I just got a Prius! (And now I have to work on it!)

Interesting thoughts! I graphed a chart of each module and got kind of a "W" pattern, but with the middle hump still lower than the edges. The edge where air comes in is also better than the edge near the contactors and other circuitry.

I'm definitely rearranging the modules, putting the better ones closer to the middle part where they were the worst and the worst cells near the edges. I'm also going to replace three all together so that there's not more than a 20% difference between the best and worse modules, granted the modules that come in be as good as the rest. I'll try putting the edge sensors closer to the middle instead of right on each edge.

 

Nope, not yet. I was thinking of buying new parts, but I think I'm going to take a look at some close by junk yards. There's one that specializes in Toyotas only. Maybe I'll see if they have a catalytic converter for a decent price while I'm at it.

 

Any junk yards with Prius Body Parts in Colorado, Eastern Utah or Northern New Mexico?
Any reason not to use dielectric grease on bus bars and nuts?

Well, I've asked around at the nearest by junk yards (within 2 hours) to see if they have any Prius body parts and so far no luck.

I'm also putting the HV battery back together. I see lots of corrosion on the bus bars and nuts and intend to clean that up or replace nuts. Any reason not to put this back together with dielectric grease? I'm also going to get a small torque wrench to make sure I do it the right way.

 

Yes, I was under the impression that dielectric grease does not conduct, the idea being that it is applied to the outside as best as possible, and that any that gets on the contact area should, theoretically squeeze out.

The non-conducting nature keeps the outside protected from corrosion, or at least in theory, or as I have been told. Hence why it's great stuff for 12V battery terminals since it keeps them from corroding.

I'm just curious if there's some sort of protecting coating that I'm removing by scrubbing these bus bars down that would need to be replaced.

 

Thanks @ChapmanF ! I think I'll just go ahead and put it together as is then. I don't think I'll get another 15 years out of this particular battery, so I'm thinking now that there's no need to make it future proof. I cleaned up the buss bars and the nuts and got everything nice and shiney and the bus bars popped back into the orange strips. I just logged on to confirm 48 inch pounds of torque for the nuts. Time to put on the HV gloves I got and start assmebling!

 

Well shoot!

I got the battery back in and bolted down and connected and covers put on... So I hooked up the 12V and tried starting the car...

Big red triangle showed up immediately and it didn't start.

And I'm in a pickle because my phone updated to Android 11 and now Torque won't work so I can't figure out what the codes are. I have no idea what I did wrong. I carefully rechecked ever connection outside of the module area and couldn't find anything wrong. And I had rechecked the module bus bars with a torque wrench before putting the cover back on. I guess I'll have to take the cover off and see if one of the modules is at the wrong voltage or something. That's all I can think of.

On a side note, when I connect the 12V ground wire I see a bit more sparking than usual. Maybe it's just an interior light on, but I thought I had all those turned off.

 

Thanks!

Oh man! I can't believe I was so negligent! I forgot to plug in the orange safetly plug. I put it back on, but now it still won't start. I wonder if I fried something by doing that. Or if I'm that forgetful, if there's something else. And I have no way of checking the codes right now!

As far as charging modules, yes, they were all at about 7.9V when I put the cover on yesterday.

I have no way of clearing codes right now other than attempting to by shorting the car's 12V positive to ground with the battery removed.

I guess my next step is to research if anyone else has had this same problem and what they did to fix it and if I can downgrade back to Android 10, or get something with any older version of Android that works with Torque, and try to read/erase codes.

I'm feeling kind of stupid right now.

Edit: GOT IT WORKING!

I didn't have the plug pushed down correctly. The car started up and no red triangle yet. I'm going to let it idle a little as I bolt everything back into place, then take it for a test drive and see what happens.

 

I think we've all done things like that.

But in a lot of jobs I've worked in I've learned that even if these kind of things matter to me, no one else will even notice unless I tell them and they go look for it.