Prius newby with some questions

I just purchased an almost rustfree 06 G2. It was sitting for about 8 months, and both electrical systems were dead, and I maybe mistakenly tried to jump start it to load on my trailer to no avail so I AAA'd to my farm. I purchased an Optima yellow top battery and installed, have lights and accessories, but it will not start, either the electric motor nor the gas engine. Pulled and checked all the fuses that have any labels regarding Hybrid, and the big fuse (100A fusable link) by the 12V battery is not blown. I also have an '00 Insight and a Prolong charger and discharger, so I purchased the adapter cable and installed, and put the charger on the system. If does not seem to be doing anything, just sits at 160V with only .1A or so current draw. Also when I plug in the charger to the cable there is no noticeable momentary arcing in the connector as I observe when grid charging my Insight. According to the scant paperwork I got with the car, the battery was change about 2 years ago, and the previous owner has said the car was operating OK till parked. I've searched this and other forums for some similar issues but so far nothing has been found. Why doesn't it grid charge is my main question? Also isn't there some way to trick the car into starting with the gas engine without the Hybrid motor? Sorry for the long post but felt a complete as possible description of the issues would help with some useful suggestions.

Punatic, BI Hawaii

 

Thanks folks for your replies. I have been getting up to speed on this for the past several days; I have Dr Prius loaded on my iPhone and should get the device to link my OBDI via bluetooth today or tomorrow. Everything seems to be hooked up correctly, and after a long and informative conversation with Eric in WI I realized that the Insight Charger that I have will not charge the Prius battery as it doesn't provide enough voltage. So until I get the battery charged I am dead in the water. I am looking for a source for borrowing a grid charger here on the BI, and if not I guess I will pull the battery, disassemble the pack and charge individually, at least to get things running and determine the health of the ICE and other things.

 

Thanks SFO...I have ordered a reconditioned battery, as this battery only has a voltage of 140 or so.

 

I ordered a reconditioned battery pack from Hybrid Reconditioners. It should be here Tuesday. It's not so easy getting a pack shipped here, many places will not ship, and this guy will. I did get the cars ICE to start. I used a Maxx Volt charger that I had obtained with my other Hybrid Project, an 01 Insight. I tested the voltage and unloaded it was around 240V, so I hooked it up and let it trickle for a few hours. The pack started at 180V indicated and around .4A and got up to 230 or so and .23A. I figured I had nothing to lose as the amperage was so low and I didn't care about the battery really. Lo and Behold! it started! So I could move the car to my barn where I can actually pull stuff apart and start to repair.

 

Incidentally, I installed the bluetooth OBDI interface and the Dr. Prius app on my phone. All the odd numbered cells with one intermittant one were showing positive voltage, and all the even numbered cells were showing negative voltage. You Prius aficionados out there might know what that indicates.

 

Yes that's what I was thinking too. When I replace the battery I'll mess with it some more.

 

Well I started to replace the battery with the reconditioned cells I received this morning, and while cleaning the terminals I pulled the orange cable from the ECU and found the connector fried out in the ECU

 

Guess that's why I was getting such strange readings! LOL!

 

Yeah I've been talking to a person who works on these primarily and he says this is fairly common. His theory is the trouble light comes on showing low voltage somewhere, (bear with me as I have never even driven a Prius as of this time, so I'm flying blind), and they just clear the codes and sooner or later something burns up. I have a new harness and computer, and am a big proponent of diaelectric grease, as so many of the problems here are caused by electrical gremlins.

 

Also I would add that we have some HUGE hills here, so the battery probably will be stretched to it's limits. I just finished building and installing a recon battery pack and have been driving around. Since I don't have a functioning MFD yet I'm using the Dr Prius app and on the downslope my voltage goes into the red, observed 247V, and the battery temp which normally is running in the 90's F runs more like 105 to 107F. I have no idea if this is normal, which is why I'm posting. I know there is a way to set the fan speed to max and this seems to me to be a no brainer in hot climates. I'm searching for the method to do this after I post this...