Help? To fix or not to fix? Gen3 P3000-388, catch-22? Traction Battery too low for start?

Time to move on

 

It was nice knowing you.

 

Put the car in D with a topped off good condition 12 v battery and cleaned up good condition cables and tow it behind another vehicle on all 4’s, if it will charge do it a good while and it might start (yes I was in a tow vehicle ahead of a Gen 1 once)

once hv battery is filled the engine can either start or not. My guess is not and another bad head gasket failure.

if it’s too faulted to go into drive
you can’t do this obviously and likely can’t reset the fault long enough to get into drive.

catch 22 but there are cheap ways of building a grid charger or buying a grid charge (if a 3rd party Prius repair guy is nearby)

good luck

 

If HV & 12v batteries are low on charge, can you put in a fresh 12v battery and push the car down hill and Regen to charge HV battery?

 

generally not, if the 12 volt is gone the game is over but on older PRII if you caught a freshly discharged HV case you could sometimes regen if you got the 12 volt working and the motor would start and race, you could proceed to clear codes after that if the HV wasn’t totally failed

the trouble is some codes won’t allow you to even get into drive resulting in a brick.

but it’s worth a try even if it doesn’t work often

 

What I said is if you put in a fresh new 12v battery.

 

Here is the workup for DTC P3000 with INF 388 : https://share.qclt.com/%E4%B8%B0%E7%94%B0%E6%99%AE%E7%91%9E%E6%96%AF%E5%8E%9F%E5%8E%82%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8Cpdf%E6%A0%BC%E5%BC%8F/Repair%20Manual/04pruisr/05/21bpm/3000388.pdf

Looking at your 'diagnostic report', the 'short wave highest value' is near 5v which is a good thing.

Have you had a chance to check the HV battery ECU socket and associated connector for corrosion? - 2005 179km Wont go to Ready Mode | PriusChat

 

Was a known option from back in the day before we had grid chargers, and not every dealer had one.

Not sure how much your dealer would charge for that recharging service, but you could kludge together an inexpensive LED power supply, or if money is no object, look into a grid charger at Prolong Battery Systems | Hybrid Automotive California, USA

Sometimes you can find a used Prolong charger and or discharger here in the for sale section.

 

I keep seeing a lot of references to a DIY Grid Charger using an LED Power Supply, but I have yet to see a full walkthrough. People just kind of mention as "someone has done it, but I don't know who."

 

"Grid Charger" (ignore any 'LED' references...)

For info on the product, see this.

For a walk thru, see this.

Comes in two variants: Less expensive; requires more user oversight and lightbulbs to determine completion of balancing. More expensive; all that is automatic. First the user must install a wiring harness on the HV battery. Look through this.

Does NOT renew anything, per se, but rebalances all the cells so that the voltages are more equal, extending the life of the HV battery (just how much, is not exactly quantifiable, but it does work). LOTS of references on this forum. cf @Raytheeagle.

 

Do It Yourself. DIY.

As in, I don't want to pay $600, or even $350 for one of these things.

I want to build it myself. Where's that info at?

 

Hmmm...you must be a really-for-sure polymath then.....

 

Jack of all trades, master of none!

 

Alas, there is no (that I know of; could be wrong...) set of DIY build instructions on this forum (nor any reference to such) for an HV battery grid charger. The DIY aspect of the Prolong system: buy it, install the harness, then operate it yourself...

It DOES get high marks from forum members that have used it, and even the expensive automative version is WAY cheaper than a new HV pack.

Better start working on that electrical engineering degree.

 

There are plenty of folks using hobby chargers and reconditioning individual modules themselves.

Look in the gen2 section and you'll see a very long thread about individual module replacements which discusses hobby charging.

Those solutions are a longer time commitment which is why the Prolong Equipment makes sense. So while more monetary investment, you get that back in time .

 

Thanks Ray.

I've connected with a fellow Northern Arizona resident who's got a Prolong and we're going to work together so I can rent it from him.