Cheap HV battery replacement -how possible?

I purchased the Hybrid Automotive Prolong equipment and used it on our 2010. I shared this with 2 other members out here (one has a 2007 and one has a 2011) and this worked well for us.

The Prolong equipment was also used to rebuild 3 packs that had failed modules.

Here’s a link to my thread on the topic:

2010 Prius II HV Battery Reconditioning

Hope that helps .

 

Yeah I agree and I wouldn’t ever pay for some fancy over priced charger. I was referring to some write ups where ericbecky and britprius were putting in their 2 cents. I understand that it is not a permanent fix but that’s not what I am looking for. I might drive this car 3000 miles a year as I live in a smaller town. If it breaks down eh I’ll part it out and salvage the rest. As I said I enjoy working on things and learning how they work and how to repair them. I’ve been selling cars for 15 years and have never really dove deep into how the hybrids work. I feel now that I have more knowledge on them.

 

As I tell most folks who are acting whack a mole, do it as long as it's still fun for you.

If the repaired battery is going to sit unused for more than a week or so, you might want to regularly charge the pack to keep it in good health.

Sitting unused is hard on a battery, and a used battery with modules from different packs is especially suceptible of going out of balance.

If you are handy you could build your own charger/discharger.

 

I see. I noticed when I got the battery open that someone has already swapped 2 modules out. One is bad. If I ever get it going I’d drive it during the week. I’ll probably mess with it some more but not much. Thank you for your help and if I decide to do something I’ll let you know!

 

Do you still consider at whack a mole when they’re all being balanced?

 

hello joe! whaddayouknow?

 

yes, but only in the sense that there's less whacking

 

I do. Balancing does little to NOTHING to actually make the cell any healthier.
See my previous post.

 

Thanks for your motivation. I’ll be over in the corner crying. What are you selling that I need?

 

Remember that battery charging isn’t new.

They can be rejuvenated .

Don’t stay too long in the corner because of our Dutch Uncle.

 

I'll just throw some more info out to add to the conversation...

So..earlier in the month I received a phone call from someone who was given my contact info by a previous customer. They were in dire need of a HV battery, so I supplied them with a Gen 2 HV battery built with Gen 4 modules. I received a partially disassembled OEM battery that had significant problems. No big deal. I typically part out the OEM modules and use the case/components/ecu to build another battery. Several of these modules will not be able to be put on ebay due to some exterior damage. BUT, I assembled them all into my test/cycle rig and commenced cycling/testing just like I did on a Dorman battery a few months ago. I did the same number of cycles as was performed on the Dorman rebuild. Here's the results...can anyone honestly tell me this didn't make these modules better? The data starts with Block 1. Module 21 was the failure. The initial discharge is performed from the "as received" condition to determine exactly how much energy was currently stored in each module and measured in mAh capacity. Then the cycling was started. 2 cycles per day. 19 cycles total. I would call that improvement........battery reconditioning processes are a proven method of restoring/maintaining a battery's capacity level.

 

Wow 19! Does that do any harm to the cells?

 

Nope.

If you have the time (and patience), the more the merrier.

But with the Hybrid Automotive setup, I did 2 cycle reconditioning sessions once a year and it helped my hv battery pack emensely .

 

Doing 19 cycles is not common, but it's also NBD for me. I do all 28 modules at the same time using (7) 4 channel chargers. Two cycles a day, 10 minutes in the morning to document the previous cycle prior to going to work and 10 minutes in the evening after I get home. There are some that insist anything more than 3 cycles is detrimental to the battery or a waste of time/effort. Comparing cycle 3 to the final cycle? I don't see that theory in this case, or several others. Every battery/module is a bit different. But as long as the battery is showing improvement each cycle? Roll with it....

The dorman battery I repaired and did similar cycles to was documented in a thread titled something like "dorman battery experiences". That battery was installed in my 2007 for a while and was at 54.x mpg when I removed it to install my latest Gen2/4 combo for testing. That dorman is now on the shelf for a few weeks, then I'll check (again) to see if any modules are suffering from self discharge issues. That battery has been a rock star, especially considering the modules were manufacture date coded from 2003...yes...that's 16 years ago...

This is the thread that includes the Dorman info...from back in May. Starts around post 265..

Dorman Battery Experiences | Page 14 | PriusChat

And of course, I just remembered that I moved that info into it's own thread and provided some updates....

Dorman HV Battery with a new lease on life..... | PriusChat

 

But it will NOT significantly improve their total life span.
There likely will be a short term observed improvement, followed sometime later by a rapid decrease in capacity to a level lower than you started with. The time span varies depending on how "bad" they were to start with.
You can NOT reverse the chemical aging process.

Will it help some......sure.
But it will not give you new cells.

 

But it will NOT significantly improve their total life span.
There likely will be a short term observed improvement, followed sometime later by a rapid decrease in capacity to a level lower than you started with.

I'm going to need a bit more detail on this...........

 

Sam they sell “new” modules on alibaba made by Nastima. Here’s the description. “A new Toyota Prius Hybrid Battery Pack for replacing the original HYBRID Module. NO Refurbish, NO Second-hand. You do not need to spend about $ 3,500 to replace the entire battery module, just need to replace several of the low-voltage bad module cell , That will save a lot of money.” $6x.xx

‍♂️ Maybe you should try those...

 

It's kind of like the "surface charge" effect when you over-charge a good battery.
The only significant detail that you need to know is: Once the chemicals that MAKE the battery work are used up, there is nothing you can do to get them back.

Most of the reports of fantastic results are when some cells are weak because they have been chronically under-charged, most often because other cells in the string are really bad, limiting the charging current possible.

Once all the cells in the string are healthy again, the "normal" charging equipment has no way of restoring the ones that are healthy but lower than the others. You can do that manually and achieve some good longer term results......IF that is the situation that you have.

But once a cell is really worn out.......it's done for.

Think about this:
You have a flashlight with 4 dry cell batteries in it.
When it starts looking a bit dim, do you measure each of the cells and replace only the weakest one.........or do you pitch all 4 and put in new ones ??
Similar situation.

 

I personally won't be trying any replacement cells.......unless it is a whole set maybe.......which amounts to a whole new battery.

Are you really not getting the crux of the discussion here.......about the remaining old cells STILL being old, with a corresponding loss of longevity ??

 

I completely understand.