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First Post- Thanks to all who post here

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by drone13, Dec 20, 2020.

  1. drone13

    drone13 Active Member

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    I just purchased a 2007 Prius 1 owner base with 124k. Mostly because they have always intrigued me a bit and I love to tinker. This isn't my only car (or motorcycle) so I don't mind a bit of downtime if needed. Seems like a cool project.

    Main reason for this post is to say thanks to everyone who contributes here, what a great resource! I trolled the board here for a couple weeks before buying so I would know what to look for in a used Gen 2, and it really paid off. I knew at least some of the pitfalls and how to spot them, like original battery or refurb, check 12v battery condition, trouble codes and battery health with Dr Prius, original cat since I'm in SoCal, etc. I feel like I was pretty well armed in advance knew at least some of what to look for, although, yeah, there were a couple of surprises but I'm good with that and don't mind working on the beast.

    So keep on posting and I'll probably chime in from time to time for some advice. Thanks all.
     
  2. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Thanks for the thanks... Please let us know more about your experience thus far with your latest Prius?

    What were the surprises you weren't expecting? I'm sure others doing similar research will appreciate that!
     
  3. drone13

    drone13 Active Member

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    Hi there. I found this guy in the back lot of a local dealer. They took it in on trade but was too old to put in the used section of the dealer since they only do certified used cars, they don't sell over 5YO on the lot. A friend gave me an introduction to the used car manager and he let me take a look at this car that was scheduled for the auction. It smell a bit of old wet dog, but thanks to the forum I knew to look at the place under the hatch where the top meets the hatch and saw what you have all described as the water ingress point... easy fix if you know to look there. Was a 1 owner Cali car with dealer service records and no reported accidents (dealer pulled a car fax for me), so service was maintained. 12v battery voltage was at 11.9, so marginal but might have been sitting a bit but was not OEM (replaced with optima recommended here), purchased Dr Prius app and battery was at 65% after lifecycle testing, pulled back cargo covers and verified Toyota OEM battery. Cycling several times might improve this, not sure, but I did the test on the lot before test driving so it might have been sitting a while. We'll see. I expected to buy a new battery, but I'll let this go as long as it performs. The test drive went well, the car feels very solid with no bad behavior, drove straight hands off, a pretty nice ride which I found surprising. Battery stayed in the blue during my 40 mile test drive, mostly freeway but some city. It got 51mpg, so I would guess battery is not working too hard since the fuel economy was really good. Battery delta was .22 and IR range was 18~26. So I purchased and stopped on the way home for some silicone sealer and got that problem solved. Also got the optima battery on the way home.

    I've driven it 1500 miles since purchase and the oil level hasn't changed on the dipstick, so I see that as a positive, but just luck really since I couldn't know that in advance.

    Surprises. 3 days after purchase the combo meter went dark... didn't phase me since I knew from here what that was all about. I disconnected the 12v white cable and plugged back in and the CM came alive so ordered the 220uF caps from Amazon and used ODB Fusion for a speedometer while waiting for caps. 3 days later yanked the dash, replaced the cap, and everything is fine with the CM.

    During the dash teardown I found several cracked places on 2 dash trim pieces near vents that I didn't notice during inspection so I ordered replacements from Ebay and waiting for arrival now. Note to self, check dash trim pieces closely in the future. The cracks weren't obvious until I went to remove the trim. That also pretty much confirms that the CM problem had likely been a reason the owner traded it in since a dealer would charge a very high price to fix that with a new CM. The cracked pieces tell me someone ham fisted the trim pieces off and probably diagnosed the CM issue. So that's a good thing really since it's a likely reason it was traded and not a blown engine or bad traction battery. All conjecture at this point though.

    It has a lot more get up and go than I expected and drives like a real car, not a highway slug like I expected. I routinely drive from 4200ft AGL to near sea level (and back) several times a week and it has no issues cruising up long steep slopes at 70mph with cruise control on, so that was a surprise of the good kind. I did pull the HV blower fan and cleaned, pretty dirty but not sure if it was enough to matter. Worth doing though just for peace of mind. A VXImini will be here tomorrow, so I'll have that to fool with if needed. I also have Torque Pro on a Lenovo tablet and am still fiddling with that with layouts and such.

    Probably the biggest surprise though is the amount of information, videos of specific problems, and a community that is pretty quick to help. Can't put a price to that.

