FIRE! no start P3006 - P3016 - P3030 - parts & install ECU + Wire Harness to Traction Batt

Don't have much idea what's in throttle-body cleaner but it usually makes pretty short work of carbon coatings. (Use outdoors. Breathe Real Air™.)

-Chap

 

Based upon what I understand of the protocol used:

	mod	rest V	status
1	1	7.77
2	2	7.43
3	3	7.31
4	4	6.73
5	5	6.9
6	6	6.86
7	7	7.21
8	8	6.42
9	9	6.57
10	10	6.75
11	11	6.5
12	12	6.22
13	13	6.11	at risk
14	14	5.11	bad
15	15	3.75	bad
16	16	7.76	at risk
17	17	7.28
18	18	7.16
19	19	7.07
20	20	6.55
21	21	6.97
22	22	6.89
23	23	6.66	at risk
24	24	5.12	bad
25	25	7.01	at risk
26	26	4.52	bad
27	27	5.41	bad
28	28	5.26	bad
29	29	7.3	at risk
30	30	7.29
31	31	7.8
32	32	7.02
33	33	7.5
34	33	7.5
35	34	7.91
36	35	7.72
37	36	7.77
38	37	7.93
39	38	7.73

• Charged to +7V
• Left no-load for an hour or so
• Above are reported voltages found

Any module that drops below 6.0-5.8V should be considered bad. Even without a load, it is not holding a voltage which means it is not holding a charge. But resting voltage, self-discharge, is not a true test of the Amp hour (Ahr.)

Any brief load, say a parking or dome light, briefly touched to the terminals will trigger an almost immediate drop in voltage and the light will go out. But a good module will keep the light burning as it discharges. It is the rapid, in seconds, drop of voltage that is the mark of a failed module.

So what is the make and model of the "smart charger?" My MRC 989 has both a controlled charge and discharge and records the Ahr of both. The charge is nice to know but the true metric is the discharge Ahr.

The Amp hour is a measure of how many amps are provided over an hour. So a 1 amp load over 6 hours is the same as a 6 amp load over 1 hour. So you can make a reasonable Ahr test by having a low resistance, power resistor, a voltmeter, and a watch. Extreme accuracy is less important than have a relative Ahr so you can tell if any of these modules are serviceable. For example:

• 100 ohm, 2 watt resistor
• jumpers
• VOM

Protocol:

1. Charge module to 7.5-8.0 V
2. Monitor voltage across the 100 ohm resistor
3. Connect it to module and write down starting voltage, Vhigh
4. Disconnect when voltage reaches 6 V, Vlow
5. (Vhigh + Vlow) / 2 ~= Va average voltage (*)
6. Va / 100 ohms ~= average_amps
7. average_amps * time_in_hours ~= Amp hour

My experience is a bad module will have a time measured in seconds. Potentially serviceable ones will run for +6 minutes. But a good battery charge/discharge unit will actually do the hard work and display the Ahr or milli-Ahr. Still, the resistor, voltmeter, watch is what humans did 200 years ago. <grins>

Bob Wilson

* - There are non-linear discharge characteristics that could be modeled in excel to give a more accurate metric. However, a human is measuring the voltage and time and such degree of precision is below the precision of an exact math model. In engineering, we call this 'good enough.'

 

Yes, a good smart charger. And yes on the subsequent questions. Only I don't know what model charger you have and you're more likely to have the manual for it than I am, so the person who needs to look up the proper settings might end up being you.

I'm confused ... haven't you already picked up your repair kit with bus assemblies in it? Is there another coming in the mail??

I'm not sure how much sleep to lose over the plating. Dorman builds 'em that way, Toyota doesn't, and the 5% failure rate over 12 years that Consumer Reports recently calculated seems to indicate Toyota's way isn't all bad. The $50 for plating doesn't seem like a lot, it's more you having to sit there and pop 36 little copper things out of the plastic carriers and take them to the plating shop, then pop them all back in, until you find out you got 35 back and one fell off the hook and nobody wanted to dive in the electrolyte vat and find it. At least, that's the sort of thing that happens when I farm stuff out....

-Chap

 

I was thinking about the charge/discharge power supply when I posted a "good one" even though the paragraph was about the modules. It sounds like your smart charger might have what it takes.

When a module fails, it runs hot. This locally heats the adjacent modules and often leads to their early failure. So we look closely at them.

The charge/discharge function takes time. A 1 amp, it can be close to 6 hours for each charge and the subsequent discharge. But a failed or weak module will take a much shorter time.

Bob Wilson

 

A fully charged module "6 cells" will have a voltage of around 8.9 volts. Charging to 6.5 volts will prove nothing as at this voltage the reading could represent 4 fully charged cells within the module and 2 faulty cells. So the lamp will stay alight but the module could be useless.
You also need to be more specific about the 12 volt test lamp you are using. How many watts at 12 volts is it, or what is the current rating at 12 volts. Volts x amps = watts.
You must also realize that at 6 volts a 12 volt bulb will only take approximately half of it's rated wattage or current "amps" than it does at 12 volts.

John (Britprius)

 

Leaving the car in D with the engine running "feet on the accelerator and brake without moving the car" will force charge the battery in about 5 minutes to 80% of full charge. At that point the Prius will no longer charge the battery as it's designed to run in the 40% to 80% range.

John (Britprius)