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Started my Prius after 17 day vacation, error P080A

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by MB31, Jun 29, 2017.

  1. MB31

    MB31 Junior Member

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    In preparation of our holiday where the car would be unused for 17 days I searched the forum on the best way for the car to cope.

    I read that the biggest risk would be draining the small accessory battery and found an instruction on temporarily disconnecting it (PG007-03 Disconnect wire harness from exclusive jump starting terminal)

    I tested this at home for a night and successfully reconnected the battery afterwards. So 17 days ago I parked my car at the airport and disconnected the battery. My girlfriend just reconnected it and started the car. Drove for 200 meters and had to stop and turn off the car for 10 minutes to pick me up. Started the car again and now I have the red triangle, the engine icon, the exclamation mark, the VSC icon and the car with exclamation mark on the MFD.


    As it is the middle of the night and the airport is not in my home country we decided to drive home anyway. Contacting a dealer now was not an option. This was a drive of roughly 1,5 hours during which the warning lights stayed on but all else seems to work ok.

    I checked the fault code with my ODBII reader and it is P080A (replace hybrid battery pack). Amongst other things I found this on Priuschat:


    "One module with a bad cell (That's what happened to my 2004 at 195k miles). This appears to be the majority failure mode. It happens as the 28 modules become unbalanced and then when the HV battery is deeply discharged (20-40%SOC) one cell in one module gets reversed and can never recover. The POa80 code is then triggered as the HV battery is recharged and the battery ECU detects a 1.2v module pair voltage difference"

    Could this be what happened? Am really bummed out by this. I love my car and thought I was doing everything right. It had no issues before.

    Please share your thoughts on cause and what I should do next. Is there a way to reset this?

    Thanks in advance




    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  2. andrewclaus

    andrewclaus Active Member

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    How old is your 12 V battery, and have you checked its voltage?

    If the 12V is okay, consider that your hybrid battery is twelve years old. That's not a bad life. It's probably time to replace it if you'd like to keep the car running for more than a year or two.

    A shorter-lived and cheaper option is to buy a remanufactured battery, but it will use modules of the same vintage. Some hobbyists will rebuild, recondition, and rebalance their own packs for a great savings, but it takes time and commitment, and that that point the Prius becomes a project or hobby car.

    Your OBD reader may not be seeing all the Prius-specific codes if it's not a Toyota product. There may be more information about cell voltages and temperatures, etc.
     
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    how many miles on her?
     
  4. MB31

    MB31 Junior Member

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    The car is from 2005 and has 152000 miles (245000 KM). Yes I checked the 12v battery, it seems ok. Was steady on ~13,5 Volts.

    So by leaving it for 17 days I killed it? Taking in to account that it was already old but seemed to be working fine? If only I'd known, I would have given my car to a friend temporarily to drive during my vacation.

    I purchased the car 4 months ago for 5.000 Euro. I will have to look into it to see if replacing the hybrid still makes sense :(



    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #4 MB31, Jun 30, 2017
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2017
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    13.5 is the wrong measurement. you need to test it after the car has been off for a few hours.

    unfortunately, a battery living on the edge can be put over by non use. if it turns out to be a bad hybrid battery, and you can only afford high mileage cars, i would agree that a hybrid may not be your best choice.
    all the best!(y)
     
  6. MB31

    MB31 Junior Member

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    Thanks Bisco! I'll check the 12v battery later today.

    You say "if it turns out to be a bad hybrid battery". Is there a way for me to check this or should I see a dealer? I'll try to search the forum for this as well.

    Also, will it do much harm if I drive with it?


    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  7. KennyGS

    KennyGS Senior Member

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    Knowing that my car will sit for any length of time (more than a week) without use, I will attach a trickle-charger to the battery. If the battery is near 5 years old, then I'll replace it.

    I have never been stranded by a bad battery.
     
  8. TampaPrius.com

    TampaPrius.com Active Member

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    You posted P080A correct?

    Bad hybrid battery is P0A80

    If it is in fact P080A you may have inadvertently pulled one of the wires out of the positive battery terminal block by the 12v battery when you disconnected it.
     
  9. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    I was going to say that 13.5 volts with car running is pretty weird. It should be about 14 or 14.1 running. But Todd may have hit on it. I wonder if she disconnected the positive and accidentally pulled out that wire. Standard procedure is to disconnect the negative first and, in this case, only the negative.
     
