Dr Prius / what am I looking at?

Looks ok. What problem are you trying to solve?

 

The pack voltage was a little high but obviously the temp was ok when you ran your app. Be sure the intake is not blocked and run your ac if possible.

 

So, the battery pack voltage normally goes high when you are agressively charging- such as when you use the brakes fairly hard- you see that your capture shows 60 amps charging. It can hit 100 amps.

Step on the gas and it will show discharge, floor it and it can reach 160 amps. And voltages will go down.

Dr Prius shows voltages for each of the 14 blocks. Each block is made up of two modules- each module is a sealed unit that has six 1.2V NiMh cells. So 28 modules x six cells x 1.2V = 201.6V (nominal). The actual voltage changes all the time as things are charged and discharged.

Now you had a P0A80 (replace HV battery) code. That usually sets when the ecu sees that one of the block voltages is (much) higher or lower than others for a fair bit of time. So you need to - safely- monitor the block voltages (and temps) while driving the car. A weak module will make that block's voltage go lower than the others when discharging but it will be higher in comparison when charging as well.

There is a line of data called "voltage diff". That is the highest block voltage minus the lowest. If that difference is more than 0.3V for more than a few seconds, the battery ecu will take notice- if it's too high for too long, it will set a code. AFAIK, the higher the difference, the less time until it codes. When it gets really bad it will also set a "battery block # X is weak" code. A very common failure is for one cell to short, and the affected block has about 1.2V lower voltage when loaded heavily.

Also, a failing battery will run hotter, the bad cell(s) are converting more electrical power into heat instead of chemical "potential" when charging.
Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Thanks for that great explanation. I keep getting the P0A80 as well - even though I’ve replaced weak modules and used prolong (charger and discharger) to try and rebalance the pack. I was thinking I’ll just keep resetting the code, but I don’t remember the battery going into the red on the dr Prius app before I replaced those modules…could that be a sign of another issue?

 

Yes.

 

It's not the overall voltage by itself that's the problem. When the car regenerates at high current (you have 62 amps right there), it is normal for the voltage to briefly go "into the red" (it would be bad if the pack was at 268 volts at 0 amps). Your problem is the voltage differential of 1.3V.

That would indicate that the blocks with higher voltage at that exact moment had less capacity (or at least a different state of charge) than the blocks with lower voltages. Maybe additional cycling with prolong might help. Don't know that much about the capabilities or limitations of grid charging.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

The car seemed like it was getting better, but after a week's worth of driving the code popped again. Decided to throw on the prolong again and let it cycle for a few days to see if that will help.

my thought is to keep an eye out for a wrecked 2013-2015 with lower miles and try to get a new-to-me hybrid battery to replace this pack. I don’t think I’ll try to replace individual modules again…also with 190K+ miles I don’t see myself spending $2K on a factory or aftermarket pack. Hoping I can just get lucky and find a good used pack

wish I never would have gotten into this car but I’m too stubborn to let it go just yet…it’s turned into a $5K+ money pit ($4K for the car + about $1.5K for the prolong and other work I’ve done on it…)

 

you cleaned the egr circuit yet?