So learning from Priuschat folks, prior to connecting the charger or discharger to the harness and also prior to disconnecting either unit, I disconnect the 12 volt battery initially which remains disconnected throughout cycles until all are finished, and I remove the hybrid battery disconnect switch before harness connection and before harness disconnection.

Performing these steps sequentially, I have not encountered the problem I experienced with the charger since!!!! And I’m still using the original fuse aside from the correct amperage rating being installed in the charger and gained more relevant knowledge and instilled more confidence in my abilities regarding this system and would not have been able to solve my issues in relatively short period of time without my extended Priuschat family lol so thank you again for everything

 

EDIT: sorry I may have hastily rushed to post in my hopes for help and resolution! So every other time I’ve had to access the hybrid batteries and reconnect the switch, I’ve always put the cover back on and reconnected ground wire along with several other bolts to temporarily secure it. This time I only connected ground to cover since I was feeling an urgency to discover wth was going on under there and disconnect harness and start my car. Anyways, it seems to be that I had created a faulty ground connection by not using any of the nuts and bolts except for the ground bolt. So I just installed fully all the nuts and bolts and prayed to the hybrid goddesses to let that be the source of my dtc’s and the most wonderful normal sounding hum of my HiHy resumed without issue!!!!
However, the harness is still another factor due to the electrical burning smell which I will contact HA about and it remains disconnected entirely from my beloved HV.

I don’t know much about electricity and electronics and batteries and automobiles etc etc lol and am learning as I go, but can anyone advise on if I 1) only connect the harness to the battery terminals so I can still use the Prolong Reconditioning System or 2) if I need to splice the cooling fan circuit controller green boxes out of the harness?
As I state in my lengthy post below, I live in relatively mild climate and most nights get into the 40-50F temperatures and most days are 60-70F. I also live where I can leave all of my doors and rear hatch open and will utilize separate fan if necessary during process. I do not trust the harness nor the system fully but after this whole experience I distrust the little green boxes even more and would like to at least be able to get my money’s worth. But idk anymore if it is worth the troubles I’ve had with this system from the beginning and know I can’t rely on HA for adequate technical support. It’s supposed to save my hybrid battery NOT destroy it!

Also, I tested the harness fuse with my multimeter and it indicated continuity. Perhaps the HA Prolong system just isn’t equipped to handle the higher hybrid battery voltage vehicles??
END EDIT

So I’ve just recently encountered another problem with the Hybrid Automotive’s Prolong System. The harness has 3 of the cooling fan circuit boxes (I’m not sure what the technical terminology is) and I’m still researching and trying to determine what I would test on this circuit box.

Because I had to take an approx 130 mile trip each direction this past Wednesday after my car had been sitting for a few days with brief starts for having to move it in driveway. Anyways my trip was through a somewhat mountainous uphill and downhill section for the beginning of my drive prob about 1/3 of total miles. It was also driving towards central CA where the temps were becoming hotter and it was around 80-90 degrees F when I reached my destination at 10am. I had no issues with car on the drive there nor anything at all and just had both the timing belt and differential fluid replaced at Toyota dealer in June or July (I plan on looking into these services as may be the cause but idk)

So I get in my vehicle to head back home and outside temp is almost 90 degrees F. I end up starting my vehicle and am sitting for about 10 minutes while I take a phone call. I then reverse out of my spot and proceed to drive home. I’m probably about 100 feet away from my spot and still in parking lot and detect an obvious electrical burning smell.

I of course panic inside as I also had a couple power tools in my hatch area and immediately pull over. I honestly can’t remember if I shut my car off at this point because I never suspected my car at this time. Anyways, I did what I should’ve done prior to leaving and removed the lithium batteries from their tools and stored them safely and securely away separately. So I continue to drive on and I’m not using AC yet because I don’t really like it and I don’t mind the heat. Not even 2 miles of city driving around 35-40 mph and I smell it again and it’s quite strong. So I find a safe spot on side of road and pull over and this time I turn my vehicle off as I now suspect it’s coming from my hybrid battery area under second row seats.

Just to mention that my second row seats have been folded down for several months now but the cooling fan intakes are always clear and clean. Anyways I decide to put my second row seats upright and noticeably detect the smell from the battery compartment especially drivers side. I don’t have all of my tools with me and honestly didn’t wanna disassemble my vehicle interior again on the side of the road at rush hour lol

So I am kinda freaking out inside though but keeping calm while I consider what could be causing this and how to proceed from this point. So I recall something I read either here or toyotanation and I decide to blast my AC thinking my hybrid batteries are too hot idk.

But this did seem to alleviate the issue and was eventually how I made it home in almost 6 hours when it should’ve taken me 2.5-3! The AC was not merely circulating or displacing the smell. I have a very acute sense of smell and stopped many more times along the route to make sure my car wasn’t about to explode!

Granted my circumstances, I am unable to pay for much additional stuff currently and chose to take the risk of trying to make it home or at least closer opposed to towing, lodging, finding out of town reliable honest HV proficient mechanic as I’m still learning about and researching my vehicle so I can do many and hopefully most of repairs and services myself someday soon

I also had turned on my rear blower to help circulate airflow and I could detect the burning smell slightly again whenever I shut this off. I was worried that running the AC and additional blower would only cause more load and stress on my hv system but I was ‘monitoring’ as best I could.

