Is this a normal about of corrosion for bus bars under a year old?

Yes, that's fairly normal, but less common in dryer regions... As far as I know the only time this turns into a problem is where the orange voltage sensing harness plugs into the battery ECU socket. Once the corrosion gets in there it can short circuit the pins and fry the voltage sensing harness and sometimes fry the ECU as well. The symptoms for this problem is voltage block readings that are changing often and are wildly inaccurate/make no sense.

 

You do realize that the "new" battery you got in Feb. really was NOT new.......right ??
Sounds like your rebuilder did a poor job.

 

I've found the most effortless way to clean bus bars is to put them all in a rock tumbler for a day or two...

 

Can't say for sure. My concern would be the shock at the module mounting screws possibly resulting in a crack. If it was still on the bench top as it fell (ie, the case itself didn't impact the floor) then I would think it was ok.

The bare copper of the original bus bars corrodes real quick unless coated with something. I just got a set of the nickel plated bars from ebay.

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Ooops. Maybe take the dealer up on his $1700 offer.

 

It is absolutely 100% moisture related and will ruin your battery (and rest of car) if you don't get on top of it asap..

Seal the roof welds under tail gate, seal tail lights ..

consider removing the little grommets in rear under corner tray and 12v battery so any water can drain if it does enter

Put $2 shop dehumidifier containers in car and replace as required


Good luck!


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Maybe you can eliminate moisture in Australia, but where I live in Pacific Northwest we have the highest year round humidity levels in the country and there's no way you can eliminate it, you just have to live with it and minimize the damage it causes, which isn't that bad for most Prius owners.

 

its hard to control nature hey! i want more sun..
its pretty "soggy" down south here where I am

For me I just keep the vent on recirculate rather than open, keep car clean and dry, windows up and ac on .. as mentioned seal roof welds and put a few dehumidifiers in the car..

You can keep it mostly under control if you are careful

 

Our local Prius gang likes to coat everything in Di-electric grease to prevent corrosion and then when they ask me to work on their pack it's a huge mess and hassle for me and I complain bitterly. Have to wash my hands again and again when I work on those packs. Trying to prove to them that a little corrosion is way easier to deal with than my endless complaining about my hands and tools getting greasy.

 

Priuscamper, I'm so glad you mentioned this, have been considering the use of Dielectric but after reading this I definitely won't bother because I have a skin condition and washing hands too much is the best way to irritate them! thank you

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If you're putting in a brand new pack or reconditioned pack that's never had a bad module it makes sense to limit corrosion. But if your replacing a module your going to have to go in and do more work in 3 months to 3 years, so it's not worth the mess it makes.

 

I am in Australia so you may need to do some searching your end of the planet but here is an example of what i use ..


DampRid 300g Refillable Moisture Absorber | Bunnings Warehouse


not too sure about the weather stripping mate sorry i will leave that for someone else but address the welds at the top of the tailgate where the rear panels meet the roof, i will be sealing one in the next couple days and will try to get photos if i remember

I decided not to use grease its too messy for me, so not sure how to advise about that either sorry

 

DampRid will get rid of very little moisture. When I have a prius that's get wet inside I put in my 40pint home dehumidifier and inside of car is super dry in less than a few hours.

 

No they are not for quickly extracting a real big mess,, its just a nice precautionary in the rear corners of clean dry cars after they have been sealed to collect any residual dampness in the cabin

swap them out when the container is full which is about every 4 to 6 months for me

& now that you mention it good idea.. I will grab a home unit the same as yours to use when giving cars annual once overs