"noise" (noise)
02/13/2015 at 15:10 • Filed to: hybrid, battery, fix, toyota
9
14|
"noise" (noise)
02/13/2015 at 15:10 • Filed to: hybrid, battery, fix, toyota | 9
| 14 |
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Well, with hybrids taking over I guess we all need to get re-acquainted with contact cleaner.
McMike
> noise
02/13/2015 at 15:19 |
|
:( Imgur is blocked on my network now.
Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
> noise
02/13/2015 at 15:23 |
|
That is awesome! DIY FTW!
thebigbossyboss
> noise
02/13/2015 at 15:33 |
|
That's awesome, although I suck at all electrical things.
Tapas
> McMike
02/13/2015 at 15:34 |
|
Same :(
Meatcoma
> McMike
02/13/2015 at 15:36 |
|
It's not 'blocked' for me, but it was suggested to me that I not venture there.
|
Meatcoma
> noise
02/13/2015 at 15:38 |
|
For those with imgur blocked. I took a chance.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
by scoodidabop 4 hours ago
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Last Saturday this happened on the way home. Lots of scary lights. Did some Googlin and found out that the Camry brake actuator could be faulty but would be covered under an extended Toyota recall/warranty thingy. As long as the "Check Hybrid System" warning was a false error... Thats an expensive repair! I was especially nervous since I just bought this car 2 weeks ago (still don't have the plates on it!) from a used car lot with no warranty...
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
I took the car into the Toyota dealer Monday morning and after about 4 hours the service center called me with the news. "Are you sitting down?" he said. "Should I be?" I replied. "Um. Yea I think so" he said. "Your hybrid battery has 'gone bad' and needs to be replaced. It's a $4400 job." I just bought this car! $4400? That's more than half of what I paid for the whole car. Funk dat. I called Toyota's corporate customer support and after a few days they generously offered a $500 credit on the repair. My Camry's hybrid system is within range of the warranty in terms of years, but exceeded the mileage allowance. I'm starting to feel sick. Then I remembered reading about replacing single failing battery cells back when I bought our first Prius. I bet this Camry has the same (or similar) battery pack! There's only one way to find out...
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
First I watched this video: Feeling confident about disconnecting the high voltage supply I proceeded. WARNING: This is a high voltage system! Take proper safety precautions!! Wear gloves. Use a meter on all connections to verify zero voltage before handling bare connections. Be careful! I got the heavy bitch into the house and opened it up. Looks just like the Prius cells - in fact they're cross compatible! So the idea here is that one (or more) of these cells is probably reading a lower voltage that's out of nominal range. Low voltage on a cell generally means the battery cell is failing. The good news is you can remove the individual failing cells and replace them for around $45 each. So simple! This is gonna be great!
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
I remove all the buss bars (the orange plastic things - there's copper connectors in there that connects the batteries in pairs and in overall series) and start testing the batteries individually... 8.11v, 8.10v, 8.10v, 8.11v... etc... all cells looking good so far.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
These little lights weren't enough load so I used a spool of magnet wire. More on that in a sec... Look how bad those copper connections are. So corroded. That can't be good. I tested every single cell 3 times. All at normal voltage. I waited 2 hours and retested. Again - all normal. What? That's weird. I hooked a spool of copper wire (to add resistance/load briefly) and checked the voltages again. This test is also done one single cell at a time and you measure the voltage drop when a load is applied. The the voltage has an extreme dip then you're likely dealing with a bad cell due to high resistance and efficiency loss. I found no issues with any battery cell. Let me say that again: I found zero issues with every single battery cell in my hybrid battery pack. Wut?1 Replacing this pack would be wasteful since it's operating within all nominal values. Is the corrosion on those connectors bad enough to throw off the operating voltages of the whole system? Well it looks pretty bad. Let's pop all of those buggers out and clean them up...
