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Hybrid Battery and possible Brake Actuator issue

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by LaCajun 25, Jul 30, 2020.

  1. Tim Jones

    Tim Jones Senior Member

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    I've done two traction batteries... I slide them out on a board or have a helper didn't hurt my back and I'm a young 64.
     
  2. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    No he takes the old pack. Toyota has an additional $1350 core charge to make sure it's returned and disposed of properly. Matt doesn't charge the customer that fee and handles all that on his end.

    No, I did not use the Prolong charger on the new pack! It does not need it. Think of grid charging in terms of an oil change. You don't immediately change brand new oil, one waits till it's well used and needs it. Grid charging is for rejuvenating tired packs years down the road.

    I sold the charger/discharger setup quickly here on PC and made up for much of its costs. I considered the difference as a rental fee.

    GOOD LUCK!
     
    LaCajun 25 likes this.
  3. LaCajun 25

    LaCajun 25 Junior Member

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    To be honest, I've been itching for a diy project. I'm putting off getting a polisher and giving all my cars a paint correction and ceramic wax. I've assimilated to the Texas culture and have a can do attitude now.

    Haven't you heard of the new pandemic workout for Prius owners? Take out your hybrid batteries, recondition them, and put them back in. Repeat every 3 months. Guaranteed to keep you covid free as friends and family will suddenly be unavailable when its time to do the Texas recondition. Besides, I'm not totally committed to keeping the Prius more than 3-4 years. Doing a new battery myself will keep the cost down and I can spend the money saved on frivolous things for the kids.

    @ChapmanF thanks for the link, I doubt I would have found that thread and its a great idea.
     
    Tim Jones likes this.
  4. LaCajun 25

    LaCajun 25 Junior Member

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    I ordered the battery from Newpriusbattery on Monday and it arrived today, Thursday. I got lucky that I needed and ordered the battery just before they received their shipment and they had an extra one that wasn't already committed to an order.

    I'm going to gather my tools and watch the the many videos to make sure I have everything I need before I start this process. I'll update as I go along but I hope it'll go smoothly and won't have any complications.
     
    Tim Jones likes this.
  5. LaCajun 25

    LaCajun 25 Junior Member

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    Update:

    1. Watch disassembly and reassembly videos on YouTube several times before starting.
    2. Take lots of pictures for reference, or a video of your work.
    3. Label everything, parts, nuts, bolts etc.
    4. Have a few "sweat towels" if you do this in Texas as its been 100 + everyday this past week. Have a fan blowing on you if possible.
    5. Hydrate with water or beer recommended.

    So, instead of watching the videos ahead of time, I decided to just follow the instructions and start taking things apart / watch disassembly videos as I went.

    Haha, this was the worst decision since it took me 3 times as long as I was stopping and pausing throughout the process. Disassembly wasn't difficult as everything came out pretty well. I made the mistake of not putting the nuts and bolts into ziploc baggies until I was halfway through. In hindsight, I would take more pictures and label each bag with where nuts and bolts came from. I would also number or label the parts that I took off, as the covers aren't labelled and it would've saved a lot of time on my part on reassembly.

    The new battery modules were nice looking. Assembly wasn't difficult, just go slow and you don't have to worry about high voltage. NPB instructions could be better with more pictures and labels for the parts etc. Its a good thing that there are assembly videos on Youtube. Helpful, but I still had a few questions and Nick at NPB was very responsive to my emails.

    Reassembly was a slight pain as I did the whole process over a few days and "forgot" what certain parts were, where certain nuts and bolts went, etc. It ended up being a jigsaw puzzle like experience, but I got it done. My 3 yo son kept coming out to the garage to "supervise". I ended up with a few leftover nuts and bolts that were supposed to go on the battery cover but they're not absolutely necessary. I'll keep them with the car in case I ever need to do this again.

    Car started up but I still had the RTD. I checked it with Dr. Prius and apparently, I didn't "push" down the orange clip when I put it back in. Did that and everything is fine.

    I haven't driven it much, but what I've noticed is that everything seems normal except the on screen display is often showing only 2 or 3 purple bars for the battery at startup and driving only brought it up to around 5 blue bars. I'll have to take a longer trip to see how well it charges up. MPG according to the screen is only about 25ish but I need to do a more rigorous test of the mpg to see what I'm truly getting.
     
  6. Tim Jones

    Tim Jones Senior Member

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    You need to drive 25 miles.... it's not getting charged... mine is always on next to last bar or 1 bar below that in the morning.
    Or do you drive a long way on electric before you shut down?
     
    #26 Tim Jones, Aug 13, 2020
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2020
    LaCajun 25 likes this.
  7. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    it's not a good sign that the SOC on the battery reads 1 or 2 bars overnight. A good battery wouldn't have those readings if you didn't stop the car with those readings.
     
  8. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    What does this mean?
     
  9. Tim Jones

    Tim Jones Senior Member

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    What happened on this....????
     
  10. LaCajun 25

    LaCajun 25 Junior Member

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    Battery reassembled with the new modules from new Prius batteries. As with all my projects, I had leftover parts, mostly nuts and bolts. Some were to be expected from the design of the new batteries. However, all parts fit and are buttoned up. No rattles and everything works fine. I’m not getting better gas mileage and maybe just slightly worse. I didn’t expect better mpg but I did read how some people got better mpg so it was a hope.

    I’m sure I’ll get many more years of trouble free service from the battery. I’ll have to take care of other issues like the excessive brake chirping and possibly a cv joint/axle issue. It groans when I make turns and go over bumps but that’s another day and another thread.

    Thank you to everyone that gave me insight on how I should proceed. Tons of help on this forum


    iPhone ?
     
  11. Tim Jones

    Tim Jones Senior Member

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    Drive it a while..... my mpg didn't get worse but my battery was shot....... sometimes I get 42 and sometimes I get 39
    I get the best miles in traffic (43) .....most of my driving is on the Interstate...65 to 75 mph with A/C on.
     
    #31 Tim Jones, Aug 28, 2020
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2020