PIS 4kwh PHEV kit assembly and installation odyssey

The steps are not particularly complicated, but not really that easy to perform either.
1. identify bank with bad cell. voltage will be at least 3v lower than good bank.
2. unhook bank and move it to your work area.
3. Open up the bank. Since it's sealed with silicone sealant, it's not an impossible task, but not easy either.

a. open up the topside plastic square 'tray' and set aside. Probably run a knife or other sharp object along the edge to release each long side and lay the battery assembly down with BMS cells facing up. [at this point you may be able to isolate the individual cell that's bad using a DMM. If you're lucky, the BMS cell for the bad battery cell will have the LEDs dark...I think.]​

b. pop off the end pieces​

c. pop off the support posts from the sides of the remaining square 'tray'​

4. remove battery assembly from tray.
5. identify bad cell (if not done in 3.a)
6. disconnect terminal rings and bus bars on horizontal oriented side of battery holder containing bad cell. Remember that Thread Lock was used to secure each screw so this may take some doing to perform. Adjacent top cell on one side and adjacent lower cell on the other side need to be disconnected as well. The vertical bus bar on the other side can wait 'til later.
7. One section of the substrate will need to be removed so the cell holders with the bad cell can be disconnected. In order to do this, you need to either remove all screws and terminal connectors associated with the substrate, or... desolder each +/- lead from the individual BMS cells. I think this latter course would be easier.
8. desolder the jumper lead from the free substrate to the secured substrate, pop the substrate from the battery assembly and set aside.
9. Figure out which way the battery holders decouple (they only connect one way remember...) and disconnect each side of the battery holder containing the bad cell. You may need to gently pound on it with a mallet or hammer.
10. once the battery holder is free, remove the screws and terminal leads from the vertical bus bar.
11. pull the battery holder ends off the batteries and replace the bad cell. Be sure to put the holders back on oriented properly!
12. put everything back together (it's a bear to reconnect the battery holders, but it CAN be done), apply Thread Lock, screw in bus bars and terminal rings, solder everything back together, apply sealant to substrate, rebuild battery box and seal, put bank back in car and you should be ready to go.

 

11. remove lots of trim and covers
Once this phase is started, you're pretty much committed to completing everything from here through step 17...that is, if you want to drive the car any time soon.
Most of step 11 I'm not going to go into detail. It's covered pretty well on the PIS website.
Complete pretty much everything on the above link except the Brake Control removal (not necessary). Drill down the steps as necessary. I will detail Ready Wire Tie-in in step 14.
The goal (no photo this time...): access to HV battery and room to run wires.
Basic steps consist of:
1. Remove rear trim (where hatch latches)
2. Remove driver side rear trim and small storage bucket
3. Remove passenger side rear trim and 12v battery cover plate
4. Remove rear seatbacks (no need to remove seat bottom, though PIS says to do so). The driver side seatback can be removed from the car and placed out of the way. The passenger side seatback can be put upside-down on the floor in front of the seatbottom with middle seatbelt still attached.
5. Remove flooring on top of HV battery
6. At this point the 12v battery needs to be disconnected and the HV disconnect plug removed
7. Remove battery covers on left and right side of HV battery
8. Remove fan duct work
9. Remove all remaining battery covers except main battery cover...that will come in step 14.
10. Remove door trim in driver side passenger door
At this point almost everything except the main battery terminals is exposed.
HINT: try to keep screws/bolts, etc. together with the corresponding cover that was removed.

