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time for a traction battery rebuild

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by walleye seeker, Mar 7, 2013.

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  1. walleye seeker

    walleye seeker Junior Member

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    ok i balanced all the cells to 8.2 with the supermate and it worked well . I hooked it all up and fired it up runs great battery is working great and the voltages on the torque app look really good.

    But i have 1 problem red triangle is on it is the only light on but it is not storing any codes in the ecu. any words of wisdom on this . I did forget to attach 1 of the plastic clips on the bottom of the battery it is the black wire that snaps on the bottom of the traction battery it seams to only be a wire support of some sort since it doesnt plug into the cell only attachs to it. could this be sensing temperature or something else
     
    #21 walleye seeker, Mar 22, 2013
  2. walleye seeker

    walleye seeker Junior Member

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    ok i figured it out . my 12 volt battery was low when i finished up the project and it turned on the warning lights i jumped it and drove it but the triangle remained on but after sitting a few minutes i restarted and the triangle had cleared and its all good .

    The traction battery is functioning flawlessly now lets see how long this rebuild lasts .

    Thanks to everyone on prius chat for your help and your posts in other threads about this subject .
     
    #22 walleye seeker, Mar 22, 2013
    telmo744, Jaquimo, nh7o and 1 other person like this.
  3. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

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    Two weeks elapsed time including self education, parts ordering and repair. Nice job and under $300!

    JeffD
     
    #23 jdenenberg, Mar 22, 2013
  4. usnavystgc

    usnavystgc Die Hard DIYer and Ebike enthusiast.

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    Great job walleye. I am confident it will last for years.
     
    #24 usnavystgc, Mar 22, 2013
  5. nh7o

    nh7o Off grid since 1980

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    Excellent work. Each person that does this battery rebuild job, and posts about it, makes it easier for the rest of those who will follow later. I certainly hope it can last a long time. Do update on the situation down the road.
     
    #25 nh7o, Mar 22, 2013
  6. goitalone

    goitalone Member

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    Did her Prius have any warning lights go off?

    My Prius is always running into red lately. When it goes into red, for some reason it goes into green kind of fast with barely any breaking and only a mile or less from the 2 purple/red bars.

    Also, SoC seems to be at 5 bars a lot and drops to 4 sometimes when I know good and well it used to almost always be at 6 blue.
     
    #26 goitalone, Apr 2, 2013
  7. walleye seeker

    walleye seeker Junior Member

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    yes hers had all the lights come on the dash. The sympton you are explaing is exactly what hers did before the lights went crazy.
     
    #27 walleye seeker, Apr 4, 2013
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  8. goitalone

    goitalone Member

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    Oh boy....well, I ordered a cable and I will see if I can pull any info. I am pretty sure it's on it's way out.

    Anyone know who can rebuild Prius traction batteries in or near Florida? I don't think I can afford Re-involts' 2k pack, and I'm too afraid to buy a used one off eBay since I won't know where it actually came from or if the miles are true on them.
     
    #28 goitalone, Apr 5, 2013
  9. goitalone

    goitalone Member

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    Just did it again while driving to get a Polar Pop from Circle K...red bars, 3/4 mile, GREEN! :eek:
     
    #29 goitalone, Apr 5, 2013
  10. walleye seeker

    walleye seeker Junior Member

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    rebuild it yourself really not that hard to do
     
    #30 walleye seeker, Apr 5, 2013
  11. goitalone

    goitalone Member

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    I would do exactly that but....I'd need a detailed list of tools/equipment to purchase, procedures to follow on how to discharge/charge/balance the cells etc that I could print out.

    Do you think someone here could do me up one, so that I'd feel more comfortable attempting it?
     
    #31 goitalone, Apr 5, 2013
  12. walleye seeker

    walleye seeker Junior Member

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    read this thread there is good info here and be careful the pack is high voltage use 600 volt electrician gloves to be safe once the batteries are disconnected from one another they are perfectly safe to handle without gloves.
     
    #32 walleye seeker, Apr 5, 2013
  13. vovka2007

    vovka2007 New Member

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    Ok guys I'm trying to replace six battery cells in the prius battery pack. I just got the the DC6 charger and having hard time figuring it out. what should I set to NiMH sensitivity D. Peak? anyone?
     
    #33 vovka2007, Apr 11, 2013
  14. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

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    Setting up the DC6 is a learning opportunity. The defaults for the dynamic charging/discharging cutoffs are OK, Use 7500 mA-H (some of that goes to heat) as the main charging absolute limit and set a time limit that normally will not stop the process. You will note that the discharge mA-H increases with each cycle, but with diminishing returns and each cycle takes hours due to the power limitations of the DC6. I used a three cycle protocol (about 1.5 days for each module) and would get some additional DC6s to speed up the process if I ever do it again.

    JeffD
     
    #34 jdenenberg, Apr 11, 2013
  15. vovka2007

    vovka2007 New Member

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    what should i set for NiMH Charge Current? Sorry this thing is harder than I expected.
     
    #35 vovka2007, Apr 12, 2013
  16. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

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    Yes, this is a learning process. The charging current should be set to a reasonably low current to avoid overheating the module. Since the capacity rating is 6.5 amp-hours, you can safely set it as high as 5 amps (to minimize charging time and have a high enough rate so that the DC6 can see the rate of change of the cell voltage) as long as the module is clamped (as they are in the battery housing as internal pressure builds up and the module will swell) and cooling air is supplied. You also need to calculate how long the charging cycle may take and set the safety timer to a bit longer than that (eg at 5 amps the charging cycle could take 1.5 hours so set the safety timer to 2 hours).

    JeffD
     
    #36 jdenenberg, Apr 12, 2013
  17. walleye seeker

    walleye seeker Junior Member

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    update well 7 weeks on the refurbish and everything is working awesome . i cant beleive how much better the prius runs on the traction battery below 34 mph it will run along ways on battery alone and it has the power to gain speed slowly without the ice coming on.
     
    #37 walleye seeker, May 4, 2013
    wegortw, usnavystgc and telmo744 like this.
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