Soldering a blown fusible link

Welcome to PriusChat!!

Which area of the LA metroplex are you near?

Unless the vehicle need relocating, the best approach would be to install the proper fusible link so as not to incur any potential damage.

 

Seriously dude, just get a new link before you drive it or surrender that 'very well cared for' statement.

 

It only takes ONE mistake to qualify for that title.
Please do not make it TWO.

Either get a new link or have it towed to a shop.
If you decide to change the fuse yourself, you need gloves, long sleeves and glasses.......because there is a small chance that it will immediately and vigorously BLOW again upon connection.

 

I vaguely recall a quip by Eric the Car Guy, heavy paraphrasing:

With a face shield you'll be singing; with safety glasses you'll be Phantom of the Opera, but at least be able to see.

 

These (or something very similar) came in really handy as sort term diagnostic jumpers in the factory.


At six amps, the little hook on the end would just open up. One time I used one to find a shorted wire on the return side of one of three oil pressure switches on a press. I knew it was one of the pressure switches by how long after enabling the machine it was before the control circuit breaker tripped. So, one by one, I connected the return wires to the main hot wire. "Not that one. Not that one." "POOF." "Follow that wire!!"

My serious answer to the original question, though, is that solder would not hold up. It would probably melt. Silver solder might work, but you'd need to remove the link to do that without melting everything in sight. By then you might as well put in a new one. Less chance of setting your car on fire with the right fuses.

 

The easiest way to temporarily get around this is to use 8 pennies. 3 pennies on one side and 5 on the other will wedge perfectly into the space. Regardless of what you, the fusible link 'setpoint' is going to be compromised. This is just the easiest way to get the car working again so you can get it to a repair facility, if you can't repair it yourself. You're also going to have 2 or 3 blown fuses in the underhood fuse box.

There is very little possibility that this will cause a problem with the car. Pretty much ZERO. The cause of the fusible link blowing is known to have been due to a reversed polarity jump, not some unknown fault in the electrical system. Just make darn sure you don't reverse jump it while the pennies are in there.

 

One of the old "Murphy's law corollaries" that used to circulate was something like "that expensive semiconductor circuit you're protecting with a fuse will protect the fuse by blowing first".

I've seen a fair number of PriusChat threads involving reversed jumps and fuses, but I don't remember off the top of my head what proportion of them were all hunky-dory again as soon as the fuses were replaced, vs. how many ended up having some electronic parts replaced too.

I think it's not uncommon to protect some expensive electronic gear with a big honkin' diode backwards across the input. It's normally reverse-biased and does nothing, but if you reverse the polarity it conducts like gangbusters, blows your fuse, and protects the other stuff.

But if the protective diode has taken enough of a hit to become an ex-diode, you might conceivably see some repeat fuse action on reconnect, even if the + and − are right this time. Not guaranteed to happen, but not astonishing if it does.

 

WOW. What totally BAD advice.
It is NOT known exactly what he did.......or what his mistake actually caused.
An actual massive short might still be present.

 

Relax Sam, I recognize everyone has an opinion and yours is usually that everyone else is wrong..right and wrong can vary greatly based on the situation.

I'm pretty sure the word temporary is in there. I'm pretty sure that there are some times in life you need to do something that isn't 100% right. Sometimes 'you gotta do what you gotta do' to get out of a situation. If the OP is already talking about jumper wires and soldering, I merely gave him an easier and quicker way to get the car to a repair facility. Maybe a $200 tow isn't in his plans.

There's a thousand things a day that get done that aren't perfect situations, but are needed to be done until a better time is available. The world isn't perfect.

 

I would respond to that, but I haven't thought of the perfect response yet.

 

Seems a FOAF is curious if those pennies should be solid copper, or would a newer copper clad zinc from 1982 and up work as well?

 

I used a thick electrical cable to create a link and the car started up, I tried using a normal think cable first but that never worked. After the cable in place I was able to buy a replacement and managed to replace it myself.

