New hybrid battery

Eddy,
Yes, I have that many Gen 2 modules.
But I would not recommend just dropping a few Gen2 batteries into a Gen1.
Over time they will not play nice together.

 

This shouldn't be happening with a brand new battery. Something is not right here. Are the serial numbers on the battery all in sequential order??

You have to be very careful working on this thing with the case open. You should be wearing the proper protective electrical gloves too. Your pictured gloves looks to be made of regular fabric??

 

You thought wrong.

When the service plug is removed then the series circuit is broken. However substantial voltage still exists, more than 100V on one leg (since the 2G service plug does not split the modules into two even groups.). As long as the busbars connect the modules, you can get zapped.

My guess is that the busbars came from the original battery. Maybe one of the sense wires was damaged and caused a short circuit.

You need to think about how the spark occurred. Was the wrench in contact with the sheet metal enclosure? If not, was it in contact with a sense wire from one module while you were wrenching on another module?

Any damaged wiring must be replaced. You cannot safely operate the car with damaged insulation on the high voltage cables.

 

Phew. You dodged a bullet, Ruidboi.

 

You aren't kidding - he nearly got himself killed.

OP - please stop and take this to the nearest dealer. Your life is not worth saving a few dollars.

 

Not wearing proper gloves is ridiculous.
Rubber soled shoes seems like a no-brainer, as does working on a wood bench.

Beyond that, I HOPE that anyone playing around with the traction battery has a clear understanding of the electric schematic, AND has taken a multimeter and checked multiple points of possible short-circuiting for active voltage. If Pat Wong's statement of 100V present until the modules are disconnected from each other is not 100% clear then I whole-heartedly suggest someone else do the work.

 

This hits on a point I fear expressing for the sake of community backlash, being this site (with all the info on rebuilding batteries and DIYers) gives people a false sense of security when it comes to working on HV. I do it for a living on these cars, was trained by Toyota, and I still get nervous when I crack open a battery (and I've done many). I'm glad people are pushing the limits on these cars but it should come with a disclaimer each time.

 

Ruidboi,
What did you buy for $3300 that leads you to open the pack ?

 

read post #33. I really wonder if what he purchased on ebay was indeed a new unit.

 

No one should be apologizing for stating concerns over safety and like anything many people may be totally unaware of how close they come to a truly dangerous or potentially lethal situation. That being said people need to remember this person lives in Nassau Bahamas (not many choices for Toyota dealers and who knows how competent they are on a hybrid car either). So I would suggest that the batteries are likely fine (they can handle huge current in/out flows) but clearly the wiring (and your torque wrench) took the brunt of the issue and will need to be replaced or may have other issues (should be able to get used wiring from ebay). Ideally you should be looking at getting an RC charger then load test and capacity test the modules all again just to be sure everything is fine (may be a bit much to ask given your location and shipping costs). Anytime you start connecting all the batteries back together in series again you need to be very careful what you touch and I do suggest you familiarize yourself with a multimeter too (esp DC voltage readings, anything over 50V should have rubber insulated gloves as a precaution)

 

Pictures look like the torque wrench body contacted the bar connector point.

 

Agreed, seems pretty clear the torque wrench hit the connector and the dead short had him welding (ie big spark) in no time flat.

 

Are wrenches made with rubberized handles ?

Here are examples of insulated torque wrenches.
Search Results - KC Tool

It would be nice to find a used, less expensive tool

 

Use an extension on the torque wrench, so the handle's well away from battery?

 

Very good idea. I'm going to put rubber sleeves on all the tools I use before I dig into a battery.

 

I wouldn't throw out the old battery just yet. You might make your money back by selling the cells individually to people who would rather replace cells than replace the whole battery.

 

Now I follow... Ruidboi had bought a replacement battery but needed to swap the ECU and harness/electronics to the new battery.
Since this is what I plan to eventually do too, I'm real interested in not repeating any mistakes LOL
This link
Hybrid Battery Junction Block Assembly
is at least a starting point for this job.

Question:
Can the ~ 200v battery be isolated from the parts that have to be removed, or does the battery have to split into electrically isolated modules by disconnecting the busbar(s) ?