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First Maintenance Problem, Need Help Troubleshooting

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by lee, Mar 3, 2009.

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  1. lee

    lee New Member

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    Good point about the shipping. I called Jesse at Metro Toyota and he told me he won't ship, even though it's listed in their online parts catalog. I haven't managed to get through to ToyotaPartsCheap.com, yet, but the story may be similar.
     
    #21 lee, Mar 4, 2009
  2. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Something like an AEMC power quality analyzer, the 1 A scale the resolution is 10 mA with 1% accuracy. Not bad for a meter that will record three phase power quality to +1,000 amps

    A high quality clamp on ammeter, like the pricey Fluke 260, will have 0.01 mA resolution on the 30 mA scale, and 0.01 A resolution on the 30 A scale, with 1% accuracy

    Most cheap clamp on ammeters don't have a hope in hell of reliably measuring <1 A with any degree of accuracy
     
    #22 jayman, Mar 4, 2009
  3. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Yeah it sounds like the battery is kaput.
     
    #23 jayman, Mar 4, 2009
  4. lee

    lee New Member

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    The clamp-on DC meter I used was an Ideal 61-768. Though it only has one digit to the right of the decimal point, it turned out to be accurate for me when measuring 0.5 A, as confirmed by a Fluke 8060A, an ancient DMM from the early 1980's that still works amazingly well and is quite accurate (0.04%).
     
    #24 lee, Mar 4, 2009
  5. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Did that meter register "0.0" when the hatch was closed?

    Since you've had repeated problems with the battery after fully charging it, I agree that the time has come to retire it to your local recycling yard.
     
    #25 Patrick Wong, Mar 4, 2009
  6. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    I'd also scream the F Bomb at it too, just to blow off some steam. That really does help, try it sometimes

    Just don't try it with random strangers around. They'll tend to think you're loonie and have you hauled off to the local Smile In Ward
     
    #26 jayman, Mar 4, 2009
  7. lee

    lee New Member

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    I replaced the battery this weekend, and all is good again. I ended up using the Optima D51, which I purchased at Amazon.com, and the adapter kit from eLearnAid.com. The total cost for both (Amazon charged tax on the battery but had free shipping) was about the same as the dealer price for the OEM battery plus tax. The nice part is that I didn't have to drive out to the dealer, possibly twice, to first get the battery and to later return the old one and get my core deposit back. The are several more convenient drop-off locations to recycle my old battery since there's no deposit.

    I ordered both items on the same day, and had them both three days later. The eLearnAid.com instructions were very clear, and had obviously been updated to account for feedback they had received from users on PC. Installation went very smoothly and the new battery fits perfectly in the stock location.

    Thanks again for the help!

    Oh, and to answer your question, Patrick, about the clamp on ammeter, it showed 0.1A when I first bring it near the battery cable, but don't clamp it on. There is a zero button that I can use to correct for this.
     
    #27 lee, Mar 16, 2009
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