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P0A80 and P3015 with cooling fan coming on.

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Michael Bones, Mar 12, 2019.

  1. Michael Bones

    Michael Bones Junior Member

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    Hi folks My name is Mike. About 2 years ago I had a problem come up with my Prius (red triangle) so I took the car to a hybrid specialist who told me that my traction battery and 12v battery needed to be replaced. He charged me $1000.00 and told me that it was reconditioned not just repaired. The warranty was 18 mo. Then just past warranty it did the same thing and tossed the P0A80 code again. He told me that he would still honor the warranty and had to replace a block. Now.....2 mo later .....I noticed last week that the charge took a dive but came right back up so I kept an eye on it. A few days later it tossed the red triangle and I put my scanner on it and the P0A80 code was present. I cleared the code and the car is driving fine but it did it again and I only drove for about 15min and this time the cooling fan came on. I read the codes again but now there was also a P3015 code as well. I cleared the codes and let it sit overnight. Now as soon as I start the car during the warm up it immediately tosses the P0A80 code. I put my scanner on it and also looked at the 12v battery and it is holding a solid 14.5 to 14.7 volts. I'm assuming that the P3015 code will come back as soon as I drive it a bit indicating that the problem block is getting hot and the ECU turns on the cooling fan. Do you folks think that the problem is isolated to the HV battery? I just ordered a bluetooth OBD2 connector and downloaded Torque Pro from google play so I can take a look at the blocks themselves. What do you folks think? I bought my cheap scanner at harbor freight for 80 bucks and I do realize it doesn't read sub codes very well but since the problem seem isolated to the battery I feel like I'm looking in the right direction. One more quick question if you folks don't mind. Does the P3015 code indicate that block 5 is the suspect block or is it just a generic code saying that one of the blocks is experiencing a problem?
     
    #1 Michael Bones, Mar 12, 2019
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2019
  2. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Welcome. I believe P3015 is battery block 5. If you keep driving the car like that, it will probably leak acid and cause more damage. Or if it gets hot enough, it could catch fire. You did better than most with getting 2 years from a rebuilt battery. Many fail in a matter of weeks or months.

    The only really viable options are a new battery, or a kit from @2k1Toaster, or a used, intact battery that's only 2-3 years old from a totaled car. You just put the cells into your old battery case even if the donor car is gen 3.

    Or, if you like to play whack-a-mole, you can keep replacing cells as they fail one or two at a time.
     
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  3. Michael Bones

    Michael Bones Junior Member

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    Thanks Jerry for such a quick reply. I've been doing some research on replacement options. At this point I want to repair it right because I want to give the car to my daughter as her first car. I did look at the above kit option you mentioned which is about $1600.00 if you are a DIY kinda guy. But then I found a company that will sell me a high capacity Gen 2 battery for $1549.00 plus tax with a 5 yr warranty which is amazing and the price includes them coming out to my home and installing it. The problem I have right now is that I just lost my job of 35 years so money is tight to say the least. My daughters first car is going to have to wait but she is still working on getting her license and her pops needs a new job! My other option is to send the car back to the original repair guy 60 miles away with my AAA towing so he can do the whack a mole thing for me. The reason why I ordered the blue tooth OBDII connector and the Torque Pro app for my phone is so I can see more of the data in real time when it comes to the blocks in the battery. The whole investment was only $30.00 for both items and I can use it for other vehicles as well. When I receive the components I will provide what I find here in this forum.
     
    #3 Michael Bones, Mar 12, 2019
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2019
  4. Michael Bones

    Michael Bones Junior Member

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    One more quick question. I plan on doing a battery inspection. Can someone please tell me how to visually tell which block is number 5 when you have it sitting in front of you?
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    Also, you want to test your 12v at rest, not while it is being charged
     
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  6. Michael Bones

    Michael Bones Junior Member

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    Bisco..... Can you explain what you mean? I know the 12v pulls it's charge from the HV system but I was looking at the live data when the engine wasn't running. Car was still on though. When the engine cycles on there is a very small jump in voltage but it seems stable at about 14.5v to 14.7v
     
  7. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Good point. Those 14+ volt readings just mean that the inverter is charging the 12V battery as it should.
     
  8. Michael Bones

    Michael Bones Junior Member

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    When the car is turned on by pushing the start button twice without putting my foot on the brake hence "not ready" mode the live data shows 12.7v . Then when I put my foot on the brake and hit the start button going into ready mode the voltage jumps to 14.7v . That seemed about right to me.
     
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  9. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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  10. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    Block 5 is modules 9 and 10 from the non-ecu end.
     
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  11. Michael Bones

    Michael Bones Junior Member

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    Thank you very much. I really appreciate the follow up.
     
  12. Michael Bones

    Michael Bones Junior Member

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    One more quick question folks. So I just tested the 12v battery after letting the car sit all day long. First I tested the battery itself just by accessing it and it measured 12.29v. Then I turned on the vehicle but not in ready mode and it measured 11.87v. This was done with a volt meter. Then I pushed the start button and went into ready mode and when the car started the voltage jumped to 14.7v which makes sense because the inverter was now doing it's job. My question is..... Is 11.87v within parameters for the hybrid system at initial startup? I'm asking this because if I clear the P0A80 code and then turn on the car normally the code pops up instantly. Even before the engine starts in order to warm up.
     
  13. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    it can be borderline, but you really need to load test it. how old is it?
     
  14. Michael Bones

    Michael Bones Junior Member

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    2 years old.
     
  15. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    My 12V battery got down to 8V and the only symptom was that the brake accumulator pump took a long time to build pressure. While your resting voltage is not perfect, it's pretty normal and nowhere near causing problems.
     
  16. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    might want to throw it on a charger and see if it holds any higher
     
  17. RobertK

    RobertK Member

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    It sounds like your 12V is in a very low state of charge if your car is charging it at 14.7 volts. The charging rate with a fully charged battery is about 13.8 volts. You should get the 12V battery charged and see if anything changes.
     
  18. Michael Bones

    Michael Bones Junior Member

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    Actually today I received my OBDII bluetooth and downloaded Torque Pro. Then I added the custom PIDs not really knowing what I was doing but after looking on YouTube I found the info to add the icons to my spare android desktop and off I went.
    When cold overnight my Aux 12v battery started at 12.23v.
    After startup The Aux 12v jumped to a stable 14v .
    All blocks were a stable 16.5v except block 5 which was 15.0 (I would think that this small difference shows a little out of balance but not enough to set a P3015 but I could be wrong)

    Internal resistance R01 thru R14 all show 0.02 ohm and never change.

    HV Bat Temp ....
    T1 = 79.2
    T2 = 77.9
    T3 = 79.0

    I'm assuming that there are 3 sensors that provide HV battery temp.
    These values never change after driving for 10 min but the fan comes on indicating that the ECU thinks the battery is getting hot.

    Converter Temp at startup was 102.2
    Invertor Temp at startup was 102.2
    Both values went up to 110 after a drive around the block twice.

    If I clear the codes .....First the P0A80 happens right at start up and then when the cooling fan comes on the P3015 is set.
    I'm kinda lost. I expected to see something that was obviously wrong but I don't. I wanted to see block 5 voltage way off and internal resistance on that block much higher in conjunction with one of the temp sensors much hotter than the other two but nothing looks obviously wrong. ( I think...lol )
    Could this be a ECU issue or possibly a faulty connection somewhere?

    I'm new to this stuff folks. Please be patient with me.

    Mike
     
  19. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    are you testing it under load?
     
  20. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Sorry. I couldn't hold this one back anymore. :ROFLMAO:

    Batman Battery.jpg
     
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