After jump starting incorrectly I have all the warning lights (Red Triangle, VSC, Car with ! and Battery Symbol) on my Display now.

The car runs fine except that I cannot go into EV mode anymore and the computer is giving following error codes which cannot be cleared!

C1310 - Faul in HV System / ACTV Brake Booster Solenoid
P0A08 - DC/DC Convereter Status Circuit
P0A09 - DC/DC Converter Status Circuit Low Input

I have took it to garage and one person said that I need to replace the inverter and the other said that my 12V battery needs to be replaced as inverter is functioning correctly.

If anyone can help me that would be great. I have a 2007 Prius

 

C1310 is the brake ECU noting that it has been advised of problems by the HV ECU. It doesn't mean there is any problem with the brake system.

The codes from the HV ECU are the two converter-related ones. It is not astonishing that there could be codes for the DC/DC converter after that kind of a reverse-polarity DC event.

It is probably worthwhile to go through the workup steps for those two codes in the repair manual (more info—hmm, is toyota-tech.eu going to keep working in the UK? Brexit tentacles in everything...) to find out whether in fact you need to replace the assembly, or there are cheaper possibilities to rule out first, perhaps an overlooked smaller fuse.

If it were me I wouldn't try to skip the manual and just rototill through all my fuses with a fuse tester; I would go straight to the manual and check what it tells me to check. Otherwise you can end up demonstrating Westheimer's observation (a coupla months in the laboratory can save you a couple hours in the library).

 

Here is the workup for DTC P0A08 : https://share.qclt.com/%E4%B8%B0%E7%94%B0%E6%99%AE%E7%91%9E%E6%96%AF%E5%8E%9F%E5%8E%82%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8Cpdf%E6%A0%BC%E5%BC%8F/Repair%20Manual/04pruisr/05/21bpm/0a08264.pdf

Below, you will notice that the two (2) workups for DTC P0A09 have associated sub codes (INF 265 and INF 591), normally I would suggest using an OBD2 device (mini-vci cable and techstream) that can supply this secondary code, and potentially save you diagnostic time by narrowing down the workup. In this situation both of the INFs point to the same connectors, so any time saved would be minimal at best.

https://share.qclt.com/%E4%B8%B0%E7%94%B0%E6%99%AE%E7%91%9E%E6%96%AF%E5%8E%9F%E5%8E%82%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8Cpdf%E6%A0%BC%E5%BC%8F/Repair%20Manual/04pruisr/05/21bpm/0a09265.pdf

https://share.qclt.com/%E4%B8%B0%E7%94%B0%E6%99%AE%E7%91%9E%E6%96%AF%E5%8E%9F%E5%8E%82%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8Cpdf%E6%A0%BC%E5%BC%8F/Repair%20Manual/04pruisr/05/21bpm/0a09591.pdf

 

You can do the diagnostic yourself and save some time/money, not to mention breaking down and needing a tow.

Best option is to pick up a 'mini-vci' cable and a copy of techstream (dealer tech level software), it will run on a windows device.

Next best OBD2 code reading option might be a OBD2 bluetooth/wifi adapter, then use an App like Dr Prius.

This link can help you choose a decent adapter : Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus

 

The thread took an unfortunate turn along the way.......maybe more than one.....SO.......

Back to the basics:
Why were you trying to "jump" the car in the first place ?
What ELSE have you done about the 12 V battery between then and now ??

If you had bad battery before the mistaken jump and you haven't put in a new one yet......you probably STILL have a bad one.

 

I have replaced the 12v battery as suggested by one of the mechanics but the warning lights are still there.
I noticed that cruise control dont work anymore and may be that's what is causing the warning lights to be still lit?
I have bee n driving since and done 400 miles without any problems, I am still getting more than 50mpg which is same before the reverse jump start which suggests that my inverter converter is still functional?