Toyota Prius: $550 Prius Spare Battery

If the charging circuit and other "electricals" are optimal, as surely
they are, then I'd expect the NiMHs to last indefinitely.

My 01's going strong after 6 years ! ...

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 13:28:06 -0500, com (Bob &
Holly Wilson) wrote:
 

"Bob & Holly Wilson" <com> wrote in message
news:1i20i5n.qiw2qgze8e8N%com... 

I've been wondering about the life span of a hybrid battery, and the cost,
and have not heard any figures until I saw some posts here today.
I'm hearing the the failure rate is really low and the life span is really
long, like much greater than the typical 5 years of a regular lead-acid car
battery. However, I'm also hearing that that Toyota won't warrenty them
longer than 8 years or 100,000 miles in the state where I live.
How many of these $550 batteries are in your Prius?
I saw another post that says the replacement cost of the batteries is $3000
plus labor.
I saw another post that say the total replacement cost is $4500.
It sounds like one battery replacement will wipe out any fuel cost savings,
especially when the extra cost of the vehicle is factored in.

Wayne

In article <x5cUi.11639$c_4.1412@trnddc05>, "Wayne" <net>
wrote:
 

After four years and one million on the road Toyota has replaced about a
dozen. Versus the cost a replacing a conventional transmission, it's
not so bad. Besides, nobody buys a new car to save money.

 
mile 
refurbish 
2001-200 
ol 

Is the battery still available? Where are yo
located? How do you refurbish one of those batteries

Thanks
Jonatha

jp3rks <no-spam.invalid> wrote:
 

I'm not selling either of my batteries. However, they come up on Ebay
from time to time.
 

Huntsville Alabama.
 

The battery pack consists of 38, cell packs with six, 6.5 Ah cells in
series. NiMH cells at full charge are at 1.2. Each cell pack is at 7.2
VDC at full charge for 273.6 VDC.

The process I'll use is as follows:

1) use a 300-400 W load to discharge the battery to an average voltage
of 0.9-1 VDC, ~228 VDC and cutoff at that level
2) measure open cell pack voltage for each pack
3) using a constant current, ~1A., to recharget the battery pack to 275
VDC
3a) monitor the cell pack temperatures and look for hot packs
4) remove the charger and let cells sit for an hour and normalize their
temperature
5) put a 300-400 W load on the battery assembly and measure the
individual cell pack voltages during the discharge to ~228 VDC

Based upon these measurements, I should have a mapping of the strongest
and weakest cell packs. I have four spare battery packs and will weigh
the weakest and spare packs and put the heaviest ones back in the pack.
I'll also shift the strongest cell packs into the location of the
weakest cells. Then I'll repeat the whole pack test.

When done, the strongest cells will be where the weakest cells were
removed. The weakest cell packs will be removed for electrolyte
refreshing. Then I'll recharge the pack and install the two, high power
sockets and safety relays.

When I'm done, my 2003 Prius will have a battery pack with a plug-in
tickle charger. This means every morning I'll start the car with a fully
charged battery, actually I'm shooting for 78-79% state of charge as
well as a warmed engine and transaxle.

The current pack will then go through a survey to identify the strongest
and weakest cells. Again, the weakest cell pack assemblies will be
removed and the strongest cell packs shifted to put the strongest ones
where the weakest ones were located. Then I have this spare inverter I'm
planning to use with the battery pack for home power.

Bob Wilson

Wayne <net> wrote:
 

Well in my case, I already have a $550 spare battery and will swap it
with my perfectly good battery in about 8,000 miles. In effect, I have
two such batteries and will use one or the other.

When my original battery comes out, I plan to do the same modifications
to it. In short, it looks like I'll never have to pay the $4,500
replacement cost since I'll be doing my own work.

Bob Wilson

On Oct 28, 10:11 pm, com (Bob & Holly Wilson)
wrote: 

And just where are the ticklish spots on your Prius? I don't think I
want to know your testing methods to get your Prius to giggle.
cootchie-coo.

;-)

Thanks for bringing back Prius discussion to the
alt.autos.toyota.prius list! 8)

On Oct 28, 10:11 pm, com (Bob & Holly Wilson)
wrote: 

Just be aware of the hybrid battery repacking/recharging problems that
the owners of the MKI original Japanese 1998-2000 NHW10 Prius owners
are having outside of Japan... Yes, an out-of-pack recharging
technique has been developed, as has the "Frankensteining" of more
than one bad battery packs (rearranging the cells/modules). However,
one cannot just take all of the strongest modules and string them
together - that'll still give a battery fault. All of the modules
have to be "matched" such that they all have about the same output.
The recharger info is in the files section, and there's been much
discussion about the NHW10 battery repair techniques and trials at
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Mk1_Prius/

(This older cylindrical battery design is far less robust than the
prismatic design in the NHW11 or NHW20 Prius sold internationally.
With the right paperwork and repair history, within Japan, Toyota is
doing free swapouts of these older battery packs when they get their
permanent turtle lights and battery fault indicators. Outside of
Japan, owners are out of luck...)

Hopefully you won't run into any similar problems when rebuilding your
NHW11 batteries! (At least it is easier for you to come across old/
used battery packs, as compared to the out-of-Japan NHW10 owners!)