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Traction Battery Hot

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by aa1a, Aug 12, 2011.

  1. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Yep that's right, and from there it should vent out to somewhere in the wheel well.

    This part is confusing me. The inlet is most definitely in the back seat (upper right side).
     
  2. 2009Prius

    2009Prius A Wimpy DIYer

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    +1. And apparently if the battery gets old and loses water it can still be revived by adding water. See this post:
    http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ome-measurements-12v-battery.html#post1379891

    Yes and that is above the wheel well, isn't it?
     
  3. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    Above the wheel well is the fan.

    [​IMG]

    A clogged fan (credit to Luscious Garage) wouldn't be visible from outside:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    After cleaning:

    [​IMG]
     
  4. andyprius

    andyprius Senior Member

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    Why was your fan clogged? a dog? Each time I looked at the inlet there was only a light dust coating.
     
  5. halpos4

    halpos4 "Taxi"!

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    On Saturday afternoon i removed and cleaned the cooling fan,it was pretty much clogged up as in the photos by Luscious Garage,i've never heard the fan switch on in the 395,000 km as the temps here in Ireland never get anywhere near those of the US hot states,although if it ever had to come on it might draw air but it was so clogged that the air wouldn't go anywhere.....Glad i read the post!
     
  6. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    Nah you don't hear it at all on low speed. When it gets real warm then it will kick up a notch or two and then you can hear it fairly easily.

    You'll find that it was running a lot, albeit at low speed, otherwise it wouldn't have clogged. If it didn't run then it wouldn't draw air, and if it didn't draw air then it wouldn't draw dust and it wouldn't clog.
     
  7. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    bso the HV battery got replaced?
    is it only mee or do i read a lot of topics these days with HV battery replacements...
    trols or just...... bad luck or...... batterys start to fail? from build year X priusses?
     
  8. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    Battery failure will be an ever-increasing topic. I just replaced one in an '07. It is garbage -- it had been overheating so badly that all modules were toast, like less than 2 amp hour capacity, except for the two pairs at the far ends which I've been able to coax up to 5+/- amp-hours. Still a far cry from the 6.5+/- Ah that I usually get when there is just a random failure in a particular module.
     
  9. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    but not on 2005 models even on 2007 models.. maybe a 2004 model but even then its just 8 years old
     
  10. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    How did you measure their capacities? Did you take each module out and did a full charge/discharge cycle?

    I am wondering if it is possible to do the capacity test with Torque (OBDII app).
     
  11. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

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    Seilerts and I use a Charger/rebalancer to both re-balance each module independently and get a capacity reading during the discharge cycle of the process. My 2004 battery that failed at 195k miles had one bad module and all 27 of the remaining modules still had better than 6.5 amp-hour capacity after a three cycle re-balancing. This can be done with the modules still in the battery after one of the bus bars is removed.

    JeffD
     
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  12. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    In the above scenario, can they just replace the one bad cell? I got the impression most users were replacing the whole unit, including JeffD's case above.
     
  13. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

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    You can replace individual modules, but you should also re-balance all of them and adjust them all to the same voltage (by slow discharge) before reconnecting the bus bars.

    I replaced my "whole unit" with a ReInVolt since I didn't want to have the car out of service long enough to do the job correctly. Re-balancing a module (28 of them, one at a time) takes over a day with the equipment I have at home.

    ReInVolt normally requires you to send them your old battery as they reuse the parts for other customers. Luckily I got to keep mine, but that is not the norm.

    JeffD
     
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  14. The Critic

    The Critic Resident Critic

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    How many miles did it have on it?
     
  15. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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  16. The Critic

    The Critic Resident Critic

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    Yikes! Sure hope that we won't hear more failures in the 100-150k range. My neighbor back home just had the traction battery fail on his 05 and it was at just under 100k, so of course it was covered under the 150k wty.
     
  17. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    strange....I keep on seeing more posts about failing batterys......
     
  18. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Likewise, the older I get, the more people I know that have died.

    Tom
     
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  19. andyprius

    andyprius Senior Member

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    It definitely pays to stay on PC, especially the DIY's
     
  20. halpos4

    halpos4 "Taxi"!

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    Very true...haven't been browsing as much of late..but if something catches my eye...