A Very Good Car

I remember many years ago while stopping at traffic lights I often wondered to myself how good it would be if the engine can turn itself off. I personally know of people who actually turn their engine off to save fuel! This is false economy as it takes more fuel than you would save when starting the vehicle again.

Well today the hybrid vehicle does it as a matter of course and not only that - it saves energy from braking to release when required and turns the engine off when cruising as well.

Just how good is the Hybrid car when compared to a standard vehicle?

1) Fuel Economy
A well maintained Generation one Prius ( 1997 - 2000 ) still return 20 - 22 Kms to the litre (4.5L/100Kms) This is after clocking up more than 200,000 Kms on the odometer! A standard vehicle would have loss so much compression that it's fuel economy would have deteriorated at least 25% from new.

You can still purchase a good used Generation one Prius for $6000.  If you are currently spending $100 on fuel a week, you could save $2500 a year. This means recouping the cost of your purchase within 3 years at the most. This savings alone should sway thinking people towards purchasing a used hybrid, especially if you have to drive good distances going to and from work.

Generation two Prius (NHW11)  are even more economical and Generation three (NHW20) even better still.

2) Internal Combustion Engine

This engine shuts off when not required. This means that the odometer reading does not represent the actual wear and tear as an engine in a conventional car. My guess is that if we half the odometer reading it would represent the actual wear and tear when compared to a conventional car.

The engine oil in a vehicle that has done 150,000 kms, is still golden a month after an oil change. This means that the piston rings are still intact.

3) Starts every time

One thing I noticed was that the hybrid car will start every time as long as the HEV battery and 12 volt battery are in good working order.
In 12 year old conventional vehicles starting is always questionable as it depends on the state of the 12 volt battery, the starter motor, the alternator, the idling, the timing chain and the distributor. Most of these components are not used in the hybrid car - Less parts to go wrong therefore starts every time.

4) Smooth Quiet and vibration free ride

Although it can best be described as medium saloon, It drives like a large saloon. The combination of the electric engine and the petrol engine contributes to this smooth ride. Being quiet and vibration free adds to the comfort of driving a hybrid.

5) Brakes pads

Regenerative braking recovers the energy from braking which are then stored in the batteries for reuse. This means that the brake pads are not used in normal braking. Most hybrids even at 150,000 Kms still have their original set of brake pads.

6) Spark Plugs

I have personally taken a set of spark plugs out of a car that has done 150,000 Kms. The gap was so large that it stopped firing in one cylinder.

All this goes to show that cost of mechanical maintenance is much lower than a conventional vehicle.

How Good Is The Prius Series 1

Many Prius Series 1 owners have given up on their vehicle after bad experiences with their car HEV battery. This is not surprising as there has been very little help or information available to them to allay their fears and frustrations.

They are told that it costs $12,000 for a replacement battery by none other than Toyota themselves! This is as good as saying "Your car is scrap metal" It may be that this model was never meant for the international market and only exported out of Japan as used vehicles. However it does not help the image of hybrid cars to early adopters of this technology.

The Prius Series 1 Hybrid is A VERY GOOD CAR. This is our unreserved opinion after reconditioning the Series 1 battery pack since 2007. Our breakthrough came when we were able to clear the fault code in the battery computer. This made it possible to correctly diagnose the real problem with the vehicle which contributed to the HEV battery failure in the first place. What we have discovered is that any inefficiency in the internal combustion engine (ICE), affects the HEV battery.

The most important thing to do when owning a hybrid vehicle is to keep the ICE operating at peak efficiency. Ironically because the vehicle seems to runs so well even when the ICE is not 100% - maintenance is neglected.

We have seen vehicles run without coolants ! Spark plugs which are normal standard plugs not changed for 150,000 Kms, Most important the air flow meter is not operating at 100%. It should be cleaned on regular basis and if not performing correctly, it should be replaced.

We would be the only people who will recondition the Prius Series 1 HEV battery for $1500. The battery is not new but even so, if the ICE is operating faultlessly this car will perform as expected. We will be able to keep the HEV battery operating for as long as the car continues to get a warrant.

How Good Is The Toyota Hybrid Generation One 1997 - 2000

The number of series 1 having problems with the hybrid battery is increasing because it was designed to last between 8 to 10 years. The car itself is still going strong and it seem a shame to scrap the vehicle. New Zealand can no longer import this as a second hand vehicle from Japan. It is still possible to import this vehicle into Australia.

The generation 1 Prius has the black bumper strip on the front and back bumper. We have always contended that this is one very hardy car. As long as the HEV battery can be kept and maintained in good working condition nothing else major really goes wrong with it. A great car for someone who wants a workhorse and does alot of travelling.You could conceivably recoup your investment just from fuel and maintenance savings in the first year!

How good is this vehicle ?  Well we were offered a 1999 white Prius hybrid this week. The owner had it at toyota for several months and the diagnosis was that the drive shaft and gearbox was broken. The owner rang us and said that the battery was still in good condition and we were offered the vehicle for $1500 transported to our workshop. We accepted the offer planning to retrive some parts from the vehicle.

The vehicle arrive next day overnight from Wellington. It managed to start but there was a cranking noise coming from the engine. We have come across this before and it does not mean that the gear box is shot! It could happen if the coolant to the gearbox is dry. This was not the case. There was oil in the crankcase so that was not it. The engine and 288V error came up. We then changed the spark plugs and air flow meter but the noise was still there. We then changed the HEV battery just in case although the triangle error was not there. It was driveable but was rough. Feels like there a gear was slipping.

We took it down for a scan but no errors were detected except that the timing was a little forward at 13% up to 16.5%. This brought us to suspect that one cylinder was missing. We checked the new spark plugs and sure enough cylinder 2 was clean! OK we got hold of a coil from another vehicle substitute for it and magic of magic the engine ran smooth. Took it for a test drive and the vehicle performed faultlessly. Has done 150,000 Kms but should do another 150,000 easily.

We did not suspect a coil fault in the first place because when the car was driven the electric drive assisted which mask the problem. We did notice that the HEV battery drained very quickly and was difficult to charge up.

This is why it is so important to keep the petrol engine running perfectly. This is not difficult to do at all. Change the air flow meter if there is lack in performance and change the spark plugs every 10,000 Kms. Any loss in power is compensated by the electric engine which cause the HEV battery to fail as it does not get a chance to charge up fully in normal driving.

There was nothing wrong with the HEV battery but it goes to show that not many mechanics including Toyota are able to correctly diagnose this vehicle. our experience is that they don't even know how to service this vehicle correctly. 

So don't give up on this vehicle. I wonder how many of these cars have been scrapped unnecessarily. They are so hardy and not much mechanically goes wrong with it. 

Nimh cells and reconditioning


The voltages between  cells must be within 20% or the ECU will throw up an error message. If the hybrid ECU calls for more power than the battery pack can input/output, a trash battery. If the cell imbalances are more than the ECU can cope with it goes into standby mode and puts up the triangle error code.

This also means you can't mix new cells with old as it will exceed the 20% tolerance. Good used tubes getting increasingly difficult to find to build balanced packs. We have to rebuild good tubes by breaking them up and spot welding the good cells into a new tube and then reconditioning this reconstituted tube to maximum capacity.

The point of this blog is to let all Generation 1 Prius owners know that the battery clinic can now rebuilt the nimh tube from other cells.

With this process we can now make good tubes and ones of better quality than just pure cannibalised tubes. The number of good cannibalised tubes is not high because they have to pass our 100 amps stress test. Rebuilt tubes pass this test easily.

The result of this is that we can keep your Generation 1 Toyota Prius running for many more years into the future.