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Replaced battery cell, still errors

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by lordofthereef, Dec 5, 2019.

  1. lordofthereef

    lordofthereef Junior Member

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    Would this cause strange power issues
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    can you be more descriptive?
     
  3. lordofthereef

    lordofthereef Junior Member

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    I mentioned in another post that when I tried to drive the car it was topping out at 25mph. As soon as I hit an incline it was struggling to even make it up.
     
  4. strawbrad

    strawbrad http://minnesotahybridbatteries.com

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    What do you do to fix this? Every connection has to be tightened to 48 inch pounds. Just one loose connection could cause all kinds of problems.

    High voltage batteries are no place for less than perfect worksmanship.
     
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  5. lordofthereef

    lordofthereef Junior Member

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    I'm going to give the terminals and connectors a good cleaning. Is there an advisable replacement for the nuts? I figure I should replace at least the one that got rounded out (this happened during removal and I imagine it seized due to corrosion since the test were very easy to remove), but if they're cheap I can always just replace them all.

    Is this as simple as hitting up the local hardware store? Or do I need to buy something special from Toyota?
     
  6. strawbrad

    strawbrad http://minnesotahybridbatteries.com

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    What shape is the modules stud in? Are the threads stripped away? If the threads are less than perfect the modules needs to be replaced.

    This is what can happen with sloppy work.

    Battery Fire | PriusChat
     
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  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i think they're brass, not positive. i would stick to oem, or an acceptable replacement recommended in the rebuilding threads here or on youtube
     
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  8. lordofthereef

    lordofthereef Junior Member

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    The stud itself is fine. The head of the but stripped/rounded out, almost like it crumbled. I can take pictures of the stud if it's helpful, but it looks good to me. I can easily place another but on it and tighten it (though I didn't tighten it to the proper torque spec, which I plan to do going forward)
     
  9. lordofthereef

    lordofthereef Junior Member

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    The nuts themselves are brass? Are they coated with something? They don't look brass on the surface. But admittedly they're pretty ugly and gummed up.
     
  10. strawbrad

    strawbrad http://minnesotahybridbatteries.com

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    I think they are steel. ;) 5 mm X .8 mm pitch.

    magnet.jpg
     
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  11. lordofthereef

    lordofthereef Junior Member

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    Haha. Sometimes the simplest tests are the ones I don't ever think to do.
     
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  12. lordofthereef

    lordofthereef Junior Member

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    I want to thank everyone for their input. I was ready to give up, but I went ahead and dismantled everything, removed all corrosion using a clamp and wire wheel along with a vinegar soak, and reassembled it all. The car has been running for the last two hours without issues.

    I recognize the correct thing to do would have been to run codes. But I was honestly at a point, since just swapping modules out had worked before, that I was planning on getting rid of the vehicle OR buying a new battery for it as seen here. I wasn't interested in paying for reconditioned considering the price differences seemed so minimal.

    I may still do that. I may still get the truck I want. Or I may still continue using the Prius as is lol. The vehicle is worth so little, that since I got it working, I don't see the sense in getting rid of it. But we will see.

    once again, thank you to everyone who helped me along the way. Hopefully, maybe, someone comes across this thread and is able to obtain some useful information from it too someday.
     
  13. lordofthereef

    lordofthereef Junior Member

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    By the way, here are some pics I took along the way. You can make quick sense of what is before versus after.
    94324F5D-C724-4724-88D4-AD05D891843C.jpeg CA173C2D-B469-4653-9DA2-D4477966E3EF.jpeg 817C878E-4304-46E5-8268-5E329AEF3A5F.jpeg C6EFDB9F-4C2C-4012-B9B6-2A1277FD07CB.jpeg 65E098EE-4E31-4092-9C1E-4AB64F288FBA.jpeg
     
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  14. gittarpikk

    gittarpikk Junior Member

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    Just a note...probably doesn't apply but could be the problem.
    I have rebuilt my 2002 many times and every time I replace modules due to the red triangle, I had to drive the car for considerable miles before the computer got 'happy'. Sometimes its 30-40 miles and other times it would get 'happy' and turn off the triangle only to turn it back on shortly thereafter. After a few days of driving at least every other day, the computer decided it was happy and (knock on wood) been acting quite normal. Not sure if the battery is what it's complaining about or if something like a catalytic converter as I to still have the Mini VCI module but the XP the program was on is history. I do have another one to load the program on if I can find out how I loaded it in the first place.
    Not having access to the data stinks.
     
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  15. lordofthereef

    lordofthereef Junior Member

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    Good info. In my case, it was beyond the computer being unhappy, at least in the sense that my car wouldn't get pst 25mph and when I hit an incline I legitimately felt it wasn't going to make it over lol.

    the car is completely gutted in the back with only Kinal bolts holding the battery in. I'm just letting it idle right now for a good while (as of this writing it's been about three hours) with the heat blasting as I have also lapsed my state inspection at this point, so getting pulled over would be problematic. Of course, I can't get an inspection with dash lights.

    so far so good. I plan to give it a drive tomorrow once I've buttoned everything down and if all is well take it for inspection just so I can get it technically legal. From there we will see where the Prius takes me haha
     
  16. Q*bertZ

    Q*bertZ Member

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    yes, that corrosion is causing your cells not to fully charge and function correctly. I would definitely remove all the rectangular connectors between the cells and wire brush them. I usually give mine (copper gen 1 s) a muriatic acid bath in a plastic water bottle till the corrosion is gone. Then put them in baking soda water to neutralize the acid, dry them and wire brush them. Yours are probably nickel plated, though. Get them shiny and put them back together with some dielectric grease.
     
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  17. Q*bertZ

    Q*bertZ Member

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    I see that yours were copper. you got them nice and shiny. good work
     
  18. lordofthereef

    lordofthereef Junior Member

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    I didn't think to grease them. But that makes sense. I'll do that on my next rebuild lol
     
  19. strawbrad

    strawbrad http://minnesotahybridbatteries.com

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    What do you think solved the problem? Was it the one bad nut? The dirty bus bars were not the cause of the poor performance.
     
  20. lordofthereef

    lordofthereef Junior Member

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    I don't know. That bad nut was stripped trying to get it out so I initially never even removed it. I was able to get around it to replace the cell since it was far enough away. But I had to buy an extra for to remove it since it was recommended I clean everything up.

    I degree to literally anyone's knowledge on this, to be honest. Anything I say would be supposition. If it wasn't for tutorials, videos, and generous people in this site like yourself, I wouldn't even be breached enough to do this.

    I will say I tightened everything to spec, which I never thought to do before. This is of course after I did all the cleaning. The first and second times I "rebuilt" the battery I just went by feel
     
    #40 lordofthereef, Dec 11, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2019