Newb with a 2003

Well im back, sorta. Currently i'm sitting in Iraq. I have a list of stuff I need to get done to the prius when i get back. Including rebuilding the traction battery again. I left the car with my brother and he let it sit all plugged in and killed my expensive optima battery beyond bringing back to life and it now has a traction battery fault. Also he somehow broke/fractured the main information screen, cracked the dash, and broke one of the vents. Gotta love family! I'm in the parts ordering phase. Scored a used screen off ebay for 30 bucks, gonna order some battery modules, and I still gotta get the brakes fixed. I also never got around to installing the the cruise control, ill add that to my list.

I figure a little elbow grease 2-300 in parts and she will be back on the road, almost as good as new.

 

Well I'm finally home from Iraq and decided to troubleshoot the Prius. Pulled the traction battery and found 4 dead modules and one that's only holding 7 volts, but its partner is 7.5 volts. I went ahead and ordered 5 good used modules from eBay. I have a ton of corrosion to clean up. I think I'm gonna make new terminal plates from flattened copper pipe trimmed to size with tin snipes. Unless someone can point me to replacements that aren't to expensive? This time I'm gonna epoxy everything to try to stop corrosion.

I replaced the touch screen this morning, but in the process my center dash basically crumbled to pieces.
I also fixed my shifter not going into park issue. I think I'm just gonna safety wire the two pieces together so it doesn't pop off again.
While i have the dash apart I'm gonna install the single din radio I've had sitting in the closet forever.

The only reason I'm doing all this is because I'm gonna need a cheap daily driver again, and my RAM 3500 4X4 doesn't fit that bill.

Anyone have an extra battery sensing harness that's in good shape they would let go of cheap?

 

I canceled the order for the 5 modules. Todd at Tampa Hybrid hooked me up with a gen 1 core he had. He was very reasonable and I already plan to get more parts from him soon. The core was in much better shape than mine, including the bus bars and sensing harness. So I swapped out parts from mine to make it good and put it in. So far so good. Next problem I'm having now is the car is overheating when i let it sit and idle. When driving it stays about 180-190 degrees. The relays and fuses all check out. The fan on the passenger side spins but the fan on the drivers side doesn't. Never had this problem before. I get plenty of heat out of the vents when i turn the heat on. I checked the belt, all the fuses, and swapped around relays. I'm wondering if i have a stuck Tstat or a bad radiator cap. It got up to about 220 degrees before i noticed it was overflowing radiator fluid from the expansion tank and shut it off. On a positive note, I changed the oil and I got the new radio installed. It doesn't distort when i turn it up anymore, which is nice.

 

Not yet. It spins freely though when moved by hand.

 

It was the radiator fans. I pulled the whole assembly and tested with 12v power and got nothing. I got a used take out assembly on Ebay swapped it in and they run great. While i had everything apart I did an overhaul of the cooling system. I replaced the belt, water pump, thermostat, cap, upper and lower hoses. I took the radiator completely out, degreased and cleaned it, flushed it, refilled with 50/50 premixed. Replaced the ac dryer and Schrader valves. I vacuumed it down, added pag oil and refrigerant. No more over heating and the ac is ice cold.

While under the car I discovered some new problems though. The CV shaft vibration damper was completely dry rotted and spinning freely, so I cut it off. I also discovered i have a oil leak, not sure from where. I've pretty much resolved just to drive it until it has catastrophic failure. I cant keep putting money into it. But currently it's getting driven 100-200 miles a day 5 days a week at 70-80mph in 90 plus degree temps.

The brakes still aren't working right, the ac doesn't blow hard enough, and I wish I had cruise control. But it's either drive it or drive my Ram 3500 and speed 150 a week in diesel.

SM-N960U ?

 

After the Prius dies im probably just gonna drive my truck. I should be starting a new job in the near future and my commute will drop to about 100-150 miles total a week.