 

12. run wires in driver side passenger door trim tray from front to back of car​

13. place charger behind/under driver's seat and connect wires​

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This should have been a fairly simple task, and was except for two glitches.​

The goal:​

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Steps:​

1. Run ethernet cable from front controller, under driver seat, into trim tray and to back of car. It slips under the driver seat on the right hand side, crosses out the other side and into the trim tray.​

2. Run charger power cable from back of driver seat into trim tray and to back of car​

3. Run charger HV cable from back of driver seat into trim tray and to back of car​

4. Run charger signal line from right side of charger into trim tray and to back of car​

In order for the above wires to fit into the tray and yet exit near driver's seat, they need to be routed UNDER the existing OEM wire bundle. They exit the tray by the bottom of the rear seat and then get routed through various holes in the battery to the rear of the car.​

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It was as this point the the first glitch showed up. The signal line from the charger wasn't long enough to reach the back of the car. It only reached to about the middle of the HV battery. In addition to this, the wires from the rear controller were not long enough to connect either. My solution was to make my own extension wire (since I didn't have any extra dual wire laying around) by taping red and black hookup wires together that were long enough to span the gap. These were connected to the charger signal leads with some wire nuts. To be on the safe side, I tinned the signal leads before connecting everything. Crimp connectors could have been used in place of the wire nuts. The extension was crimped into the connectors supplied by PIS on the line from the rear controller.​

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The next glitch occurred when trying to put the trim back over the wires at the passenger door. With all those wires stuffed into the trim tray, the cover didn't want to stay in place. After checking carefully that there weren't wires beneath, I used a flat head sheet metal screw to hold it down.

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The charger is placed beneath the driver seat (seat is pushed all the way forward in the picture - #2 goal pic above). Power cord is routed out the left side of the driver seat and connects to the power cable from the back of the car. I have yet to figure out what the green lead from the charger does.​

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14. connect HV leads and Ready line to Prius HV battery​

At this point, the final cover of the HV battery is removed so the HV leads can be connected to the battery. In addition, the tie-in wire to the Ready line is connected.​

The goal:​

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Steps:​

1. Remove final battery cover. Remove all bolts and two nuts holding the main battery cover on. There is a black crimp strip on the side facing the cargo area that holds the lip of the battery cover to the base. Once it's slipped off, you can remove the cover and access the HV battery terminals.​

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2. Clip the crimp on spade connector to the yellow ready wire. Gently bend it over and close it until it clicks. Use a DMM to verify connectivity by putting one lead of the DMM in the spade connector and the other on the yellow lead of the white downstream connector where it's exposed.​

3. Insert the male connector from the rear controller Ready Line wire. There is a black line with a ring terminal on it. Leave it until later to connect to ground.​

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4. Route HV lines under battery and to back. The positive lead comes out of the contactor box and the negative lead is separate with large and small black connectors.​

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5. They come out the other side like this:​

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6. Connect negative lead to terminal on far left looking from front of car to back. Connect positive lead to far right terminal. They are labeled on the top of the cells.​

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7. Put the battery cover back on. Put the side toward the front of the car on first. It has to go over these two posts before anything else, otherwise it won't fit. Be sure HV wires are pushed as far back at the bottom as possible so cover will close.​

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8. Insert one of the bolts on the cargo area side in...finger tight, then do final positioning.
9. Bend the metal of the cover where the HV lines come out. The large metal bolt shown is difficult to insert, but it will go.

10. Insert the rest of the bolts and the two nuts. Tighten firmly. The bolt where the HV wires come out of the pack cannot be refastened...store it somewhere.
11. Start putting the rest of the covers back on and hook in the ground line for the Ready Wire.

 

15. connect wires from front of car (charger, front controller) to rear controller and contactor unit​

16. connect rear controller to 12v battery​

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Step 15 is fairly straight forward and takes little time (Ha!). ​

For Step 16, make sure the positive ring connector will fit on the battery terminal first. If not, obtain one.
The goals:

Steps:

1. Make sure the lid to the rear controller is off so you can plug in the ethernet cable from the front controller.​

2. If not done previously, connect the charger signal line to the crimp connectors. Red to red, black to the other line (green if you didn't have to extend the line or black).​

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3. plug in the ethernet cable to the port in the rear controller.​

4. Remove the red cover to the positive battery terminal. There are 3 tabs you disconnect: one on top and on each side. Unscrew the nut on the battery terminal bolt and place the ring connector of the battery connector wire on the bolt; tighten firmly. ​

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5. Unscrew the top bolt on the brake controller. Connect the ground ring connector here.​

6. Run the wire along the back edge of the hatch with the wiring there. Secure it to the wiring harness. If you had to disconnect the wire from the rear controller to thread it through the wiring harness, reconnect it.

