So ....New car...? what? Gen II replacement guilt

Find a 2009 in California with bad hybrid pack and no catalytic converter... The cost of those two repairs is usually greater than the value of the car so I regularly see really nice options in the below $1K range down there on Craigslist Then spend $200 on a replacement cat and $2K on a NexCell Lithium pack and head down their to get one. Let me know if you need help, as I'm drive down their regularly to visit elderly parents.

 

If by "reading on the battery" you mean a snapshot of block voltages at one point in time, I don't think that would be enough to get you an educated opinion on your battery's condition. What you really should be aiming for is a log of those voltages as you take your car for a short drive. The Hybrid Reporter, which is part of the Hybrid Assistant app, gives you that capability. You will want to see how each block behaves under various charge and discharge conditions to determine which modules may be getting weak.

 

Cyber,

Your 2008 with ONLY 150k miles is merely a teenager, not a senior citizen. regardless of what people want to believe. There are two big concerns I see on Gen 2s now. One is the HV battery and the other is the ABS pump/accumulator assembly.

The Hybrid Reporter app was combined into the Hybrid Assistant app and they are now just one streamlined app. It has a battery test function that works very well, if you understand what you're looking for. You need to have a good OBD bluetooth device. The HA website has several recommendations. I have the OBD Link LX. it was about $50 a few years ago.

Here's how I do the battery test(hopefully your weather is still warm enough to run AC):

1. Get the app online with the car.
2. Take the car for a drive and get it fully warmed up
3. Have the AC/heater/etc turned off.
4. Find a good parking spot and park the car. The engine should turn off after a couple seconds. You want the car to be fully warmed up so the engine will stay off during the test.
5. At the bottom left of the HA app, there will be a wrench icon. Select it and several options appear. One will be HV battery test.
6. Start the battery test, put your AC to maximum cold and max fan however you want, just have it maxed out.
7. The screen will display several values and a stick chart of the blocks and delta V. Don't worry about those. Just watch the SOC display. It should have been 60+% at the start. At around 42%, the engine will turn on to recharge the HV battery. Stop the test as soon as the engine starts.
8. Exit the app. All the data from the test will be auto saved.
9. Turn off the AC and let the HV battery recharge. You can even force charge it a bit if desired. I normally do.

Now, when you run the HReporter portion, it will provide you with a list of saved files. Select the one you just performed and follow the prompts. It should show a button "Generate report". touch that and it will start crunching data. It usually takes a few minutes.

One of the charts it provides (you'll have to scroll down a bit) is HV battery health. The line chart will have 14 individual graphs of the block voltages. If the battery modules were perfect, all 14 lines would be exactly on top of each other as the battery discharged. In reality, they'll all be slightly different, with stronger blocks staying higher and weaker blocks going lower. This chart makes it very easy to see if one or blocks are abnormally weak.

This link, posts 5 and 28 show what these graphs look like. The first graph is the 14 block voltages during discharge. The second graph shows the delta (highest block and lowest block) along with the average. If the average line is straight down the middle of the high and low, that's great. If it's more to the high side, it could mean one or more weak modules are present (more strong modules are present than weak modules). If it's more to the low side, it could mean one or more unusually strong modules are present.

Just Another HV Battery Thread and Experiments | PriusChat

 

Now, the next concern is the ABS. If you have Techstream, this is super easy. Just go online with the car while in ready and look at the ABS pressure signal. It going to be 0-5 volts if I remember right. All you have to do is observe the voltage to see if pressure is leaking down even when not pressing the pedal. You can time the cycles. A GOOD ABS assembly will have no leakage and you'll die of boredom waiting for it to drop even .01 volts.

A leaking one will be obvious, as you'll be able to hear the pump cycling every several seconds, which will track with the voltage cycling up and down. Keep in mind just because it may be cycling, doesn't mean it's heading for immediate failure. My son's would cycle about every 8 or nine seconds (and did it for over a year before finally coding out). This was also improved quite a bit merely by dumping the accumulator back to the brake reservoir, emptying the reservoir and adding fresh fluid.

If you don't have techstream, all you have to do is listen for the ABS pump cycling. If it's in good condition, the pump will start after about 3 or 4 presses of the brake pedal. If the pump runs, then turns off and doesn't run again for a minute, you're probably in pretty good shape.

These are also quick and easy tests that can be performed when looking at buying a Gen 2.

 

Here's buyer's guide so you don't give up on your OBD2 challenge: Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus

I had to buy several of them online before I finally got one to work.

As for waiting to replace your car, that would be wise because the world-wide chip supply shortage for new cars has messed up pricing for used cars in a big way right now.

 

"The hounds are used to it -- they know what points to smell when searching for mice"

I've never before heard this is a basis for car liking

 

can you sell it now, and buy one when the market tanks?

 

Opposite of 'new-car smell'.

 

plug your OBD2 LX into the ODB2 port of your 08
With the car in READY mode, pair the bluetooth LX to the phone. read the pairing instructions for the LX for the pairing code. (it's usually something silly like 0000 or 1234)
Open Hybrid Assistant and watch all the gauges on the screen come to life.

you can have both Hybrid Assistant and DrPrius on your phone and once the LX is paired to your phone both apps will work. probably not at the same time though.