2008 cell replacement?? any advice please!

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by rockinstrach, Jan 28, 2024.

  1. rockinstrach

    rockinstrach New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2024
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    michigan
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
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    N/A
    Hi all!

    Recently my dash lit up with all the lights; red triangle, brakes, vsc, check engine light. The battery on my screen was at 1 purple bar, so I got it home and ran some codes. Codes said there was a failure in the battery, so I was hoping it was the 12V. Replaced that and initially after starting all codes went away and battery icon was charging again as I drove it. I let it sit for a few hours, then went to start it again and all the lights came back on. The battery icon on the screen is charging again tho, it was purple but it going back up to blue and green as I was sitting in the driveway and rechecking the codes.

    When I initially ran the codes, I checked the cell levels. First day they were all 17.0-16.9. Now after driving around and replacing the 12V (about 2 days later), they are all reading the same, except for one, #4. It reads 16.1.

    I am looking to replace the cell on my own, but I am curious where to buy the cell replacement online. I have googled it and there are many different options, I just want to make sure I am going to do it properly as to not mess with the other good cells in the HV battery pack. Any advice about where to buy the replacement cells, or even how to replace it would be greatly appreciated please!!
     
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Location:
    Durham NC
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
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    Base
    Look there when you bust open this battery you should look at some videos before you do this to see what people see when they bust open their battery usually what you see are frosted nuts and copper bus bars that are predominantly black corroded as you know just not very conducive to conducting electricity one would think by looking I guess is what I would say so when you bust your battery open up there in Michigan this is probably what you're going to see If you have an access to a rock tumbler it's a toy that kids play with they make professional models you could put the bus bars in the nuts in a rock tumbler about 30 minutes with a decent grit material and they'll come out looking brand new or you can order nuts and bus bars online and have them on standby so there's no waiting when you bust open your battery It would make good sense while you have your battery busted open that you go ahead and clean and or replace the bus bars and nuts replace the modules that you're looking to replace then you can rack all that back up squeeze it up with the holders apply the bus bars nuts and you have a good chance that you got something to work with now If you try to do this just by changing the module and putting everything back like it is you're going to have a good chance of being very unsuccessful personally I wouldn't do that.