P0A80 - Dead Battery Three Questions

Have you looked into purchasing from other sources such as reinvolt and there are others? Hal

 

This is one reason why it is helpful to post your location. There are many options beyond paying your dealer a princely sum. Reinvolt does have installers across the country. They are also not the only ones that refurbish traction batteries. You can also have a salvage battery installed. Just try to find one that has not been sitting at a junkyard for too long. Many will have some sort of warranty.

The new battery from Toyota only has a 1 year warranty as well.

Failure at 133K is abnormal. We have been trying to figure out the lifespan of the Gen II battery. Max seems to be 400,000 miles, so typical might be 200K - 250K. You can test/replace individual modules, if you feel comfortable taking apart the case. It usually is just 1 module out of the 28 that goes bad.

 

If this happened to me, I would first look for a traction battery from a low-mileage, recent vintage salvage donor 2G Prius, expecting to pay around $600 plus shipping. Then I would install the battery myself.

I question the relative value of the "rebuilt" 2G alternative vs. buying a recent-vintage salvage battery.

In order for you to test the voltage of the individual modules, if you don't have Techstream Lite or its equivalent available, you would need to open up the traction battery case for access to the modules. If you are capable of doing that then you should be able to DIY replace the battery. If you see the traction battery state-of-charge gauge rapidly moving up and down, that is a good clue that the battery has a problem.

If the traction battery should deteriorate further then there is some possibility that it will fail to start the car and you will be stranded.

 

There's a junkyard close to you, XVipers, Inc.

They are expensive, but have a Prius specialty.

 

You should also consider AutoBeYours in Indianapolis. Steve will fix it for you at a reasonable price.

I recently had my dealer install a Re-InVolt battery for $1475 plus $125 shipping to my CT dealer who installed it for under $400.

A battery that is refurbished by a knowledgeable shop will be almost as good as a new battery. The battery modules will have been rebalanced so that all 6 cells are at the same SOC and all of the modules are checked to have matching capacity and SOC level. A good refurb shop (like Re-InVolt) will only use modules salvaged from a low mileage Prius.

JeffD

 

Sounds like a happy ending. Thanks for sharing that bit about XVipers. One of the main problems with the hybrid battery swap is actually finding someone to do it, even though it is not that hard.

 

A new battery will include the sheet metal case, the 28 battery modules, and the busbars which connect the modules. The other parts (such as the three system main relays and the traction battery ECU) have to be moved from the old to the new battery. That is one reason why dealer labor time will be higher, but I agree that it does not need to be 4x greater.

 

After having replaced my transaxal, & getting my car running, Its come up with this error aswell:
p0a80 replace hybrid battery pack...

(I had modules sitting here, from when I rebuilt my classic with the 2g cells)

& am fermiliar with taking out putiing in these hv batteries...

SO I whipped of the cover & saw that all the cells were around 8 volts except for one single cell in the center of the pack (that looked a bit swolen already before I even tried working out anything), once checked that cell was just under 7 volts, which must have bought up the error..

SO I then replaced with that cell (only) with another prismatic cell that was holding over 7v...

IT lasted just over 2 days, before its given the same error again...

I have not taken it apart again, BUT can see my self taking it apart again & inspecting again which cells to blame...

Worst come to worst I will buy another used battery with warranty BUT mileage is 115k & my cars ok otherwise...

I should be able to sort it out with the cells I have spare, But just curious as to what other symptoms are thier & common fixes aretaking place....

Now I am seeing MANY gen2 HV failiures, before it was just the classic, with these issues..

 

You need to use a balancing charger (e.g. Supermate DC6, about $35 per unit including the 5a 12 supply) to re-balance the cells in your modules. It does take a while per module so consider buying multiple units to speed up the process. Then all of the modules should be charged or discharged to the same voltage before reinstalling them in the HV battery.

JeffD

 

The problem is that the pack is managed by pairs. If you have one bad module, then you can get away with replacing it and its mate with a matched pair. Otherwise, you will have one partly charged, and one fully charged module, and the car will overdischarge the one while overcharging the other. To speed things up, try replacing your bad one, and its mate, with two sitting on your shelf with the both highest and most closely matched voltages. For example, if you have one that says 7.71V, and another that is 7.73V, that will probably work.

 

I am going to open it up, probably on wednesday, as working until then...
I have pairs sitting here holding thier charge above 7 volts..
I also have chargers (supernova rc charger) & many more with delta peak I have used before to charge, BUT not so much disharge..
I have so many modules I may aswell...

On the other hand I am being offered a CHEAP battery with 1 month warranty, I may aswell get it, & this will allow me more time for testing the other out properly... (without rush)

I even still have a nhw20 case & ecu somewhere from my nhw11 gen2 cells rebuild...

 

I thought warranty covered 150k miles. Am I wrong?

 

The warranty for the HV battery is very generous in CA and CARB states. Some of the posters in this thread w/failures aren't in such areas.

The warranty in non-CARB states is 8 years/100K miles. I don't know about other parts of the world, but I hear the HV battery warranty because of CARB is the most generous worldwide.