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traction battery help in Birmingham,al

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by threx, Sep 28, 2014.

  1. threx

    threx New Member

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    Birmingham,al
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
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    III
    I got the red triangle week on dash last week, carried it to the dealer they said it was the hybrid battery and for $3700 they ccould fix it right up. Well it's a 2005 with 78,000 miles, the car hasn't had any problems but I went out one morning and the warning light was on. I was thinking of trying to find the bad cell myself and buying the charger/balancer and trying to fix myself.
    Is there anyone in my area that has done this ?
     
  2. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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  3. exstudent

    exstudent Senior Member

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    Consider this to be the How to guide for DIY HV Battery Repair. It covers everything you'll want and need to know: replacement, rebalance, required equipment, and recommended settings. Do read the many many pages, to make an informed decision if this is something you can do and afford.

    Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement | PriusChat

    A couple hundred can be knocked off that $3700 price, as dealers always recommend replacing the battery ecu controller, that is under this battery cover. I have read of others not replacing it and being fine. Your choice.
     
    #3 exstudent, Sep 28, 2014
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2014
  4. threx

    threx New Member

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    Thanks, for the link it seems to be a alot to do battery module replacement. I'd seen someone else post about about high voltage solutions has anyone got any
     
  5. John Sewell

    John Sewell New Member

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    Two

    Happened to me about 2 months ago. I haggled with the dealer for a bit and then asked them to contact Toyota and ask if they would cover since the mileage is less than 80k. Toyota replied that they would cover 50% of the cost of the battery. I got out of there for around $1,850 total. I was originally quoted $3,200. It does not hurt to ask.
     
  6. threx

    threx New Member

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    2005 Prius
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    III
    I've have contacted them, but doesnt sound like there going to help much, but it would be great if they paid 50%. I was really wanting to learn from someone local that rebuilt there battery because we have two 2005's so I'm sure it's only short time before the other one has some issue its got more miles on it.
     
  7. almostrice

    almostrice Atari Rocks

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    threx, if you were closer, I would do the battery charge/discharge cycles for you. I have the setup. just put it away on Sunday.
     
  8. Cindy19851

    Cindy19851 New Member

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    Greentec Auto has great prices as well as extended warranties at a great price.
     
  9. threx

    threx New Member

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    Thanks, what is your set up, can I buy or build it?
     
  10. almostrice

    almostrice Atari Rocks

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    I am not really interested in selling since I have 4 hybrids in the family to support. It has already saved us near $6000 instead of paying dealer battery installs. Also, since I only replaced bad modules, it is more likely to have problems in the next year or 2. I want to keep the chargers for when I have to replace other modules going bad. Mine being a 2005 w 294K miles.

    My setup I got from lamtech. It is 3 Thunder T6 chargers with 3 400watt PC power supplies. also had all wiring to charge discharge 12 modules at at time. In addition, enough wiring to connected all 28 modules in parallel.

    Minimally, I would recommend you get at least 2 T6 chargers or equivalent from Hitec. Most of these chargers are clones of one another. Just get the cheapest source you can find. The cheapest I have seen is about $110+10 shipping for a 4 channel charger. I assume you have a 12V battery and 12V battery charger at home. You can use this setup to supply power to the T6 charger balancers. This would cost you around $120 times 2 and cost to create the wiring. Should be way under $300 for the setup. This was the setup I was going to make until I saw lamtech selling his set. Not having to cut wiring just saved me time. Let me know if you need specific pictures. I have upload the ones on my phone. If I was making the wires myself, I would have used black wires for the negative to make it more clear than just having black ends.
     

    Attached Files:

    #10 almostrice, Oct 2, 2014
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2014
  11. threx

    threx New Member

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    III
    Thanks, for the info and photos. Would the Grid charger, balance the battery out and do the same as the chargers you listed?The Grid charger I'm talikng about is the one listed on Priuschat under the shop tab.
     
  12. almostrice

    almostrice Atari Rocks

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    no, grid chargers are low amperage chargers with high voltage. The setup I have is for charging and discharging the modules individually. Grid chargers are meant to be use while the battery is still in the car. Basically balancing them by overcharging the whole pack(in series) at a slow rate. 2 different concepts you need to understand before just buying things.
     
  13. exstudent

    exstudent Senior Member

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    Would it be correct to say Grid Charger best for "simple" maintenace on a working, fully assembled, HV Battery pack. Also, great for someone who doesn't drive much and for a hybrid that will sit for a long time, resulting in a slowly discharging HV Battery.

    This is for REBUILDING the whole pack, when it is known module(s) is/are bad.
     
    #13 exstudent, Oct 3, 2014
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2014
  14. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    You can use a battery charger balancer (grid charger) for preventive maintenance or rebuilding
    Much quicker to charge the entire pack at once and let it balance at the top rather than doing modules one at a time.
    Plug it in one time and let it go for a day. Done.

    It would be a tedious process to use small hobby chargers to do maintenance charging. I can't imagine a casual user opening up the hybrid battery and attaching 28 (or 38!) leads just to do a routine balance. But a casual user could easily attach the harness to the charger, and then plug the charger into the wall.

    Hobby chargers are interesting, and helpful to a point. But don't provide the ease of use most people want/need. (did you see all the wires from post #10 using hobby chargers?)
     
  15. threx

    threx New Member

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    2005 Prius
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    III
    I did see all the leads in post #10 and look like a real pain to try charge them separte, I couldn't understand why you couldn't just put the Battery back together and let the Grid/charger balancer charge it and balance the cells, but I was told this is two different concepts.
    So the grid/charger would be the easier way to do it?
     
  16. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    If you have a single module to bring up, fine, use a small hobby charger.
    Use a hybrid battery maintenance charger when doing a whole pack. It's faster and less connections. Plus you only have to install the harness once.
    You can come back and rebalance in the future just by a twist of the charger' connector to the harness.