7. Screw the lid on to the rear controller.​

[edit]I missed a step here, prior to step 7. The black lead from the contactor needs to connect to the rear controller before screwing the lid on the rear controller. The lead plugs in to the right of the ethernet port. [/edit]

 

17. Replace covers and trim. I'm not going to detail this step...if you got them off, you should be able to get them back on. One tricky spot: reconnect wire for light in driver side trim.
The goal of step 17:

18. place rear controller and contactor box in plastic bucket cargo area​

This is where my install differs from the desired outcome. Remembering that several lines were too short...I had to make adjustments.​

The goal (PIS):
Rear controller would sit on top of contactor in storage box (no pic available).
1. Place contactor in bottom of storage bucket and thread battery connector wire out the slot. Note: my contactor is different than the one in the PIS photo:
(contactor as supplied). The dark red wire with the small HV connector on it is probably equivalent to the black wire coming out of the PIS photo. I don't know for sure because the end of the black wire is not shown. If the dark red wire in my photo was about 12" longer I could probably have done the setup as PIS suggested.
2. Place rear controller on top of contactor in storage box.

My 'adjustments':

1. place styrofoam pieces underneath and along edges where rear controller sits. 3 outlet extension cord sits to the right. I have a Kill-O-Watt meter plugged in to measure charger electric usage.
2. Make a cut-out in the main cargo tray so contactor will fit in upper left corner.
3. Connect charger HV cable wires to contactor and the negative lead coming off the Prius battery.
Note: the small brown wire coming out of the storage bucket area is a low power extension cord that goes to some fans I bought to cool the charger and to blow air into the Prius cooling fan duct. These are not permanent installations and I will probably not need/use them in cold weather.

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19. place batteries in cargo tray and secure
20. connect batteries to HV leads
This step involves putting the black web strap under and around the large cargo tray, placing the batteries (properly oriented) in the tray, and strapping them in, then connecting the last HV leads.
The goal:

1. Run the web strap under the cargo tray and up through the hatch-release port (note the cover removed in the goal pic above)
2. Place the battery module with the red HV connector in the cargo tray. This module needs to be oriented with the red HV connector on the left side looking from the rear to the front of the car. Slide it as close to the rear of the car as possible.
3. Place the second module in front of the first oriented so the black HV connector is on the left side.
4. Connect battery red HV connector to red connector coming out of the contactor
5. Connect battery black HV connector to black HV connector from Prius battery

6. Connect BMS leads to corresponding leads from rear controller.
7. Connect green HV connectors and BMS leads. Tuck it down by the side so cargo lid can close.

8. If still available, cut up some of the styrofoam from the charger shipping materials and stuff it between the battery modules and the side of the cargo tray to keep it from shifting around.
9. Tighten web strap, but not too tight or it will pull the sides of the cargo tray out of its slots. (see Goal pic)
10. Recheck all the connections
11. Turn the unit on and look for any shorts, sparks or explosions (j/k)
12. Take it for a test run...good luck!!!

Notes from my first test run: a few seconds after I would stop, and on other occasions I would hear various beeps and alarms. Per Robb, the GEN II is rather noisy and the newer models of the Elcon charger are wired so it puts out a lot of EM interference. Disconnecting the power cord next to the charger makes it stop acting like an antenna and the alarms go away.

Robb has promised me a relay switch to install that will fix this without having to unplug the charger power cord...haven't seen heads or tails of it. After thinking about it for several days, I've come to the conclusion I may already have this relay...just no instructions on how to use it. The one piece left over after assembling the kit: