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Do you think my HV battery is on the way out?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by Scottyx, Nov 20, 2019.

  1. Scottyx

    Scottyx Junior Member

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    Hi Bisco (I really need to work out how to do quote things on here)

    I've thought about doing individual modules and depending how paid work is going I might have a crack at the battery myself. I just quit the job I've been at and I'm going to another one on Monday so I will need to wait and see how busy it keeps me. I'm quite interested to see how these Prius batteries look inside and how they are put together.

    I mainly play with motorbikes in my spare time and this Prius really interests my so the bikes may have to wait.
     
  2. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    You can also recondition batteries and get way more battery health data by manually discharging and recharging each of your tenty-eight 8volt modules via 12v / 50w lightbulbs and rc hobby chargers for recharging... The RC chargers I've worked with are:

    HTRC Touch Screen Dual Channel RC car lipo battery Balance Charger Discharger

    and

    skyrc imax b6ac v2
     
  3. Scottyx

    Scottyx Junior Member

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    94B88E61-EFA2-4C2F-80A3-102CD2F742E0.jpeg I did watch the first 15 minutes of a YouTube video about that, but it’s about an hour long and I ran out of time. I’ll do a bit more research before I make any decisions.

    The OBD reader turned up yesterday and I didn’t realise until now (it about 4am Friday here)
     
  4. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Not familiar with that tester. Be aware it may be just a generic car tester and not be able to pull hybrid codes. We see that alot when people go to an auto parts store here in the states for free diagnostics with a hybrid battery issue and there not able to pull the hybrid codes.

    Usually if you have the red triangle of death on the speedometer screen or a car icon we call a turtle here in the upper left corner of the mfd its usually a hybrid battery failure code.
     
  5. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Also be aware you can force charge the hybrid battery. Just put the car in D like your going to drive away press on the brake and just gently press the accelerator pedal enough till the engine starts and then hold it there. Don't have to floor it just press gas pedal enough to keep the engine on. So your holding the car in place in d while pressing the gas pedal. Old hot rod days this was called power braking.

    You will see on the energy monitor on the mfd the charging direction lines show charge going from the engine to the battery. You can charge up the battery pretty good doing that. Just sit there doing that and after about a minute or so you will see the charge rise. I do that alot when my car gets into purple bars when I'm stuck in traffic with the ac on. Its a common practice.

    You have to do this forced charge with all electronics off especially the ac which runs on AC that is converted from battery dc to ac via the inverter. AC Runs on 200 volts 3 phase ac. Big big energy sucker from the battery. Hard to charge battery when there's a big load on it.

    Just don't do it if your sitting right behind another car till you get confident in doing it. Because if you let off the brake by mistake the car will zoom zoom.
     
  6. Kaptainkid1

    Kaptainkid1 Active Member

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    These cars are oil burners after 100k. So you should know the top dimple indicator on the dip stick is full which means only 4 quarts are in the engine. Never let the oil drop below the last dimple which means low on oil. Running any car on low oil could lead to bad engine damage. You should also check how much your car burns oil via the dip stick every 1000-1500 miles. Once it drops below the top dimple fill oil until the oil line returns back to the dimple. Keep track for the next couple thousand miles. Oil burning will increase and it's good know if it changes.

    SM-J737T1 ?
     
  7. Scottyx

    Scottyx Junior Member

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    What’s the best oil?
     
  8. Scottyx

    Scottyx Junior Member

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    Sorry I couldn’t help myself.

    Not funny, but at the same time funny.

    Thanks heaps for the response and info people, it’s much appreciated at my end.

    I just put Dr Prius on my phone and was about to try set up the Wifi link thing. I got over ruled by a mate as it’s Friday arvo here and he called beers over car.

    It is parked in the garage so we’ll see.
     
  9. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Move to 40 weight oil it helps with the oil eating.
     
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  10. Scottyx

    Scottyx Junior Member

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    Cool, thank you

    I haven’t bought any oil or filter yet so I’ll go for a 40. I normally wait until oil is on sale and buy 20L

    The oil is clean and still doesn’t appear to have moved on the dip stick, but I will check again and weekly from now on.
     
  11. Scottyx

    Scottyx Junior Member

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    E2DFB09D-E2C7-4CFE-BCBA-17AF70303E51.jpeg F676C88D-C8B9-4C05-9BAA-A1410789CECA.jpeg So far so good
     
  12. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    That is not a hard and fast rule. I very much believe it depends on how it was driven and how it was looked after over that 160,000 km. My 2007 has done ~207,000 km and its been 13,000 km since the last service. I've added 1.1 L since then and it is about 0.5 L down now. I probably won't add any more oil as it will be serviced in the next 2,000 km @ 210,000 km.
    Although this is in the ballpark, it is not quite accurate. The engine is dry filled with 4.1 L (4.3 US qts, 3.6 Imp. qts), but when doing oil changes with a new filter you add 3.7 L (3.9 US qts, 3.3 Imp. qts) to get it back to the top dimple on the dipstick. At the low dimple mark there is 2.6 L remaining in the sump, so that is not much. I wouldn't recommend running the engine that low.
    This is good practice, especially with a new-to-you car.