  10. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    Yes. This has now happened to me twice on my 06. Sitting for long periods of time will send a tired HV battery into fault mode. P0A80 A grid charger "may" save the failing module(s) or may not. Your options are: replace the failed module(s) with used, good ones, replace the battery with a rebuilt (refurbished) used one, or a new Toyota battery.
     
  11. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    Not really, 13.5 V is acceptable in READY, it just means the 12 V battery is at the FULL end of SOC. 14.1-14.4 V means the battery is at the low to empty end of SOC.
    She is a he.
     
  12. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Oops. Thanks for the correction. I missed that she connected, but MB31 was the one who disconnected. But the point remains.

    I have never seen a Prius charging system put out less than 14 volts, but I only work on my own cars so my experience isn't that broad. All I know is at all four of mine have shown 14-14.1 in ready mode every time I checked. Hence my assumption that 13.5 was odd. But, if the code is actually P080A, all that is moot. When I googled that code, I discovered that a lot of people move that "A" around and still come up with "replace hybrid battery pack." A common typo, apparently.
     
  13. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    if your po80a is a dyslectic poa80, you can test the hybrid battery with a prius aware obd2 reader, or have the dealer do it.
     
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  14. MB31

    MB31 Junior Member

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    Thanks a lot for all the replies! To clear up the he/she confusion, I was in an accident on vacation and am not able to walk at the moment. My girlfriend had to get the car from long stay parking and reattached the cable to pick me up at the arrival terminal. I had to explain the process to her.

    Based on your answers I did some more checks:

    • In diagnostic mode the battery reads 11.7V when the accessory power is on (READY(?)). After starting the car it reads 14.3V. I was not driving (as I can't at the moment due to my injury) but stationary with the engine running to charge the hybrid.
    • The code is P0a80 not P080a. I had spent the day in a foreign hospital and typed the message on my phone after the flight on our way home in the middle of the night. It was taking its toll apparently...
    Unfortunately I guess this rules out the 12v battery but points to the hybrid batteries.

    So Fotomoto mentioned: "A grid charger "may" save the failing module(s) or may not. Your options are: replace the failed module(s) with used, good ones, replace the battery with a rebuilt (refurbished) used one, or a new Toyota battery."

    Should my next step by looking for a grid charger (and finding out what it is) and/or a trip to the Toyota dealer to read the actual fault codes?

    Or is there something else I can do?
     
  15. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Sorry about your accident. Hope you heal quickly.

    My next step would be a load test on that 12V battery. I'm pretty sure it will fail. In our country, almost any parts store can do that for free.
     
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  16. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    why is 11.7 good in accessory mode?(n)
     
  17. MB31

    MB31 Junior Member

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    Thanks, I just assumed it was ok as it read 14+ while the car was running combined to the hybrid error. But glad to hear the 12v battery may still be the culprit.

    I'll make arrangements for the load test. Would it be ok to drive the car there? Les than 5km.

    If it fails the next step would be replacing this battery correct?

    Thank again for your help!

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  18. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    if it's more than 4-5 years old, yes. if not, you can invest in a smart charger, but there's no guarantee it will hold a charge.
    a good battery should hold 12.4 volts or better, overnight.
     
  19. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    Keep in mind Gen2 will run down the 12v on standing, unless you remember to turn off the SKS smart key system before you park.
    17-days is pretty long so maybe it has recovered since then.
     
  20. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    First let me say that the 12V battery is probably a bit weak, but unrelated to the actual HV battery failure.

    It sounds like the HV battery might have been marginal from the get go. Leaving it for 17 days definitely shouldn't kill a healthy battery, but a weak battery might lose some charge while sitting, and then it can take a while before it recalibrates to the new charge level (which would typically look like an abrupt drop of several bars of displayed SOC, down to the purple/red bars). If the battery is already weak then the SOC often gets out of kilter anyway, then being unused for those 17 days would have made it worse.

    When the Prius first starts it initially (while cold) uses the HV battery almost exclusively for motive power (in addition to powering the DC-DC converter and charging the 12v battery and other electrical loads). So the first minute or so is really hard on the HV battery! Couple that with the battery ECU not having recalibrated (so the Prius probably doesn't yet "know" the the SOC is critically low at this point) and that is what killed the battery.

    I would strongly recommend that anyone else in the same situation (old Prius with possibly weak cells and left undriven for some time) to start it up and just leave it in "P" and let it idle (which gently precharges the HV battery slightly), until the engine cuts out, before doing anything else. Perhaps even consider force charging it (foot on the brake and accelerator with engine at moderate revs) for another minute or so after that before driving off.
     
    #20 uart, Jul 1, 2017
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2017
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