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Soaked all 34 buss bars in a vinegar solution then a gentle scrub with steel wool before going into a solution of baking soda and water to counteract the acidity of the vinegar. I'm holding one cleaned and one dirty buss bar. This process was also done on the steel nuts that hold the buss bars on. It took an hour or so to clean everything up and reinstall (with anticorrosion solution applied) before I reassembled the battery.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Fixing my hybrid pack for less than $10
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Pre-cleaning. There's 34 total little buss bars, half of them on the backside as seen here. I quickly reassembled the battery and put it back into the car.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
All error codes gone. When the error codes came up last weekend the gas engine ran 100% of the time and the hybrid system was non-functional. Now the battery pack is charging and discharging correctly, the warning lights are gone, and everything looks great thanks to improved current flow over the buss bars! This kicks ass!
Ha! Suck it! You work again you freakin golf cart!
|
noise
> Meatcoma
02/13/2015 at 15:40 |
|
Thanks friend
|
Meatcoma
> noise
02/13/2015 at 15:43 |
|
You bet! Hope someone does the same for me some time!
Smutastic
> noise
02/13/2015 at 15:52 |
|
I image this is what Tavarish articles in 2025 will look like. All, "How You Can Own A BWM Super Hyrodgen Hybrid For The Price Of A ToyoHonda".
And then show us how to clean battery terminals and reset TPMS sensors.
Charles Martel
> Meatcoma
02/13/2015 at 15:58 |
|
You sir have done the internerds a great service.
Takuro Spirit
> noise
02/13/2015 at 16:07 |
|
Dude got LUCKY that corrosion was the only issue. Makes ya wonder how many people have had their battery packs replaced that only needed a good scrubbin' though.
Wacko
> noise
02/13/2015 at 16:44 |
|
I used the vinegar baking soda trick on my winch controls, looks and works like new after. Was a big green and blue mess before.
Tohru
> noise
02/14/2015 at 02:09 |
|
You forgot the picture of the car with the dude's Jurassic Park Explorer in the background.
JGrabowMSt
> noise
02/14/2015 at 20:27 |
|
So, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it's not really the same thing, what he did and what the dealer was going to do.
The dealership was going to replace the entire VSC battery. Was it the actual problem? Maybe not. Sure, cleaning the contacts was his fix , but not a litmus test for anyone else's car. Also, I think that the corrosion that appeared on those battery packs in his car is an indication of a much larger issue, because it means those batteries were subject to adverse conditions. They're inside the car, roughly between the back seat and the trunk space, which means that they should be protected and sealed from the elements. Exposure to oxygen alone isn't going to cause corrosion to that extent, even if the car is going on 10 years old.
Going back to the original point, yes, he was able to fix his car with a thorough cleaning. What wasn't addressed anywhere was the cause of corrosion to that extent. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this car was abused at some point. Trunk left open, potentially a flood damage car (maybe not up to the head rest or apparent, but considerable amount of moisture), or it's a coastal car, within 10 miles of the ocean, which can lead to quite considerable corrosion on anything metal that can come in contact with oxygen.
Due to the nature of the beast, there are a few things that can be done to actually prevent these problems from re-occurring on future cars. 1) Build an aluminum housing that seals around the battery back and comes into contact for both heat dissipation and to protect from exposure to the elements. 2) Build the cooling fan surrounding the aluminum housing to prevent overheating. Sure it'll add weight to the car, but once you add a battery pack of that size, if you're concerned about adding a few more pounds of aluminum and silicone gaskets, your priorities are very out of order. Finally as 3) the battery packs should have a recycling credit that goes towards replacement in order to significantly offset the cost of a full replacement. The manufacturer will be recycling as much of that battery as they can to begin with, so they need to pass that saving along if they expect second or even third hand hybrid cars to be a viable option and stay on the road.
If he bought the car for give or take around $8000 (going off the statement that $4400 was more than half his purchase price), then a recycle program will keep these cars on the road, and convince prospective drivers that these cars are long term investments. It's just absurd to see bills like this, so I full agree that the system is overpriced, but I also feel that his problem is indicative of a larger problem.