Almost halfway home, I remembered that I had recently purchased the veepeak obd-II scanner and had already downloaded Dr. Prius/Hybrid Assistant app and fortunately had put the veepeak in my glove box doh!!!

So it’s dark at this point and I find a side road off the freeway to pull off and set this up so I at least have some data to verify hopefully as I wasn’t certain this would work for my 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid base model which provides me NO helpful data.

So I get everything up and running and I can actually see the temps of each of my 3 battery banks!!! Unfortunately I don’t think I can control the cooling fan speeds let alone see that they’re actively running given my old model vehicle.

No dtc’s on HV or ICE are being displayed via my vehicle or app and everything is within normal operating range according to app.

So almost an hour passes and I continue home and leave the OBD scanner in and Dr. Prius app on (I know I’m not supposed to but the situation was close to dire lol) As I’m driving the temp of the battery bank behind the driver’s seat does start to increase and ultimately becomes several degrees warmer than the others (about 5-6 F and even hotter than the passenger bank over the air intake which is always 1-2 degrees hotter than others) and the Dr. Prius app now indicates at the driver’s battery bank that it’s at (end of life)

So I pull over again and am about 40 miles from home and download the car scanner app as I was hoping to gain more data and insight into what the heck could be happening. Still no error codes. Well I wasn’t able to gain much more valuable info given I was kinda rushing but also wanted to give my car a rest again (I had pulled over other times during drive aside from times mentioned above)

So I finally get home and couldn’t disassemble my car until Friday but did turn it on briefly on Thursday and Friday mornings but didn’t move it all without issue.

So I’m the back of mind, since I discovered the burning smell was coming from my hybrid batteries, was the Prolong car harness and the cooling fan override circuits and I just had an uneasy feeling that these were the cause of my problem.

I took apart my car inside all the way to the beautiful hybrid batteries in all her glory lol and began with the battery bank behind driver and disconnected the harness cooling fan box and opened it up and detected a noticeable electrical burning smell, even prior to opening it. There was no obvious visible burning indications.

So I’ve decided at this point I’m going to completely uninstall the cooling fan circuit boxes from the harness and see if the harness would work without them as there are very cool ambient temps nightly (40-50’s F all seasons with winter sometimes dropping into 20-30’s) where I live and I also can leave doors and hatch open while doing conditioning processes and I would incorporate another fan if necessary.

Somehow I let my dad convince me to reconnect the one cooling fan circuit box and attempt to detect by process of elimination from there after starting my vehicle to see what happens.

Idk why I listen to him sometimes!

As soon as I start my car, well approx 10-20 seconds after, I get the dreaded “triangle of death” and the cooling fans sound like they’re spinning so fast they might spin right out of their housing! My hood was open from disconnecting/reconnecting 12V battery and air was blowing at incredible force from the engine compartment from somewhere behind the engine air filter and engine was idling super rough and everything about my lovely vehicle sounded and felt horrendous! I didn’t leave it on too long as I was nervous about possibly ruining other components.

So I decide to completely remove the entire harness too little too late and check Dr. Prius to see what’s going on and causing the triangle of death with “Check Hybrid Battery” and “AWD” systems from my car display. Dr. Prius indicates a P3105 battery code error.

I don’t have more sophisticated scanning equipment and haven’t yet tried car scanner app as I jumped online see what’s possibly causing this code.

I cleared it from the app and disconnected my 12V battery for over 5 minutes but almost immediately upon starting the warnings reappeared

From what I’ve found online, it seems like I may need to replace my 3 cooling fans and/or HV ECU.

But after the issues I had initially with HA’s Prolong system specific to my vehicle, and then the one battery pack being negatively affected by increased temperatures along with the electrical burning from that same cooling fan circuit box, I do not trust the Prolong system to save my battery when it possibly almost or has destroyed part of it!

TL;DR—1 battery pack over temp, electrical burning smell from HA’s harness cooling fan circuit override box from same battery bank. Now have triangle of death with check hybrid battery and AWD systems and Dr. Prius app indicates battery code of P3105.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated again from you amazingly smart and knowledgeable Prius folks

I did a P3105 search on ToyotaNation and there was only 1 post and not much info! I found some helpful info on YouTube which is why I suspect the parts I mentioned above possibly being replaced which I will try to do myself

 

I should’ve emphasized in my edit above that despite my haste to make sure my hybrid system was ok and parts were not electrically ‘fried’ that I only connected ground wire to hybrid battery cover and did not secure some of the 30ish bolts/nuts as I’ve always done previously in my prior disassembles and reassembles (usually ALL of the bolts/nuts lol bc I’m usually very prudent and thorough). Moreover, my problems were still caused by the defective and faulty Hybrid Automotive cooling fan controller green box.

I discovered this thread about a similar grid charging system, MaxxVolts and HCH users experiencing hybrid cooling fan controller malfunctions caused by the harness cooling fan controllers. I suspect this is also a problem with the Prolong Deluxe System charger, discharger, and harness assembly NOT being isolated from the vehicle’s ECU’s and hybrid system, as the poster, mwillenb, in their post titled “Solved!” indicates per electrical engineer coworkers who tested the MaxxVolts Charging and Discharging System, harness, and faulty cooling fan controllers on harness and ultimately the failed (electrically fried) components from the HCH. IMA Fan Runs Constantly after Grid Charger Install - Electric Vehicle Forums