PA080 but no other DTC on rebuilt hybrid battery ... advice for next step?

Greetings all, need some advice even after searching these pages. My beloved 2006 is on its 2nd remanufactured hybrid battery. This one got me to the magical 200000 mile mark (even more importantly - to the first son out of college mark!) but the dreaded PA080 code started to show up in January after the Red Triangle of Death and the usual other lights appeared one morning while driving, under no particularly bad circumstances except on a section of gravel road.

I used the Torque Android app and a cheap bluetooth adapter to check battery voltages, resistance and such - and especially DTC. But unlike the first time the rebuilt battery failed, this only showed PA080 without other DTC codes to pinpoint cell block problems.

I reset the code after looking things over. Since no code came back after a cautious lap or two in the neighborhood, the car seemed fine, so I drove it until late March (50 mile commute most workdays) - then the same code re-appeared, with the Christmas display on the dash. Again, all seemed fine and the car drove many miles until a week or so ago, when the RToD and PA080 reappeared. In none of the 3 cases did the car seem under unusual stress, there were no peculiar sounds or smells that caught my attention. Just the lights on the dash.

Has anyone more experienced seen other culprits that set PA080? I did clean the cooling fan tonight, it really wasn't dirty. The 12 V battery voltage seems fine, driving as well as on startup. I'll keep monitoring cell voltages, temperatures and charge, but what else should I look for with Torque or on the multifunction display? The (re)manufacturer suggests that PA080 needs more documentation for a warranty replacement, either with bad block DTCs or something called the Delta SOC PID. Torque app has state of charge display, but I'm not sure how to set it to record changes.

I think we can make it to 250,000, thanks for any advice.

 

JC91006, your right, its P0A80. Code PA080 is "post written too late at night". I'll take dyslexia over dementia any day though! I ran through the simple auxiliary battery tests using the Prius displays - found two basic ones on YouTube (thanks Luscious Garage and Ryan Bailey!) - and I think its fine. 12.3 V initially in accessory mode, down to 12V when I start to load it and during this test I saw no drop in voltage over a couple of minutes. When the engine is on, its above 14V. It hasn't shown the red triangle during start sequence, either. But I will keep an eye on it - and read some more in the forums. Any other suggestions about this auxiliary battery health?

ericbecky, thanks, I loaded a few more Torque displays tonight. I found Delta SOC but it doesn't seem to work, stayed flat at .7 the entire drive around the neighborhood. I load battery SOC, also - that seems to work. I will definitely be looking at cells, a couple seem to be consistently reported on Torque as the lowest, but the overall spread never reads more than .2 Volts between HV blocks (well, only one decimal point displayed). Seems like I had ranges on bad cells that were much larger before.

Already learning a lot, more to come, I hope not from bad experience!

 

Thanks to erickbecky's suggestion, I looked a little more at what was on the Torque PID's and determined that the Delta SOC just needed to be rescaled so I could read it. (I should spend more time with Torque to learn how to set it up and to understand what some of the Prius PID's are about, as well as expected ranges - any suggestions for learning are appreciated! Is a better OBDII adapter likely to catch additional codes over the cheap one I'm playing with? Still glad I spent the $10 for Torque and the adapter!)

Things got worse on June 15th, P0A80 appeared again a couple of weeks after this post. During the event I saw a big swing in both SOC and Delta SOC but didn't record it. It was apparent that the charge was not being maintained in normal range from viewing the MFD - charge went up near 100% then dropped rapidly and stayed closer to 25% at the time the red triangle/CEL reappeared. The vehicle made the rest of the trip to my office, through traffic, but something was clearly wrong in the charging system.

I drove the Prius to the local Dorman-certified shop that evening (no issues getting there) to get help from their trained hybrid tech and scanning equipment. He found another DTC code P3000 that is apparently related to the battery control module, plus the P0A80. (I didn't get code P3000 from Torque). An additional information code 2 - value 123 - was recorded- not sure whether that is associated with P3000 or P0A80 or both. Delta SOC came in at 35%. The shop suggested several block voltage were outside of expected range in their tests, ranging from lowest at 16.82 up to highest at 17.11 volts, but the others all were closer, 16.89-17.04 - I haven't talked to them about this yet. Resistances were consistent. All in all, the shop concluded that this meant a bad HV battery. So, as I write this, a new warranty replacement battery from Dorman came in and will be installed tomorrow.

So, next I start looking into preventive maintenance at 200K miles, along with seeking suggestions to maximize battery life and monitor health, because I think I'll get another year or two out of this Prius and its replacement battery!

 

I will probably look into it, now that the struts, brakes and other basic mechanical functions have been tested. Thanks for the advice and suggestions everyone, now its on to 250K! I also need to learn more about monitoring the battery charge levels on the MFD, I quit watching after the first 1000 miles or so. Also my Torque app skills need some tuning. One thing I realize is that the 3 battery temperatures are all very close to each other now, and there was more divergence in the old battery.