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Can i save my 07 pruis?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by AJ200, Jan 14, 2017.

  1. AJ200

    AJ200 New Member

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    Hi guys

    I'm a newbie not very technical either so please advise me.

    I own 2007 Pruis that has done 335540 miles!

    I believe it used to be a taxi at some stage of it's life. The guy who sold it to me (1 month ago) be said he just wanted to upgrade he wasn't a taxi driver.

    I know i probably shouldn't have got such a used car but i really wanted a pruis with my limited budget.. anyway enough with the rambling.

    Here are the challenges so far

    My first drive home everything was fine no lights no nothing. When i came back to drive again car there were 3 lights on dashboard (chech engine,triangle, and circle with ! Inside it)and the car would hardly move it sounded horrible.Also the HV battery came on at full blast. I managed to find a obdii scanner and got p3000 and p0420.

    I did some research ended up changing the spark plugs which were really bad.

    I cleared the codes the po420 which is the emissions or something came back the p3000 is gone.

    2) scanned again yesterday day with my own obdii 2 scanner which is a cheap one used with the Torque app. I got P0A80- hybrid battery failed i didn't get PO420.

    The HV battery charges quickly when I'm driving and loses charge just as quickly. When the HV Battery is charging car has some power so it's ok to drive around but when it is Fully chargrd car struggles as its only running on petrol motor? There is no arrow flowing to the electric motor when the battery is fully charged. The fan is always on.

    I decided to open the battery up and see how bad the battery was all cells but three were 7.99 volts the other 3 cells were 6.68v (middle) and two 7.5v (on either end)

    The previous owner said the battery has never been replaced.

    Also the fan was completely clogged up.Which i cleaned up

    My questions are,

    Can i save this battery and my car if so Which bad cells should i replace?

    Or should i just cutt my loss and send it it to the scrap yard?

    Thanks in advance for any advise

    AJ


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  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Scrap yard. 335000 miles is a whole lot of miles. Everything will just go downhill from here
     
  3. Moving Right Along

    Moving Right Along Senior Member

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    Agreed. Any car past 300,000 miles is on borrowed time. The way I look at it, every modern car can hit 100,000 miles. Decent cars can hit 200,000 miles. Really good cars can hit 300,000 miles. And anything after that is a bonus. The Prius is a really good car, but everything has limits. If you replace the battery, something else will come up. Not worth fixing in my opinion.
     
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    welcome!
    are you interested in learning how to rebuild the battery?
     
  5. andrewclaus

    andrewclaus Active Member

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    A difference greater than 1.2 Volts is really bad. A good battery threshold is 200 mV. I agree, it's toast. The P0420 code is the catalytic converter, another possibly expensive repair. And the problem is probably caused by excessive oil consumption and poor fuel combustion, and they're expensive to repair as well.

    Best case you could hope for is to replace the engine and transaxle. Salvage parts are reasonable in cost if you can do the labor. And you might get lucky with rebuilding the battery and get another year out of it for a few hundred dollars. But maybe not.
     
  6. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    +1. This car will be an uphill battle. Good for a cheap project, but it will be very expensive to keep it running.
     
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  7. AJ200

    AJ200 New Member

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    Thanks guys for the great feedback !

    You're right i just wonder if i find second hand battery or repair the bad cells I could get another year out of it?

    I know it's hard to say but i was hoping to it drive it for a little more than a month.


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  8. AJ200

    AJ200 New Member

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    Yes please! i want to get a little bit more life out of the car if i can.

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  9. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    you could try replacing the bad cells, you should get a few months.
     
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    there are lots of great battery repair threads here, try the one from member @ryousideways to start.
    all the best!(y)
     
  11. AJ200

    AJ200 New Member

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    Great to know so if i was to try to repair the battery i should change the 6.68vcell and leave the 2 X 7.5v. Would one bad cell really affect the battery that much?

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  12. Kevin_Denver

    Kevin_Denver Active Member

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    I agree with others - cars with such a huge number of miles will generally nickel and dime you over the miles into poverty (okay not poverty, but be more expensive versus a lower mileage car). You may be able to replace some modules and do a rough refurbish of the battery (see battery rebuild/refurbish threads) with a couple of hundred in tools and a couple hundred in battery modules. Then you replace the cat for a few hundred. But in 5000 miles your water pump will go and you'll need new fuel injectors, or some other part will need replacing. Even if you can do the work yourself, the parts will quickly add up. Here are a couple of options you may not have thought about if you're mechanically handy:

    Buy another wrecked 2nd gen Prius for parts (that has a battery and cat without a lot of miles). Whenever anything breaks on your car you can swap parts in as needed. Sell off un-needed parts on the wrecked Prius.

    or

    Buy a lower mileage used car and sell the parts on your car to get back what you paid for it. Even a Prius with a dead battery and bad cat will have a couple of thousand in parts that can be sold if you're willing to strip it.
     
  13. Kevin_Denver

    Kevin_Denver Active Member

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    Short answer: yes. There's a lot more to this than just swapping cells with low voltage (which will not provide a permanent fix). Do your research. A few google searches on rebuilding Prius batteries should get you on your way.
     
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  14. AJ200

    AJ200 New Member

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    Could the p0420 be from bad O2 sensor? If it wasnt the O2 sensor and the cat was bad could i drive for awhile with a bad cat? The car consumes oil I've had to put 1ltr in the last month is that sign of bad cat or just worn out motor

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  15. AJ200

    AJ200 New Member

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    Thanks very much

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  16. strawbrad

    strawbrad http://minnesotahybridbatteries.com

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    A dissenting opinion.

    Of course this car be saved and used for tens of thousands of more miles.

    Replace the 6.68 volt module. The end modules tend to run .1 volts under the rest. A half volt difference is large but you could try to use them. You already manged to take the battery apart. You should be able to replace a module. The second and third time you replace the next modules will go quicker.

    In the US after market catalytic converters can be bought for about $300. Cat's can also be cleaned.

    If you have more time than money this could still be the car you need.

    Brad
     
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  17. AJ200

    AJ200 New Member

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    Yeah i have seen modules being swapped out and it looks like something i can do. I will Start with the worst one and see if there's any improvements.

    If there is i will replace there other two then start looking at the cat. I just want to silence the fan and have a little more power when i drive.


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  18. AJ200

    AJ200 New Member

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    I hear ya.. I'll see what improvements if any changing the cell will make. I need it to get me going till i save up for another car.

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  19. AJ200

    AJ200 New Member

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    Thanks bisco !

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  20. stockdaddy

    stockdaddy Member

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    I would put the battery back in as-in, then drive it around monitoring the voltage under load for each module using the Torque app. You are looking for a 1 volt difference or hopefully it will throw error code for that specific bad module.

    Most likely it's only 1 or 2 modules at most that have gone bad.

    The time to scrap a car is when the repair exceeds the value of the car.
    Car is worth $3200 still. Repair DIY $60.
    BAFX Products 34t5 Bluetooth OBDII Scan Tool $22