2001 Battery Question

You might be stressing the transaxle, so this is not a recommended procedure to do every day. Since it sounds like your traction battery might need a charge, I suggested that. Or, you can just take the car for a long drive and see what's up.

 

The drive train is fine since the maximum power is what MG1 generates, a maximum of 18 kW, and the battery will be taking the charge. The real stress is charging the battery is exothermic, it gets warmer:

During the force charge, the traction battery will get a little warmer. But if you're starting with a cold battery, this won't be anywhere near a problem. FYI, you can hold it until the engine stops by itself, a maximum charge.

The only change I would make is after the force charge, disconnect the 12 VDC battery for say 5 minutes (take a beverage break) to clear the codes.

While the car is stil cold, double check the throttle plate to make sure it isn't sticky and then go for a drive.

Bob Wilson

 

It does not drive very far or fast on electric if the pack is only 1/2 full. The computer will only allow a certain amount of amps to be drawn from a lowish battery. A cold battery will also not EV far at all. Temperature makes a big difference. You need to get it up to 3/4 or higher and more than 10˚C to get much electric only range. The engine will always start above 42 mph.

Another issue is that that pack was sitting for a while and will "wake up" with some use

As you will find out if you read some articles on how to drive it efficiently, the EV mode is best suited to parking lots and crawling in traffic. Hypermilers avoid using EV except to extend glides when driving slowly.

Still it's very tempting to use EV cause it's so fun.

The farthest I have driven is roughly two miles, when my pack was at over 80% and warm.

 

Regarding the MFD warnings, do all of the three icons appear in red? If not, which one is in red? That's the one to be worried about.

It's clear that the car still has a problem (or maybe more than one). It's time for you to have the DTC read so that you can see what needs to be done.

 

Autoenginuity sells a PC based system for laptops that can access all the codes even the special hybrid subcodes with the Toyota upgrade. I think it's about $200 That's the only one I have found so far. The Toyota "upgrade" is an extra $150 though.

I'm getting that system when I start getting codes. I figure it's about the cost of a tow and reading at the dealer.

There may be other systems that read the basic codes but I haven't found one yet. I'm not really looking though because I want one that can read all the sub codes.

 

Yes the Autoenginuity system is about the only affordable one at this time, (see my other post on this for links). Also at this time it only works good with 04-09 prius, but they are working to fix it for 00-03prius, and 2010 as well. As I understand it they have to fix a relatively simple hardware problem to get it to work on 00-03, and are working on it as we speak. This will be any time now (they told me by 2 weeks from now). We'll see.

 

They released an update to 8.2 last Friday, and all is looking great. The release notes say among other things that this finalizes the Toyota code.

 

No.

 

Been away for a couple weeks, as mentioned above, they now have version 8.2 out. Additionally this support includes all the Generation 1 (00-03) and Generation 2 (04-09) hybrid systems such as HV Battery and HV ECU. For these systems they also do support the Information Data #s reported with trouble codes. They used an 02' Prius (nonCan) and an 05' Prius (CAN) to debug. You have to order the Proline connector with the 8.2 package ($249), then order the "Toyota Enhancements" ($150) package to unlock them. I just ordered mine, so I'll keep you posted on it's functionality. Also baja454, do clean the throttle body and mass airflow sensor. That was already required on our 03, and believe me all the lights came on and ICE would only run for 10 secs. then shut down. I thought it was the battery before I found out it was this only...

 

Looks like your battery had the maintenance done before by Toyota. That dark crap around the + terminals is the sealant they used to try and stop the leakage. Some places even used JBWeld for this purpose. If that's the case then you won't be able to remove without damaging the cells. I would just clean all orange terminal strips and the terminals themselves of the green corrosion, make sure nothing is on the body of the cell that could short to the metal case. Other than that, you could get one of those refurbished packs with the "gen2" cells. That's what I will do when the time comes.