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Gen 2 not charging the battery

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by JohnStef, Sep 21, 2018.

  1. JohnStef

    JohnStef Member

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    Recently purchased a 2008 Prius not running properly, the previous owner said it had a bad battery. I am able to drive the car up to 80 mph, but all the while the dash shows 1 bar and my Torque app show State of Charge 29.8%. So the ICE is doing all of the work. If I brake torque the car in the drive way the battery charges to full in 10 minutes. It drives pretty normally for just a few minutes, like 2 minutes tops. By then the battery is down to 1 bar and the ICE is working hard again. To trouble shoot I replaced the battery with a good re-man battery - no change. I have no codes, as in the check engine light is not lit, no red triangle.
    I have the Torque app with the Prius plug in. Any of you folks have a screen configuration that makes diagnosing this possible?
     
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  2. MichaelKnight

    MichaelKnight Junior Member

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    Hi JohnStef,
    Congrats on your new purchase. Welcome to the 2 gen club : )
    Battery is tossed around especially prius owners....

    #1-Please maybe use 12v battery/accessories battery...
    #2-Please maybe use HV-High Voltage/Hybrid Battery....

    We all may have a official or non official names suggestion but simply saying battery can confuse.....hope this helps....Others will chime in...

    But i am guessing your stating about the main hybrid battery?

    Since you have the torque app.....

    Are you using the setting to verify each individual battery modules within the hybrid battery pack?
     
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  3. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    80mph is no magic number in the Prius. There are some magic numbers in a Gen-2 Prius like 42mph (seriously!) where the ICE must at least spin even without fuel to keep MG1 from being over-rev'd and things like that. But 80mph is no threshold. Do you get to 80mph and it stops accelerating? The Gen-2 should be able to easily get to 112mph (180kph limited) and maintain that speed on level grounds even fully loaded.

    A SoC of 29.8% is just plain wrong. The car should throw lots of codes at that number. Anything below 40% will only happen in battery death or if you're out of gas.

    The ICE never does all the work. It physically cannot in a Prius. MG2 is what's connected to the wheels. It could take all the power generated by the ICE through MG1 to spin MG2 and not charge the battery. But it is a lot more complicated then what I imagine you're imagining.

    When you say "brake torque the car" do you mean "force charge"? Where you keep it in D, but then use two feet, one to brake one to mash the accelerator and force the engine to spin up and charge the battery via MG1 keeping MG2 static? If so and the battery actually charges up, then the charging system is working. Battery is working. Inverter is working.

    10 minutes is wrong again though. It should charge up in a couple minutes if you actually have the drain off, the car not moving and the accelerator pedal mashed.

    A "good re-man battery" is an oximoron. It sounds very much like a failed traction battery.

    Other things it could be are things like the inverter overheating which will limit the power that can be put in and taken out of the battery, and will cause the vehicle to drive as you describe. If you then park and allow it to cool down (by not using it to drive) it is possible that's what makes it work normally for 2 minutes before it over-heats again. I would check the coolant of the inverter tank and turbulence in the tank to verify the pump is working. The IGBT's in the inverter are liquid cooled. They work without the cooling for a short period of time, overheat, then protect themselves.

    It's also possible that you have a boring normal ICE type problem. Clogged throttle body, something in the fuel line, bad spark plugs or just engine in general.

    It's odd for any of those to occur without throwing a code though. You describe the symptoms of a bad traction battery, the previous owner said it was a bad traction battery, and you didn't actually replace it, so I would start where the consensus is. Replace the traction battery with a new battery.
     
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  4. JohnStef

    JohnStef Member

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    All references are for a Hybrid battery
    All modules are within .2 volts
    I have actually put 2 "good" hybrid batteries in - same results. It will not come up to full charge
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    what codes is tech stream showing?
     
  6. JohnStef

    JohnStef Member

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    no tech stream, just the Torque app and the Prius plug ins, and no dash codes still
     
  7. JohnStef

    JohnStef Member

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    This is a lot of ground that you covered ... Thank you

    you are correct, my understanding is very limited.

    yes Force Charge
    OK you are correct, it took 3 minutes to get 6 bars starting at 2
    one used from a wreck, one re-man traction batteries have behaved identically
    just took a 5 minute drive looking at 117F. Also, MG1 and MG2 motor temps never got above 105F. and I checked flow in the inverter coolant tank, flowing like crazy.
    This area is the 1st thing I went after, plugs, TB cleaning, MAF sensor cleaning (with CRC MAF spray), pumped out the old gas, replaced with fresh, oil change, replaced the coil packs as needed, 2 were bad.
    And all packs are NOT within .2v as stated earlier, in the last run down the road, the high range is 18.6 to 17.6 and the low range is 14.3 to 14.0
     
    #7 JohnStef, Sep 21, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2018
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  8. JohnStef

    JohnStef Member

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    2k1 Toaster the HV battery was checked as good by a Prius tech. I took this one step further and installed the HV battery in my other Gen2 and have been driving on it for almost a month. My current plan is to replace the ICE.
     
  9. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    what are you getting for mpg's? i suspect you have a reporting/wiring problem
     
  10. JohnStef

    JohnStef Member

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    At the beginning of this post when the car was in tack, it was bad, 24 mpg to 26 mpg. The motor is out and hope to have it powered on this weekend.
    What wiring/reporting? I am very interested in this.
     
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i'm wondering if the eco reporting the 30% battery charge and one charge bar is not connected or working properly. generally, a bad battery won't start the engine
     
  12. JohnStef

    JohnStef Member

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    The 30% HV battery was at 80 mph, the engine made quite a bit of power, but there was some issue internally that the HV battery was never happily charged to a normal level. I chose to replace the motor for a couple of reasons, it had a pretty bad ticking sound that 2 people diagnosed as a bad connecting rod bearing, and the battery never charged normally.
     
  13. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    did that fix the charging problem?
     
  14. JohnStef

    JohnStef Member

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    I'm a couple days away from power on
     
  15. JohnStef

    JohnStef Member

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    Power on.
    The salvage yard motor (112K miles, 2008) runs and works well. The test drive was successful, everything returned to normal. The hybrid system recharges while driving very well now.
     
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