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Is it the 12v

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by George0512, Dec 4, 2020.

  1. Isaac Zachary

    Isaac Zachary Senior Member

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    Sounds like you're on to him. So that's good. I changed 3 modules on my Prius only once and don't consider myself an expert by any means, but it has worked fine for me for now. My guess is I should get at least a year out of it. But if your car keeps having problems like that I would also say it's probably the mechanic's fault, not the battery's.
     
  2. George0512

    George0512 New Member

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    Im on to him ? What you mean ?
     
  3. Isaac Zachary

    Isaac Zachary Senior Member

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    I mean you understand what he is actually doing, as you said here:

     
  4. George0512

    George0512 New Member

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    Yes, The tech comes tomorrow, lets see, I was desperate in a hurry I shouldnt leave without test driving with him.
    He is lying and hard do reach but I know where his shop is, lot of batterie and priuses there, Im trying to reach the people on his google reviews to see if its true or fake, but Im definitely asking for my money back, he start to say it could be the inverter, or something else, which means to me that he barely touched the car and just tried to get me away from his feet, so he gets time to work on it. I feel something really shady, but he def messes with the wrong person, I literally having nothing to lose rn.
     
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  5. George0512

    George0512 New Member

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    Update:

    He came to me today. I was by their side watching all the time.
    The tech took the battery out, and was doing thr voltmeter in each module. But before he was doing something with a machine he just went to buy in Autozone next door, that he put both positive and negative clips on their respective cells and it was smoking coming out, he said something like it was cooling the battery down, even tho the car was sitting for 24hrs, but he did crank it up minutes before to use the computer, that he said acused bad cells.
    So he used the voltmeter 4 times, when he found out 2 modules with 7.3 he swapped them, still I notice two with 7.4sh and asked him to replace he said there no need too.
    Them he went to the car turn it on, AC on full blast, pushing the pedal on D with breaks on to charge it, them let the ac on for a while to discharge it, and them was let it idling to charge it again. Turn it off, tech put everything back together ( really good job I must say), and I went to a test drive with him for 10 to 15 min, no lights, my friend was passing by my workplace some minutes later and I asked him to run around with it to feel the car (he also has a prius), so far nothing is back, I will be out of work in a hour or so, lets see how long it stands.

    I might be wrong about him, I really want to be.
     
  6. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    Can you elaborate on what the machine was?

    Can you tell us more about what was smoking?
     
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  7. George0512

    George0512 New Member

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    This
     

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  8. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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  9. Isaac Zachary

    Isaac Zachary Senior Member

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    What!!!
    That's the wrong charger! That's a Lead Acid battery charger! And it's $35!

    I got my NiMH module charger for only $20, and it was the right voltage and all.

    Plus the technique seems fishy already... So wrong tool, fishy technique and smoke coming out... o_O
     
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  10. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

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    So the mobile tech hooked up a 12v/6v "battery tester" to the individual module(s) to discharge them quickly, and the device smoked?
     
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  11. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Me thinks you need to get your glasses checked.
    That is NOT a charger.
    It is a load tester designed for a 12 V battery.
    Not surprising that it smoked when the HV from a hybrid battery was applied to it.
    The guy who did that is a moron.
    You should NOT let him touch your car ever again.
    Honestly.
     
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  12. Isaac Zachary

    Isaac Zachary Senior Member

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    ¡Ah! You're right. Then again I built my module discharge circuit for around $10-$15. IIRC

    Still we agree it's not the right tool.
     
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  13. George0512

    George0512 New Member

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    I don’t know if it was EXACTLY this one, but the tool itself looks the same.
    The car has been working good so far, no lights back. Still I will buy the Carista obd2 as I already bought the Dr Prius app but it says my car doesnt support it but I believe it is the cheap obd2 I got, so I can track the cells before they go away.
     
  14. NewHybridOwner

    NewHybridOwner Active Member

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    I read the previous message to be saying that the "tech" hooked the load tester to individual modules, not across the whole battery pack. And if he left it hooked up for too long, it could smoke a little: that load resistor could get pretty hot.
     
  15. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Either way, he is a moron.
    The load tester for a 12 V automotive battery has a tiny resistance; less than 1/2 ohm to draw a test current of at least 50 amps, likely more.

    SO.....if you connect across the whole HV battery, the extremely low resistance will draw a HUGE amount of current.
    Wouldn't surprise me if the tester went up in sparks, smoke and flames.

    If you connect it across a single module, that is a much lower resistance than the module is ever supposed to see......effectively shorting out that module and making IT smoke because it is being damaged.
     
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  16. George0512

    George0512 New Member

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    Hey guys, so here goes a update.
    So, the car has been great since last sunday repair, 48mpg in average, no rough idle, really good.
    But, yesterday night, RToD and the circled ! Came one, still the fan didnt came on nor it went to high rev like before. Luckily I got my Carista yesterday, so I read it threw me the P0300, still no subcode. I erased it through the app, restart the car, cameback home, read erros again it threw me the P0606 from the engine. I disconnected the 12v for five minutes, read it again, only the P0038 so far.
    But one thing is grinding my mind now.
    In the Dr Prius battery screen, the internal resistance is reading 19 ohm in all modules, no variances like the block voltage (that has been fluctuating from 15.90s through mid 16s)

    Thanks guys.
     
  17. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    That is correct. It is because you ...
    ... which reset all values so, what you see now is the default starting position for the module internal resistances. It will take some time for the ECU to work out the true values and when it has it will display them.
     
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  18. George0512

    George0512 New Member

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    Is this test really accurate ??
     

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  19. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Looks very believable given that it's a 17 year old battery.
     
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  20. George0512

    George0512 New Member

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    Update:
    So I was doing the food delivery today.
    After 1 hour or so with the car running, the fan came on, I put the Carista and scanned with the Dr Prius, the battery test warned about the battery running warm, some minutes later, Red Triangle came on. The temperature of the middle pack was 123 or 125 F. So I took the highway and I was monitoring it. Eventually driving at 70-75mph it got cool again, but after driving something like 20 minutes in 35-50 mph roads, it got warm again as the app said the middle pack was 110F.
    The inverter is supposed to make this buzzing noise all the time ? It has something to do with it.
    The code was P3000 but no subcodes with it.

    Im getting rid of this car soon.