Time for a new traction battery

This thread is very encouraging to me as I am preparing to replace my battery on a recently purchased 08 Prius. I had read some stuff about Project Lithium's new pack but most of it was old, so it was very nice to find someone who had used this route only a week ago!

Do you have an idea of performance yet?

 

Approx how long did it take you to install the new battery?

 

What ever happen with your updates? I am thinking of going lithium. Would love to hear a little more!

 

Friendly bump of this thread. I saw that project lithium is sadly out-of-stock for all of their lithium batteries.
Do they get more periodically? My traction battery is meh, with Dr Prius saying about 30% left. I'd like to get the battery before it dies so I don't have to get more of the same.

 

Yeah, I saw that from your post. Seems like a perfect time to get in on one!

 

Do these have heaters/freeze-protection yet? I may get one for the Prius this summer as I need an HV battery for it.

 

Project Lithium next shipment expected mid June.

 

I wouldn't expect much difference from either the chin spoiler or the front wheel spoilers, and none (measurable) from the rear wheel spoiler. The car is already very low, it isn't like a truck, where there is a huge gap between the body and the road. Mine has been running without a chin spoiler for a long time now (because it tore apart on something and it just wasn't worth the effort to put in another to meet the same fate eventually.) It does have the front wheel spoilers. Gets close to 50 mpg on the highway LA to SJ via the I5 with cruise control set to 72 or 73. I suspect that the difference the chin spoiler would make would be in the noise between measurements trip to trip.

A missing wheel liner might have a bigger effect. Not sure. You want one anyway to keep mud and road junk from being tossed into places it shouldn't go, like into the top of the struts or caked all over the thermos.

I think the bottom panels immediately behind the bumper are somewhat important for drag - they get the flow along the bottom started in a more of laminar manner, whereas if there was just the bumper there would probably be a vortex formed parallel to the front of the car right behind it, between the car and the road. The off road skid plate should do pretty much the same thing if it is like this one:

A cat shield is a plus aerodynamically, but it is pretty far back, and I doubt that its effect could be measured at 70mph. Maybe at 90, but if you're going that fast, mpg is in the toilet for other reasons.

 

Great thread here guys!
I just picked up an 07 with 211k miles with a Factory replaced battery at 140k which is limping on it's battery moderately (best I can tell as an EV/hybrid but Insight/Volt enthusiast, not Prius). No orange triangles or dash codes, but Dr. Prius coughed up a 0607? code which is apparently ambiguous but likely reflecting the battery's lameness? The 0th blade seems to be weak compared to the others but I can't really understand the values/trades yet. I think it consistently shows 25microOhms internal resistance while the others are a tad lower (23, 24?) and often shows a much higher/lower voltage during charge/discharge than the others...

The main symptom of "failing battery" is a MPG of 40ish and a very fast fill/drain of the battery (to my untrained eye). I haven't evaluated the self-discharge yet, but the dashboard icon anecdotally seems to drop between parking at night and startup in the morning. I also have been seeing high battery temps (albeit on hot days here ~95) like running up to over 120F (group 1 and 2 heat up quicker than 3?) and I haven't *heard* the fan, but also haven't dug under the rear deck either (did I mention how hot it is here?)

I was surprised that toggling the headlight stem like I was flashing brights brought up a notice "can't go into EV mode right now".... the car *will* creep in a drive-through or in stop-go traffic a little before firing the ICE (if the battery shows at least a few bars) but I didn't even know Gen2 had a "force EV mode" or know why it would deny me the privilege (except a bad battery?!) Any insight there is good.

I felt a lot like the OP here, wanting to hold out for a NEXcell kit that might give this car another 10 years, 100k miles trouble-free but I don't want to wait... my partner (for whom I bought the car) needs to drive to WI from NM (1200 miles) in 6 weeks and I don't want to put her in the position of doing it on a "failing" battery. NEXcell shows that they are sold out on their July delivery... not sure what that means, but probably pushes me out of range.

Unlike the OP, I'd like to keep my own pack... I heard somewhere there was (only) a $150 Core on GreenBeans $1525 (mobile install included) replacement (3 year warranty). I have Insight NiMH and Volt LiPO cells I use broadly on various utility/solar projects and a Prius pack would be an interesting addition!

Any feedback on how to evaluate pack/cell health (esp. with Dr. Prius) and any intell on GreenBean (also GreenTec) or other sources of refurbed packs would be good. I'd consider a grid charger but the warranties from both of those seem to allude to that invalidating the warranty (out of their control)...

tx
- Steve