SUCCESS!! - Reconditioning Battery - Need some diagnostic help on 2007 Prius Touring

I'm hoping I can get some diagnostic insight into a problem I just started seeing on my 2007 Prius. I have had the Prius for a little over 4 years. Currently around 123K miles.

Starting two days ago I noticed when I started driving that the engine was constantly running and when pulling out from a stop sign just up the road from my house the acceleration was sluggish. I look at the MFD and see the hybrid battery is nearly drained. Unusual because it was blue or green when I parked the night before. Driving for a few minutes, the battery fills back up and driving is normal. The only warning light is for a tire pressure sensor which just started to come on that day. Over the last two days I get the same thing at start up. Hybrid battery is drained. Lights aren't left on over night. Tire sensor light is constantly on but I checked the tires and pressure is good all around. Nothing plugged in anywhere to drain battery. The 12V battery was replaced maybe a year or so ago with an Optima yellow top, so not likely the issue. I checked diagnostic codes in the MFD and came up with a lot of codes:

LAN Monitor EMV:
01-DB 190- 40- 5
01-DE 178- FA-1
01-DB 1F1- E5- 4
01-DB 110- 8A- 7
01-DB 178- 46- 3

LAN Monitor NAVI:
01-E3 - 00- F

LAN Monitor DSP-AMP:
01-D7 110- E1- 1
01-DD 110- 83- 2
01-DD 190- B9- 1
01- E1 110- FF- 1
01-E1 190- FF- 1
01-E3 - FF- 1

I reviewed the diagnostic code document but couldn't really make heads or tails of what it was saying might be the problem. I'm hoping someone can give me an idea on where to look next. I suspect some sort of electrical short or malfunction that is draining the battery, but don't really know much more than that. Thanks.

 

Thanks for the replies thus far. When I left the office I checked cooling flow and there was movement in the reservoir so looks like the pump was ok. I started up, started driving home and the Red Triangle of Death came on. I managed to limp home, but power was constantly getting reduced. It seemed to work best when the engine was trying to recharge the battery instead of use it. Also, the battery cooling fan was running at high speed and much noisier than I ever remember. I used the OBD scanner I have to pull codes. I got p0a80 & p3020. I'm thinking either a batter replacement or rebuild is in my future.

 

Unfortunately, PA is only a partial-CARB state. The 150K mile warranty doesn't apply here. I am looking into dealer replacement as well as rebuild options. I'm not afraid to do the work myself to rebuild and recondition the pack and I have another car to drive while the Prius is out of commission so I don't need to rush it. I am trying to gather all of the information I can.

I am wondering if the Hybrid Automotive conditioner would help me here. I'm looking for good reports of people with success with that device after they have a code. With all the reports of people getting 200K+ on their battery packs, I have to think that a pack with 123K has a lot of good cells left in it.

 

Thanks, Jeff. This is in line with what I was reading and thinking and I wanted to ask before jumping in with a few hundred $$ on something that might not do me any good. The grid charger seems to get good reviews but I wasn't sure if it was what I need right now.

 

So my mini-vci cable and software arrived. I got it all installed and hooked up. Diagnostics showed Battery Block 10 at 14.8 while the rest of the pack was betweeen 16.2-16.4. I think that was with the car running. Another run showed it as low at 14.08 with the others at 15.2-15.4. So from what I gather, the modules in block 10 are bad. is there any additional testing I should do? Any other data I should look at? I am planning to pull the pack and replace the bad modules. What is the best method these days for changing out a module and balancing the pack?

 

I'm aware of the block configuration, thanks. What I was more looking for was things like:

What is considered to be the best charger/balancer these days?
What is considered best practice when measuring module cpacity and voltage and rebuilding the pack?

There are a lot of threads on this, including one listed above, but the information seems a bit scattered.

 

To follow up with this, I came across a local individual that is parting out a wrecked 2012 Prius V that had only about 12000 miles on it. The battery is still in tact, though the car has been sitting for nearly a year. From what I read, the sitting part doesn't matter, the NiMH batteries will be fine. My plan would be to remove the modules from the Prius V pack and place them into my own pack.

1. Are the battery modules compatible? I assume they are 3rd gen modules and would be a direct replacement.
2. Would I still need to go through a full discharge/recharge cycle? Is it possible the new pack has a viable charge?
3. Any way to tell the state of the new pack charge? The wrecked car is not operational.
4. What would be a reasonable price to pay for a replacement pack like this? What would a salvage yard charge?

I figure this pack replacement is almost new and I can recoup some of the cost by selling the modules from my old pack that are still good.

Thanks.

 

So the deal I had for buying the 2012 PriusV battery fell through. Seems they thought they could get much more for it than I was willing to give them. So anyway, I proceeded with pulling the pack out of my own Prius and started inspecting it. The terminals on the bus bars have a bunch of corrosion. That will need to get cleaned up. I've located the bad cell. It is in bank/pair 10 and only shows 6.38v as opposed to all other modules that show 7.62-7.67v under no load, except 2. These two are the modules at each end of the pack and they are at 7.55-7.58 v.

I've ordered a Hitec X4 charger and that should be here tomorrow. I'm still reading through the plethora of threads on proper charge/discharge cycling and trying to understand it all. I ordered the usb connectors for each channel so I can monitor and record the data from each battery. I'm curious to see the results.

So questions:

What is the best way to clean up the bus bars and remove the corrosion? I see the copper plates come out of the plastic. I was thinking a good metal cleaner/tarnish remover would be good. Thoughts?

With the two outside modules showing 7.5v (less than the 7.6+ of all the others), should I suspect that they may fail soon as well and just plan to replace them? Should I wait till all the charging is done and go from there?

Thanks.

BusBar Corrosion by Ev1lTw1n posted Sep 11, 2015 at 3:01 PM

 

Awesome! Thanks for the info. I'll give that a shot.

 

OK, so I am trying to understand something that I am seeing. Hopefully someone can reassure me that I am doing this right.

I have a Hitec X4 AC Plus that I bought to recondition and balance my modules. I am currently going through the first set of four modules. Here are my settings:

Delta Peak: Default (7mV)
Waste Time Setting: 5 Minutes
Safety Timer Setting: Off
Capacity Cutoff: 7350 mAh
Discharge Setting: 1.0 A and 6.0 V cutoff (discharge is actually at 0.7 A)
Charge Setting: 2.0 A
3 Cycles

Now, I have seen some say to use 5.0 A when charging. I also ready to use 2.0. I chose to go 2.0 thinking it was safer. Can I go to 5.0?

Also, I am seeing during the charging cycle that the modules are getting to around 8.71 V. Is this OK? I have the charger monitor software running so I am tracking the cycles as best I can. It seems the modules are taking the full 7350 mAh during charging and that the 2.0 A charge stops periodically, assuming that is the Peak Sensitivity kicking in. I just want to be sure I'm not hurting the modules.

On another note, I tried to charge the one module that was reported by Techstream as low. The charging and discharging numbers were all over the place. It swelled a bit and I think the gas valve even blew. Definitely need to replace that one. I heard the Pshhhhhhhhhht sound and that was a little unsettling.