Sudden death of hybrid battery??

Just to confirm, which battery are we talking about? The 12 V. I don't like to assume.

 

What codes did they get to conclude the HV battery has now failed?

Also, what is the current status of the12 V battery? Has it been replaced?

 

OK, understood, thanks.

To try and answer your other question, it is my opinion that service techs are not sufficiently trained to look at the HV battery data and be able to analyse whether a battery is good or not, and I'm not sure of any dealer that offers this kind of service, probably because of this. My opinion is that your HV battery was marginal, but at the point in time the tech looked at it, it looked ok.

Considering the age of your car, it does seem a little premature to have failed, especially as a chap who replaces batteries for a living just said in another thread:

However, a lot of factors come into it, heat being but one. What is the warranty in Louisiana, 8yrs/100,000 mi? If you are just out of warranty, you maybe able to get Toyota corporate to extend some "goodwill" and help with the repair.

How may miles has the car done, roughly?

 

i would call corporate, tell them what you have been going through, and see if they can help out.

 

Ditto what's been said, and if you did run the car out of gas that could be really bad for the hybrid system, as it says in your owner's manual. Of course, you wouldn't have done that if they'd fixed the CM as you'd asked....

I've attached a copy of the CM warranty extension document. It says the dealer does not have to witness the problem, so you have some ammunition there.

It sure doesn't hurt to ask about goodwill assistance.

 

congrats!

 

That P0A80 often indicates there is a failed cell in one of the modules. Which would mean that module must be replaced to get the HV pack functioning again - long or short term.

 

The aspect of running out of gas is that the car (Gen II) will permit the car to continue to run on the battery only, to the point it becomes completely discharged. This is bad for the battery. If you are aware of this behavior and avoid running the battery so low, you will do no harm.

 

Funny, I couldn't find it in the OM. I thought I saw it there when I bought mine, but I must've seen it elsewhere. Sorry for the misinformation.

 

By "1 cell down" do you mean one bar down on the Energy Monitor Screen"? If so, this indicates your HV battery has plenty of charge and nothing needs doing.

P0A80 is a generic "the battery has problems" code and the battery needs to be replaced. There should be other codes to say why the battery needs to be replaced, though. P0A80 is a serious code though and should not be ignored. I doubt is was caused by anything the service shop did, it was going to happen anyway.

 

Reviving a really old thread here, but I'm desperate. Did your problems ever get resolved? I have had exactly the same experience. Had a bad 12v battery (but no symptoms aside from needing to jumpstart if a dome light for left on or something). Replaced 12v battery. A few months later started having problems with combo-meter. The combo meter is behaving (for the moment) but my hybrid battery has taken a dump (Dr Prius app tells me I have a bad block 7, and 3.25% life left). It's an old Prius (2007/178,000), but it drove fine a week ago and now it acts like it doesn't even have a hybrid battery. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Neil,
Your HV battery has 28 individual modules that are monitored in pairs by the HV battery ecu. The pairs are called blocks, so there are 14 blocks. Block 7 is made of modules 13 and 14 from the non-ecu end of the battery. It's very normal for this block to be one of the first to fail.

When one or more of the 28 modules inside the HV battery begin to fail, the P0A80 code will appear, letting you know the HV battery needs to be replaced. With only a P0A80 code, the car will continue to drive normally.

As that module(s) gets worse, the associated "block" code will trigger and the car will go into limp mode.

It sounds like your car has gone to limp mode with a P3017 (Block 7 becomes weak). Often, the codes can be reset and the car will drive normally again, but there's no guarantee it won't code 2 minutes or 2 days later. Although it's not a perfect repair, a person can usually replace the failed module with a module (of similar capacity to the other 27) and get the car back in service. Sometimes this basic repair can last a week or it can last years, just depends on the condition of the other 27 modules.