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Used EV Battery: What to check for?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by eap904, Jan 16, 2019.

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  1. eap904

    eap904 New Member

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    I bought a hybrid battery from a scrapyard about an hour away.

    Going to pick it up and wanted to know if there are any basic first tests or things to look for.

    The story goes that it was from a 105K miles prius, and the owner 'blew up the engine' about 10 days ago.
    I am allowed to return the part for 30 days for any reason.

    My 2006 Prius EV battery failed at about 170K, and I didn't want to pay some local person $400-$500 to come take my battery and put in an unknown reconditioned one that could last... who knows how long..

    My plan was to use this battery as long as it lasts, then try and use the good modules between the 2 batteries for the remaining life of the vehicle...

    Any advice appreciated.
     
    #1 eap904, Jan 16, 2019
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    you can check inside for corrosion on the busbars, connectectors and etc.

    you can test the module voltages, but until you put a load on them, you won't know if they're any good or not
     
    #2 bisco, Jan 16, 2019
  3. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    Check for overall voltage. If is low, charge up the whole battery before using.

    Other than what bisco said, you probably can't do much more (and none of those things can rule the battery in or out) till you get it to your work bench.

    To do what you're talking about you will need to get enough equipment to do it properly.

    I'd also be leaning to keeping the new (to you) battery as a whole, unless testing dictates otherwise.
     
    #3 dolj, Jan 16, 2019
    Ernest Erickson likes this.
  4. eap904

    eap904 New Member

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    What type of charger is needed to charge the EV battery as a whole? I have a regular auto 12v charger
     
    #4 eap904, Jan 17, 2019
  5. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    You would need a grid charger and a fan to blow into the battery to keep the modules cooled. If it’s only been 10 days you should be alright. Did you get the whole battery, computer and all?
     
    #5 Skibob, Jan 17, 2019
  6. eap904

    eap904 New Member

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    As far as I know. Pretty Podunk scrap yard, which is good. They didn't really understand my inquiry about core charge. That stuff is all intact in the battery case right? It looks unopened.

    What's the out of vehicle voltage across the main terminals supposed to be?

     
    #6 eap904, Jan 17, 2019
  7. eap904

    eap904 New Member

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    Tried the new battery, no luck. My old battery would still drive the car, but it would have red triangle, etc. This one, would not start the car past what appeared to be ACC mode, dash lights etc but engine would not start.

    I had to jump the car, so my 12V battery might be on it's way out. Strangly there was water in the left and right rear compartments, about half-way up the 12V battery.

    So I then took off the cover to my old battery, and with bus bars attached, put a meter across every cell.. not sure if this is useful or not, but definitely found a normal range of about 7.87, with a couple 6.5, and a few 7.7

    Testing the 'new' battery, each cell was 7.57 7.56 almost exactly, much less variance, the bus bars looked much better too.

    Mine is an 06, I believe this is from an 07. Could the computer be different? Is there something I'm missing?

    Thank you all kindly for your help.
     
    #7 eap904, Jan 17, 2019
  8. eap904

    eap904 New Member

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    Uh crap, just seeing now, the orange plug has to be pushed in, bar rotated up, and then clicked down... hopefully that's the problem..
     
    #8 eap904, Jan 18, 2019
  9. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    The operational range of 40% to 80% is nominally 215 V to 229 V. 0% SoC is nominally ~202 V and 100% is nominally 235 V.
     
    #9 dolj, Jan 18, 2019
  10. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Make sure the module serial numbers are consecutive which is evidence the modules are original equipment and not a bunch of rejects cobbled together.
     
    #10 Patrick Wong, Jan 18, 2019
    Raytheeagle, jerrymildred and dolj like this.
  11. eap904

    eap904 New Member

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    fired right up today... I did not check on the serial numbers and am sadly too lazy to do so.... now what to do with this old battery... just let it sit until I need to replace some modules... sell and then buy modules later.... I'm sure it'll just deteriorate without use
     
    #11 eap904, Jan 18, 2019
  12. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    I hope you are going to address the water found in the hatch area.