    The amount of oil between the two dimples on the dipstick is 1.5 L, every third is 0.5 L. I have measured and scribed marks on the thirds with a centre point tool, which makes working out the quantity much easier. I tend to let the car drop down to at least 0.5 L before adding oil. I'm comfortable so long as there is oil registered on the dipstick above the lower dimple. If your car is like mine and doesn't use much, filling when it needs 0.5 L is pretty easy.
    It has not been established this car uses any significant oil.
    I have 2 Prii around the 200,000 km mark and am still using 5W-30 in them. They do use some oil between oil changes (maybe 100 – 110 mL per 1000 KM), but I don't consider them to be oil-burners.

    I have used:
    The Nulon is available in 20 L and I have just purchased a 20 L bucket for NZ$123 on special.

    All of the oils I have mentioned have been fine in my cars and all are good quality. Currently, I am leaning toward the Penrite Enviro+ or the Nulon; it just depends on the deal at the time I'm buying.

    If your car does turn out to use a bit of oil, you could do a series of 3 (or 4) x 2,000 km changes using a good engine clean product when doing the oil changes. Just use a cheap SCA Oil Filter - SCO386 (Interchangeable With Ryco Z386) and some Nulon Semi-synthetic 5W-30 or 10W-30. (e. g. this is amazingly cheap at the moment: Nulon SS Advanced Protection - 5W-30 5 Litre.) The oil and filter don't need to be the best on these short changes. The aim here is to clean the oil return passages on the piston, which it seems is the primary cause of oil disappearing. Once you see improvement go back to good oil and a good filter.

    Hope that helps.
     
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  13. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    Oh, I should add, if you don't see any improvement after 4 (or so) changes, it is likely that the oil return passages are not sludged up. So you are looking at engine wear being the likely cause.
     
  14. Scottyx

    Scottyx Junior Member

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    Dam it

    I finally got a chance to hook up Dr Prius and the OBD link thing and I can’t get it to work.

    I’m not sure if I am meant to use blue tooth or Wifi to connect my phone and if I choose Wifi I have to pay $20 which isn’t a problem if it works, but I thought iPhone uses blue tooth like connecting to a speaker type arrangement.
    My phone searches but can’t find any devices.

    Could be a job for daughter or computer dude.
     
  15. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    1st you have to go into your phone's Bluetooth settings and pair the new device with pass code 1234 or sometimes 0000

    Then you have to make sure you physically turn on bluetooth on your phone. If you let the Dr. Prius app turn on Bluetooth, most phone security settings will not play nice.

    If all else fails, make sure you're buying a good OBD2 and not a junk one via this article: Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus

    Keep at it... I had to buy and return a few OBD2 devices I bought online before I finally got one that worked.
     
  16. Scottyx

    Scottyx Junior Member

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    So the phone scan eventually picked up the OBD2

    I think I couldn’t connect with Bluetooth because the OBD is Wifi.

    I paid the $20 to Dr Prius to get the Wifi version of the app and on my phone Wifi setting I selected OBD as the device.
    Now I get further through the Dr Prius app but the phone and OBD can’t connect before it “times out”

    Bummer
     
  17. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    There is something about the Bluetooth implementation on the iPhone. You need to select a Bluetooth dongle from the list in PriusCampers link that is iPhone compatible. Not sure about WiFi, but it seems to be less popular.
     
    #37 dolj, Nov 23, 2019
    Last edited: Nov 23, 2019
  18. George W

    George W Active Member

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    The picture posted is of a WiFi adapter. BT does not apply. My first adapter was WiFi, and it rarely connected. I returned it for the BluTooth version, which connects every time.
     
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  19. Scottyx

    Scottyx Junior Member

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    Computer stuff confuses me quite a bit. But when do I get it, I don't forget it.

    I never really thought about Wifi and Blue Tooth being different until today and now I bet I always remember.

    I'll see how I go about returning it From memory the postage was about $20 so I might just buy a Wifi one and keep this one as a reminder to not be a dumb arse.

    I tried buying from that list before and I got lost on Amazon somehow, but I thought it was still on the list.
     
  20. Scottyx

    Scottyx Junior Member

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    G'day Prius Camper I still can't do quotes and I won't give up on the OBD. I'll get it sorted sooner or later and maybe I should order 2 this time incase one of them doesn't work.

    Do you know if there are other ways to check your battery or does it not need checking if I am pulling it out anyway/

    Also I looked up that balance charger discharger and they're cheap. How did you learn how to do it?

    Cheers to anyone who has thoughts on this, cause I know Jack still.

    Scott