Hybrid system light after battery rebuild?

My idea is that you really need to have the DTC read and a reasonable diagnosis provided. There is no point in guessing when your car may have a potentially complex issue.

If you believe that your local dealership is inadequate then drive a few miles to one which is better. There's no shortage of Toyota dealers in southern CA.

If you are in Los Angeles, try Longo or Marina del Rey. If you are in Orange County, I had very good service from Toyota Rancho Santa Margarita when I lived in south OC. If you are in north OC you might try Tustin Toyota.

 

I'm surprised that your battery rebuilder is not trying to help you figure out happened. I guess we are now in the era of the shade tree battery repair man.

 

Go back to your battery rebuilder and demand satisfaction.

Yeah, whoever was saying this knows nothing about the battery. There is a difference in form factor (physical size) but properly done, it should just work, with no damage to the ECU.

 

DTC P3000 is reported by the hybrid vehicle ECU and means that the traction battery ECU has reported a fault.

DTC P3006 is reported by the traction battery ECU and means that one or more battery modules has a substantially different voltage compared to the others (there are 38 modules in the Classic traction battery.) This is indicative that the battery needs to be replaced.

DTC P3009 is reported by the traction battery ECU and means that a high voltage ground fault exists. Both the positive and negative high voltage lines are isolated from the car body. This fault means that there is a high voltage leak to ground.

The high voltage leak *could* reside in any of the components exposed to high voltage, including the traction battery, the traction battery ECU, the high voltage battery cable, the inverter, and the transaxle.

The thought behind the suggestion to replace the transaxle ATF is that used fluid contains a substantial amount of worn metal particles and the fluid is therefore more electrically conductive than new fluid. Hence that may allow a voltage leak from the stator windings in the two motor generators located within the transaxle.

It wouldn't hurt to have the transaxle ATF replaced, as that will help transaxle longevity. In your case I doubt that will take care of the P3009 fault code, but if it persists then you can tell your battery rebuilder you had the ATF drain and replacement done, so the ball is back in his court to fix your car.

Since this DTC P3009 was logged *immediately* after your traction battery was "rebuilt", there is a reasonable possibility that a workmanship error is the cause of that ground fault, or that a replacement battery module has leaking electrolyte causing the ground fault. However it is unclear to me whether your battery rebuilder is going to be able to figure this out.

I suggest that you start by asking for satisfaction under your 6-month battery warranty, recognizing there will be some delay until action is taken. This is not a big issue since as you have pointed out, the car has no driveability issues other than warning lights, the mpg is fine, etc. The only problem is that because of the high voltage ground fault, your car may not be safe in the event you have an accident which damages the high voltage wiring.

Certainly the easiest solution is to buy a new traction battery and have the Toyota dealer install it, but that also will be quite costly, $3K+. You may end up with that solution if you are not able to get that rebuilt battery to work.

The Classic and G2 traction battery modules both are rated at 7.2V nominal. Therefore, the installation of used G2 modules in the Classic traction battery case is OK, if that was done without causing physical damage to the modules (note the prior comment about slightly-different physical form factor.)

 

The rebuilt battery is defective. Call in the warranty. Just replacing the modules with gen 2's is not all there is to it. They need to be capacity matched and the workmanship needs to be good. Also, the bus bars and harnesses need to be inspected, cleaned etc. Gen 2 modules have the same nominal voltage as gen 1's so it's BS to say they blew the battery ecu. Also, as gen 2 batteries are starting to fail, There are getting to be bad gen 2 modules out there in Salvage yards and most of them don't know what they are looking at let alone how to tell you they are good

Eric
Adopt A Part
Milehybrid Automotive

 

It sucks being in the Rockies/Southwest. I can't keep good rebuilds in stock down here, or source good cores at a decent price.

 

Interesting situation & a bit similar to my current experience.

I just had my 2003 Prius battery rebuilt with Gen 2 cells. Organically, I took the Prius to Toyota. Toyota told me the car needed a the HV battery, a cable kit & the cost of $4800.00. I declined.

A few months later, I found someone to rebuild the battery and I installed it last week. Well, nothing got solved. The car did not move. The same check engine light and triangle light came on. The person who rebuilt the battery came over my house with a car code scanner. He told me that P3000 did not come up. He suggested that it maybe the trans-axle (transmission) & not the battery. He gave me 2 weeks to find if it was the trans-axle. And he said, "do not go to Toyota." Find someone else. I can return the battery, with a 10% restocking, for a refund if things do not work, or they have to repair the battery.

I looked at the DTC from Toyota & found that p3000, p3120 & p3009 were the problem. P3120 could be the trans-axle? Tomorrow the Prius is getting towed to a near by garage for a test. The garage has told me they have worked on Prius trans-axle before.

A new trans-axle is around $3000.00. Used it varies.

Anyway, Toyota does give wrong assessments to this type situations, which can double the repair price. My understanding is the battery life can last a long time, but the trans-axle can go around 185,000 miles max.. My Prius had 187,000.

Good luck! It is hard decision. Invest more money into the car or not?

 

Patrick, I must really commend you for this Post, it shows a degree of thought, completeness and accuracy which one rarely finds. You are definitely an asset to Priuschat and we are proud to have you. This in no way detracts from the other fine posts on this thread. Again.....THANKYOU :cheer2::cheer2::cheer2: