P3006 & P3011 - what course of action should I take?

I would order one from the link that I gave you a couple posts back and go from there. Why buy another car. you;ll be putting out way more buying another car than fixing this one, especially like i said in previous posts took care of it. Plus you have established history with your car and know the car.

 

Also, if you get the pack repaired, you have a better chance of getting a little more for it in trade.

Bob Wilson

 

I'm not about to say that's what you should do but I would say that's what I would do. I don't know your level of comfort with approaching a repair like this. I just know that you have a lot of miles on the car and this is def the cheapest alternative. In deciding what course of action to take, you should ask yourself some questions like:
1) Am I comfortable with diving into this repair?
2) Am I willing to do the research required?
3) Do I have the tools and a place to perform the repair?
Etc...
This is a repair that most people can do but it will take some patience, research, drive and enginuity. We will be here to answer any questions...

 

There is nothing more on scanguage. The only thing you can really do is run each battery through 2-3 charge/discharge cycles. This procedure has been detailed on PC by jdenenberg (look at his content). This is a very involved/time consuming procedure that will require purchasing a battery analyzer/conditioner that discharges and charges the batteries individually through 2-3 cycles. It has to be done under compression and it requires 2-4 days of dedication. I wouldn't recommend it b/c too many things can go wrong and it's extremely time consuming however, the end result will be an extremely well balanced pack.

 

I am glad to see you are diving into this instead of replacing your car, i tore my pack down to clean it with no experience and did just fine cleaning off all corrosion and fixing a broken module sensor wire. its scary but use your voltmeter to probe around and make sure there is no or little voltage. just be safe and use common sense. you will be fine.

Good luck

 

if i had to recondition my cells i would use my Super brain 977 from MRC i can discharge one cell and charge another or charge both at the same time its pretty slick.

 

Belkorin:

I had no clue or idea about hybrids except for the obvious that they are reliable and get good gas mileage. I work for Costco and ran into a guy yesterday outside with a gen 1 prius, 320000 miles and all he has replaced was the cat, no traction battery, no transmission, because I asked him if any of that went. but he did mention he thinks his pack is getting weak because he is only in the md 30's for mpg but then again he told me he runs the turnpike and here in PA people fly on that. but there is a good testimony of the reliability of these cars, i would say i I ran into 4 people with the gen 1 pri at costco and they are all close to 300000 miles and love them. also I feel good that i am at 151000 miles. I got a ways to go

Anyways, I am a mechanic, I have done diesel trucks(interstate type) and construction equipment, cars. but I had no knowledge of hybrids at all. Was I Scared to touch this car or buy it, Darn right I was, These guys at this forum know their stuff, and I am happy I met these guys, if it was not for them I may not have bought my prius. I did hours and days of research for it being my first hybrid, I bought it and I am happy as can be. Listen to these guys, I am still learning, But I can tell you its good to be scared when it comes to this battery: BUT REMEBER: SAFETY FIRST, GIVE YOURSELF TIME, TAKE YOUR TIME, GIVE YOURSELF SPACE, USE SAFETY TOOLS(Goggles, Gloves, voltmeter): I used leather welding gloves YES the gloves can be and are a pain in the butt, took the case apart, checked for voltage, got the case off, checked for voltage, took off the wires, checked for voltage, removed buss bars on one side, checked for voltage, after I removed the safety plug on the back of the pack before tearing it apart, i never had more than 30 volts come from that pack, but still I was scared and kept those gloves on. I put my buss bars in acetone to soak and clean that epoxy or glue off of them, and got out my dremel with the soft wire wheel and cleaned off the module sensor wires( Take it easy, its going to be time consuming, cleaning these). the bus bars I used a zarconia flap disc a and my angle grinder and holding each buss bar with vice grips I lightly went over them to clean them. after cleaning all of them I sprayed them with battery terminal cleaner i wire brushed all my battery terminals and sprayed them too. even the nuts i Soaked in Acetone, I even sprayed the module sense wires with terminal protector, then put the buss bars back on and sensor wires, then sprayed again and put on the nuts, then when finished i sprayed them again and then buttoned up the black plastic covers over the bars. Before I did this I was getting at the pack with the car on when the engine ran a peak of 298 volts when the engine shut off, now I get a peak of 330 Volts when the engine shuts off. MAINTENANCE IS KEY TO ANYTHING.

Sorry for the long post. just trying to help you out, guys please chime in if I did anything wrong, I want to see Belkorin hang on to his prius. I didnt even take the pack out of the car when I did this. Just keep in your head what I wrote in bold above.

MIND YOU Belkroin, I had none, zilch, no experience doing this at all, and I was fine.
again, good luck

 

I can't think of one that's better than the other. Just take your time, be careful and you should be fine.

 

Like Usnavy and i said above, take your time. I knew nothing about the battery except to be careful and I got it apart just fine. its going to take time, give yourself a day just to be safe. you dont want to rush, Its alot of bolts.
I didnt buy a guide for mine, just took it slow.

 

You just found that a module has a high series resistance and you will need to replace it as well. That's why you should at least check the full status of all 38 modules while you have the battery apart. The re-balancer discussed earlier and a digital voltmeter can easily be used to test each module to determine the resistance of each. All of the modules would ideally have the same amp-hour capacity, state-of-charge (voltage) and series resistance. At least replace any module that has a higher series resistance than the rest (usually caused by overheating).

JeffD

 

I had a triangle of death show up too, and the 2002 Gen 1(195,000) went into Brake mode and reved a bit too much for comfort. I got it back home after about 5 miles of this happening (fortunately). I wasn't convinced the battery or cells were necessarily bad, so removed the battery in preparation for changing the wiring harness. Sure enough several control wires had corroded off, so for $110 I ordered a new harness (one side only). I replaced this, but while the harness was off I checked the voltages of individual cells and they were very close to each other. I took off the harness on the other side as well, and removed the bus bars, and thoroughly cleaned and sanded them shiny. Sure, be careful when removing them, just don't short the terminals inadvertently with your tools (very bad, draws an arc!). Tighten properly, snugly, but not too much. (the specs measure this in inch/pounds, so the battery lugs do not take too much, or will break off). Yes, unfortunately, I broke off a stud, and had to remove 14 cells just to replace two. I bought a couple used cells for $10 each off ebay. I think the "matched cell" theory is over-rated, as these ramdom cells worked just fine. After reassembly, the P3006 code never came back, for nearly 1000 miles so far, and I'm getting about 45-49 mpg average. So for $110 investment, and about 8 hours of time, all is well, and the car is again on the road. It beats springing for a new or rebuilt battery for $1100 to $2500. Good luck with your own project!

 

Matching modules is not a theory. It extends the period between HV battery repairs by delaying module SOC differences from being noticed by the ECU. Re-balancing the 6 cells in each module, recovers module capacity and further extends HV battery useability, but care must be taken not to overheat a module during the process.

JeffD

 

Yes, and a small number of other scanners can access that info as well. You can make measurements (Voltage, series resistance) without doing a full rebalance, just remove one of the battery busses for safety. The rebalancing equipment is also handy for charging/discharging modules to the same voltage even if you aren't doing a full module rebalancing.

JeffD

 

Making sure not to reverse polarity, put the 12V battery on a charger until it measures 11.5 to 12V. Then start the car and disconnect the charger. The car will handle the rest of the charge . . . for as much as the battery can take. When the 12V bus shows 13.7-13.9 VDC, you're probably as close as it will get. Set the parking brake to defeat daylight running lights.

Bob Wilson