    All in all having a lot of fun with it.
     
  4. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Thanks, great to read all this... So nice to see someone have the opposite of problems because they've done all their required homework on this website. Only thing that seems you may of overlooked is that Optima makes garbage batteries these days and the only reason people don't notice is that a 12v battery in a Prius pretty much does nothing but turn the computers on, which turns the HV battery on and then the 12v gets a charge and its work is done.

    If you take your Yellowtop in to place where you bought it and have them load test it, I bet it will fail and you can get a refund. Here's the battery I always buy. It requires slightly longer bolts and big flat washers from hardware store to mount terminals, but at 55amp-hours I've had one of these in my Prius since 2012 with no issue: 12 Volt (12V) 55 Amp (55Ah) VRLA AGM Sealed Lead Acid Battery 55 AMPS HIGH CAP | eBay
     
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  5. mr_guy_mann

    mr_guy_mann Senior Member

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    If Dr Prius reported that delta State Of Charge was 22%, that's not great. Keep an eye on it to see if it increases. Might want to log some battery data wirh Dr Prius and see which blocks have the greatest voltage difference from the others. All the Toyota hybrids I work on have delta SOC of 0 to maybe 4%. I believe it wil throw codes if it hits 40.

    If you pulled the trim enough to see the battery case, all that will tell you is that no one installed a battery from dorman or greenbean. You could still have modules from multiple cars (or they could be "matchibg" date codes from the factory). Doesn't really matter- either you have to work on it at some point or not.

    Good luck with your new car.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  6. qmanqman

    qmanqman Active Member

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    Excellent posts pal. Well done on the research. My daughter has the same car. The other day she called to tell me her dash wouldn't come on. I think she turned it off and on a time or two and it came back on. I'm unfamiliar with this issue. Can you point me to more? I'd like to jump on this before it becomes a bigger problem.
     
  7. drone13

    drone13 Active Member

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    The Dr Prius app showed lifecycle reading at 65% (see my post), not 22%. Delta was .22v. Seems used but reasonable to use for a while. And this is after sitting in the lot for a while, so may recover a bit with use... too early to tell. And yes, modules could have been replaced but I didn't see evidence of any wrenching in the battery area and could only dig so far into the interior during the lot inspection. If at some time in the future I need a new HV battery, I'm prepared for that and will probably buy an OEM replacement and change it out myself. Doesn't seem too hard.

    Do a search here for Gen 2 dark dash and you'll find lots of posts and there are many youtube videos showing the entire procedure. Sorry, I'm too new here to post links here yet. It's about a 4hr procedure and requires a bit of soldering skills. It's a bit tedious to rip the dash out, but the capacitor repair is straightforward. I ordered 10 220uF 16v caps from Amazon for under $6.00 to replace the 100uF 16v original. So cheap repair parts wise.
     
    #7 drone13, Dec 21, 2020
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 21, 2020
  8. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    That state of charge percentage has confused people for a long time... I've gotten 0% on healthy fully charged packs before. Even once asked Dr. Prius if that number is even valid. He seems to think so but his explanation created more confusion for me than clarity. Just pay attention to voltage difference and total voltage and temperature readings. That's all the info you need...
     
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  9. drone13

    drone13 Active Member

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    Yeah, I don't know how valid that data is from Dr. Prius app, but I figured it was at least worth doing a test before purchase to get a general idea about the HV battery. While driving the battery stays in the blue and sometimes green. The bars show typically between 5 and 7 bars. Engine doesn't seem to be racing during operation. But time will tell I guess. Getting fluids changed today.

    Now I need to design and 3D print a tablet holder for the Torque app.
     
  10. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    Here is a good place to start.

    combination meter repair - DIY | PriusChat
     
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  11. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    It's good to hear someone did their homework and had a good experience with the car. So many times you hear "I just bought this Prius and something broke now it's $$$$$ to get fixed". Did your research give you reasons to get the asking price down?
     
  12. mr_guy_mann

    mr_guy_mann Senior Member

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    AFAIK "delta SOC" goes up from 0 if the voltage difference (aka- computed state of charge) between blocks exceeds a certain amount for a long enough period of time. So yep, a healthy pack has voltages that should stay fairly close under all circumstances = delta SOC of 0%.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.