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Hybrid Vehicle Battery Reconditioning 2010 Prius.

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Technical Discussion' started by Chba, Oct 17, 2020.

  1. Chba

    Chba Junior Member

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    i have diagnosed my cell block with Hybrid-Assistant. I know the faulty cells and I ordered 8 refurbished cells from eBay.
    Now I only want to take the block apart from the car and then replace the weakest cells.

    I don't want reconditioning the pack of cells with charge-discharge cycles.
    I just want to dismantle-replace-assemble and finally start the vehicle.

    Tell me if this procedure will work knowing that the voltage levels of old cells is different from new ones?

    Someone advised me to balance the voltage, but how do I do it? 20201005_120215.jpeg Screenshot_20201005-115839.jpeg 20201005_120116.jpeg 20201005_120032.jpeg

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #1 Chba, Oct 17, 2020
  2. mr_guy_mann

    mr_guy_mann Senior Member

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    Balancing involves performing all that charging and discharging stuff that you don't want to do. Some have just wired ALL the modules in parallel for a few days to equalize the voltages but the chances of that actually working for more than a few days or weeks is pretty slim especialky with 8 replacements. But it might work, who knows?

    The problem is that you have no way of knowing what the capacity of each of your modules. The weaker modules will drop the voltage lower under load and go higher when charging in comparison to stronger ones. Eventually it will set more codes.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #2 mr_guy_mann, Oct 17, 2020
  3. Chba

    Chba Junior Member

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    thank you
    What do you recommend in this case?
     
    #3 Chba, Oct 18, 2020
  4. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    It's hard to believe it's been so long since I posted on this thread. I was messaging with another member today about the Hybrid Assistant app and decided to go ahead and perform a quick battery test on my car. I got home from work (a 21 mile drive of highway, 45 mph and 25 mph zones). Parked the car outside the garage, fired up the app and started the battery test with AC on max. The load was bouncing between 8 and 10 amps for the entire test. I stopped the test when I saw the SOC drop below 44% because I wanted to prevent the engine start surge from being recorded. Here's the graphs. Compare them to the original graphs in post 16 that are now over 1.5 years old.

    I don't think this battery has been touched at all since the day I installed it, since I picked up another car to use as a test vehicle for my TMR batteries.

    Look how tight all 14 of those voltage graph lines are as the battery is discharging in the first photo.

    The second photo shows an almost perfect average, with the average line practically dead center between the highest and lowest. along with the delta V chart being almost flat with only a gentle, even upslope as the battery is discharging.

    The third photo shows the stats. No block is an outlier, high or low, or troublemaker. This entire battery continues to be very well balanced.

    With the majority of modules manufacture date coded from 2003.
     

    Attached Files:

    #4 TMR-JWAP, Feb 28, 2021
    Albert Barbuto, Stimp, strawbrad and 1 other person like this.
  5. Chba

    Chba Junior Member

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    I replaced 8 modules bought on eBay. then I did a charge / discharge cycle at 134 Volts.
    And a "final charge and balancing during 27hours". I waited 1 hour before starting the car.
    But I received a PA080 fault code, which indicates that of the 8 modules purchased on eBay 2 are very weak compared to the other modules. This is block # 7 representing modules # 13 and # 14.

    However, the ebayer indicates on the invoice that these two modules have a capacity greater than 6000mAh. Which is false according to the test. I am confused because this is the first time I have received a fault code.
    I need your help please. Screenshot_20210303-112816.jpeg Screenshot_20210303-110015_Prius%20Doctor.jpeg Screenshot_20210303-104000_Torque.jpeg Screenshot_20210303-105550_Prius%20Doctor.jpeg Screenshot_20210303-102535_Dr%20Prius.jpeg 20210228_102322.jpeg 20210303_090245.jpeg

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #5 Chba, Mar 3, 2021
  6. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    Are you certain block 7 was 2 of the replacement modules? 13 and 14 from which end of the battery?
     
    #6 TMR-JWAP, Mar 4, 2021
    strawbrad likes this.
  7. Chba

    Chba Junior Member

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    Please see photo attached 20210306_144444.jpeg 20210306_144558.jpeg Screenshot_20210303-124407_Dr%20Prius.jpeg

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #7 Chba, Mar 6, 2021
  8. Chba

    Chba Junior Member

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    After trying to recondition my high voltage battery pack, I got the
    fault code P0A80 several times. I replaced the 7 weakest modules, and
    redone 3 cycles (134, 101, 84) of charge / discharge with Prolong
    Deluxe, but the problem persists.

    So I decided to replace the whole pack with remanufactured modules at 1-DIAGNOSTIC.LTD UK.
    I put the new pack back in the car and started "Charging / and top
    balancing".

    The voltage stabilized at 237-238 V for more than six hours.
    According HA instructions, this means that the battery charge is full and the balancing is complete.

    Yesterday, the room temperature was 95 degrees. And the battery voltage remained at 237v for 11 hours. When the temperature started to drop, in the evening, the voltage started to rise. So I decided to keep charging it.


    Yesterday evening, before going to bed the voltage reached 240V, when I woke up at 6 am, it measured 240V with cool weather. I therefore conclude that the balancing of the battery is better in periods of low temperature (generally between the evening and the morning).


    During the day the temperature rises, which causes the balancing voltage of the battery to stop increasing or on the contrary decrease.


    I am currently on leave and I have a lot of free time, soon it will be summer and the temperatures could exceed 100 degrees Farenheit. Which would make the process complicated, especially since I will run out of time.


    My question is:

    Can I take this opportunity to recondition my new refurbished battery pack?


    If so, what minimum discharge voltages do you recommend then? Would there be a risk of going down to 84V for new eBay batteries?

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #8 Chba, Apr 1, 2021
  9. mr_guy_mann

    mr_guy_mann Senior Member

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    WHY? What is the point of "refurbishing" a battery pack that should already be in decent shape? Isn't that the entire reason you purchased it? Why not install it and monitor block voltages before you cook it by charging it when it's very hot out?

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #9 mr_guy_mann, Apr 1, 2021
  10. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    so of us like a good ole challenge, even if it means busting the “void” label on a newly purchased product nullifying the warranty.
     
    #10 Grit, Apr 1, 2021
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2021
    Limey Geoff likes this.
  11. Chba

    Chba Junior Member

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    To enlighten you a little.

    My old battery pack was starting to show signs of fatigue. I did a monitoring and I noticed that 7 modules were weak. So, I bought 7 replacement modules over 5000mAh capacity on eBay. After replacement, I got a P0A80 despite having done three charge / discharge cycles and one final balancing. The new 7 were too strong compared to the rest of the pack.

    So, I decided to complete with 21 new modules in order to have 28 that have the same capacity. So, after installing the 21 + 7 modules, the fault code disappeared and I obtained a good score with Drprius 100% of estimated capacity. But, I realized while monitoring the voltages that the 7 blocks I bought first pull the pack down and are located in the middle between blocks 6, 7, 8, 9. So, I thought to myself that maybe one or two cycles of charge / discharge and balancing could fix the problem.

    Here it is, my concern is:
    Can I recondition newly refurbished modules?
    Regarding the temperature, it is not too hot at the moment at home, the ambient temperature varies between 63 and 93 degrees Farenheit.
    I am not yet in the risk zone because Hybrid automotive advises not to do the reconditioning if the ambient temperature exceeds 100 degrees. Screenshot_20210401-104538_Dr%20Prius.jpeg Screenshot_20210401-155554_Dr%20Prius.jpeg

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #11 Chba, Apr 2, 2021
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