    1. Open the hatch and look for cracks in the hatch opening that would allow water to get into the hatch. In particular, remove the black plastic strips that run lengthwise along the roof and inspect for cracking.
    2. Get rid of the water that has accumulated to avoid further body corrosion, damage to the wiring harness in the vicinity, etc.

    Regarding the battery modules that are now surplus, you could try to sell them on eBay to offset the cost of your buying the replacement battery.
     
    #12 Patrick Wong, Jan 18, 2019
  13. eap904

    eap904 New Member

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    Thank you Patrick. I am indeed not THAT lazy. Will check starting with your recommendations.

    Will the EV system throw engine error codes if something is wrong with the systems surrounding the EV battery? Like say a fan was broken etc... in case something else caused my previous battery to fail. 170K is a pretty good mileage as far as I can tell, but just curious.

    I will have to search some more for general prius maintenance at 170K... I can't remember getting spart plugs / wires changed etc...

    Thank you all for your help.
     
    #13 eap904, Jan 21, 2019
  14. stockdaddy

    stockdaddy Member

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    A better way to test battery condition is to test how it holds voltage under load and test for overall remaining capacity of the battery.

    The HV battery pack is made up of 28 modules of 6 cells each for a total of 168 individual battery cells. One of those 168 cells fail and you get Christmas lights on your dashboard.
     
    #14 stockdaddy, Jan 27, 2019
  15. eap904

    eap904 New Member

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    So after 2000 or so miles, this battery is now giving me a light on the MFD, and the red triangle, but no abs or vsc lights.. might the 12V battery give an error like that? Will check the code tomorrow
     
    #15 eap904, Feb 18, 2019
  16. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Buy an obd code reader that is hybrid capable and is able to pull hybrid battery codes. Until you own one of those it’s all just a guess why it’s unhappy. The code reader must have Toyota techstream software.
    I use VXDIAG on amazon.com for $70 has full Toyota software. Plugs usb into a laptop.
    Many others available. Mini vci or torque.

    With techstream it will tell you all hybrid battery block voltages. And decode all codes.

    Btw it’s not a ev battery it’s a hybrid battery. Not an ev vehicle.

    And the orange safety lock is push it in then flip up handle than slide handle down till it locks.
     
    #16 edthefox5, Feb 19, 2019
  17. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    Get a hobby charger and build a load tester. This thread will show you how to check the batteries in the old pack. Did you get the computer with the new pack?

    Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement | PriusChat

    You have 1 advantage a lot of people that have bad battery’s don’t have, time. You can get 1 charger and do one or however many channels you have. Once you know the capacity’s and load test them you can get replacements and match modules for the best outcome.
     
    #17 Skibob, Feb 19, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2019
  18. eap904

    eap904 New Member

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    Thanks for the info, ordered a mini vci today for $50. Will see if I have a nightmare time installing the drivers and software.

    Strangely I filled up my gas tank and the warnings went away. Also my FM transmitter showed 13.7 v from the 12v outlet which seemed low compared to the Tacoma.

    SkiBob I did get the computer with the new pack. I'll check that thread for recommendations on a good but also affordable setup for properly testing and conditioning the modules. I was hoping someone had built an open source Arduino powered one by now.

    Was planning on getting the old battery modules up to snuff to replace modules from this newer battery as they go bad

    Thank you all for the time spent helping me


     
    #18 eap904, Feb 19, 2019
  19. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    13.7 sounds low. I think the 12v changing curcuit should be around 14.1? Could the voltmeter in the transmitter be off? If you press the start button with your foot off the brake (acc mode) what is the voltage reading?
     
    #19 Skibob, Feb 20, 2019
  20. eap904

    eap904 New Member

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    Will check on that when I can. I'm hoping that the 12 v battery is bad, I heard somewhere that can throw the hybrid battery warning light, would be convenient if that was the fix...
     
    #20 eap904, Feb 20, 2019
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