New Prius (2002) with new / old battery problems :)

Sorry for the super long post.

I bought my first Prius today a 2002, has roughly 58k on it. I figured worse case I put a 3k battery in it and it would last me for years. The owner had a fender bender, got that fixed, and shortly after that had tons of codes. Toyoda report said that MIL 3006, C0278, C0200, C0205, C1246, C1253, C1254, C1259 codes. of note

It said Diagnostic procedure was performed and it was found that the Block 3 was dropping to 15v while the other cells were 17v or higher.

They also say the other codes were ABS ECU, and battery ecu codes, but they suspect they are related to the failing HV pack. Hope so !!!

So I drove it home, the car seems quite tight and drove well. I had one hickup, at one point the car was running, but was like it was in neutral, went no where. I shut it off, and on, and it was ok again. It only had one solid fuel bar so I put in some fuel and drove home with no more problems.

I pulled the Gen1 Battery.
#1 being the furthest cell away from the power connections / computer
#1 8.23
#2 8.21
#3 8.21
#4 8.20
#5 8.20
#6 8.20
#7 8.20
#8 8.19-8.20
#9 8.20
#10 8.20
#11 8.20
#12 8.19-8.20
#13 8.20
#14 8.19
#15 8.19-8.20
#16 8.20
#17 8.18
#18 8.20
#19 8.20
#20 8.19
#21 8.20
#22 8.19
#23 8.20
#24 8.20
#25 8.19
#26 8.18
#27 8.19
#28 8.19
#29 8.18-8.19
#30 8.19
#31 8.18
#32 8.19
#33 6.88 !!!
#34 8.18-8.19
#35 8.18-8.19
#37 8.19 -8.2
#38 8.21

So the voltage readings make sense, as #33 would be in bank #3 and would make around 15v for that bank like their diagnostic said.

So to me, it looks like only the one bad cell if I replace that I should be ok.
Interesting things of note, the batteries had numbers written on them in sharpie up to around 27, and blue dots on top with sharpie. So looks like someone has been in this thing before. Very very odd for such a low mileage vehicle to have a refurb, or someone work on that battery with so few miles. Other thing of note was that for around 1/2 inch or so close to both sides of the battery you would see this brown looking stuff near the top of the batteries and connections. not sure if someone shot dressing of some sort on the connectors, but weird that brown looking stuff.

Here come all the newbie type questions, sorry in advance guys.

So if I buy a new cell from someone, I have found Gen I on ebay and on here etc etc. I was thinking of buying 2 or 3 (spare never hurts).

I have been reading threads on here about using the RC charger to balance batteries etc, and also how a person can use a 12v charger in series etc. So my thought is if I get a new module, and I get it charged up to roughly 8.19V and installed in the pack, I would be good to go.

#1 how do I determine if a cell I get is a good match capacitance wise etc ? I have a good multimeter
#2 do I really need to do much to all the cells, they are pretty uniformly around 8.2, and the car should do the rest, maybe charge up the ones at 8.18, and get the 8.23 and 8.21s to around 8.2 also with a load. Then I would think that when plugged in the car would do the rest and charge them all up ?
#3 if I buy a spare, will they be ok sitting around (stored in a cool place)? or is that a waste

Obviously its a crap shoot and I could replace a cell only to have another go bad in the future, but figured I would try it at least once before considering putting in Gen II cells.

If it fails me again and I do need to put in some Gen II's.
#3 Does the whole battery need to go to Gen II at once ? or one half at a time ?
#4 will a gen II match up bolt for bolt ? do I need to drill or any mod to make them fit ?

Thanks sooooooo sooooo much for your help.

 

ok, reading reading reading. So it looks like I should consider buying a supermate dc 6. If I understand what I am reading right, it will read the capacity of the cells, and if I do like 3 cycles on the cells or so it should get them back close to the 6.5ah capacity hopefully. so from what I can tell these are around $40 - $60 for the charger on ebay, and using one charger, could take me forever, but do the trick. I think it could do 4 cells at a time.

the next trick would be figuring out how to calculate the internal resistance. light bulb or something, and not sure maybe using the current setting of a multimeter to figure it out.

 

Its not all as bad as you think. Worst case you buy a battery that someone else has done this work for you. I am just trying to not be wasteful and get the most out of the cells before going to the next gen cells, and save a little money and economy on the side. Great threads on here, a wealth of info.

 

Wilson thanks so much for the reply. I was debating replacing one cell next to the bad one, I didn't think of the heat, maybe I will have to do two of them. I liked the look of the DC6 cause it looked I could plug it in, clip on some clips and be up and running. It was also one of the main chargers I was following in one of the threads.


The MRC looks like a little bit of a project in itself getting setup to use it, but I like the fact that I could link it to a computer, me being a computer nerd and all.


Thanks so much for your help.

 

Wilson thanks, yeah I will order at least 4 modules and see where I stand after some cycles.

prius aware scanner makes a lot of sense. I do have one of those USB-OSDBII cables, I was thinking of trying out the techscanlite. I will read through as you suggest and see what there is on that.

yeah I am probably a good 3 weeks away before driving but yeah battery safe driving sounds like a good idea.

Yeah I am thinking the Good and Cheap option.