When is a Hybrid Battery Considered Fully Reconditioned

When is a Hybrid HEV Battery considered fully reconditioned? 
Rationally speaking if we can install a HEV battery in a Prius and "Triangle of Death" code icon is cleared, we will conclude we have a good working battery. The car computer monitors the HEV battery and if any cells are within the limit of tolerance the "Triangle of Death" error will be triggered.

Can the triangle error be triggered after reconditioning.
Unfortunately the answer is yes. The battery is like a light bulb. If there is a short in the wiring the next light bulb you replace will also blow. Anything wrong with the Prius mechanical and electrical system will affect the battery.
When we first started reconditioning the HEV battery we took the position that our job ended when we had a working battery. However we offered a 1 year warranty to support our service. This open us to the problem of the battery failing within the warranty period.

What problems did we encounter with the HEV battery failing during warranty?
In most cases the repair is successful and we do not hear back from the customers. However in a few cases we get the same customers back again repeatedly. Because of this we decided to look at other problems with the vehicles concerned.
To our horror many of these vehicles have never been regularly maintained. Ironically because these vehicles are so mechanically reliable their owners neglect the maintenance and still the vehicles keeps running until the HEV battery fails. The biggest discovery was that the air flow meter deterioration was the greatest contributor to the HEV battery failure. A malfunctioning MAF sensor leads to poor performance in the ICE power train putting greater demands on the HEV battery hastening it's demise. We now insist that the MAF sensor be replaced for our 1 year warranty to be valid.
Our problems did not end here. Recently we were able to purchase an S2000 scanner from Japan. We found that some error codes in the hybrid system if not cleared will bring up the turtle. With the scanner we are now able to hone in on all problems with the vehicle. We can truly guarantee that we will be able to give all our customers a fully functioning vehicle after HEV battery reconditioning, To date there has not been a vehicle we were unable to "fix".

What if we cannot get access to the vehicle?
This is a problem. We encourage our customers to bring in their cars for a service. We stand by our 1 year warranty even though failure of the battery may not be our fault. We take this stand because we believe that these vehicles despite their age are very good vehicles and our service preserves their value.

The future of the Prius Generation 1
Most people think that the use by date for this model is passed. We beg to differ. This vehicle have an electric motor as well as an internal combustion engine. It has limited EV operating mode. If we can extend this EV mode we will have an operational Electric Vehicle at a very low price without the problem of range limitation. We are looking into this and the trick is to do this safely and economically.

Repair and Reconditioning The Prius Series 1 Battery

First Signs of Trouble

If you own or just purchased a Prius Generation 1 ( 1997 - 2000 ) chances are that the HEV battery is at the end of it's service life. The first indication will be the appearance of the turtle every time you want more power. It will flash on and off after the battery gets charged up.

The turtle is not always a sign of HEV Battery Problems

Appearance of the turtle means not enough power for your intended driving condition ie going uphill or accelerating. This could either be from the ICE ( Internal Combustion Engine) or the EV ( Electric Drive or the HEV Battery ).
To eliminate the ICE
1) Check the spark plugs - there should not be any carbon around the points
2) Make sure the coils are working - faulty coil will show up in the spark plugs
3) Make sure the air flow meter is in good condition if in doubt, replace . (this is most important).
4) Check that the 12 volt battery is working correctly. It needs to be able to hold a good charge.

The HEV Battery Will Need To Be Recondition

Any weakness in the ICE will soon manifest itself in the HEV battery. Continued call for more power from the battery will reach a point where the input and output power is more than the battery can handle. At this point the CPU puts up the triangle ( C2579 ) to protect the battery. In this mode the input and output voltage is clamped.
Note : The triangle can also be put up for other reasons. If it is not the battery the triangle can be cleared by resetting the computer. ( Remove the negative terminal from the 12 volt battery wait 10 seconds then reconnect. Turn the ignition on and if the triangle is gone it is not the HEV battery. However if the problem still exist the triangle will reappear. If it is the battery the triangle will not clear. Trouble code C2579 can only be removed with the S2000 scanner.

Your HEV Battery is like your tyres, they wear down, and sooner or later have to be retreaded or replaced. Since replacing is no longer available, reconditioning is the only option.

How Long Can A Recondition HEV Battery Last ?

The reality is that without a good HEV battery your hybrid car is scrap metal ! We charge NZ$1500 to recondition the HEV battery. We provide 1 year return to base warranty. For the warranty to apply you must also replace your air flow meter which we can supply for NZ$300.
We started reconditioning the HEV battery since 2007. The first one done 3 years ago is still working in the same car. To date we have reconditioned more than 150 HEV batteries.
Over this period we have learned much and improved our techniques on reconditioning the HEV battery. Our process was finally perfected when we managed to obtain an S2000 scanner from Japan. This enable us to quantify the state of our reconditioned battery from the Delta and State of Charge readings. We can also clear all fault codes and perform cell equalisation.
We test drive the reconditioned battery in a similar vehicle. VB cell voltages must be equalised. No turtles should appear after a 10 KM test drive. It is rested for 2 days and then rechecked for self discharge. Only after passing these exhaustive test will we consider this battery reconditioned.

A couple of know issues will still affect the battery. One is fault codes resident in the car computer. These are in the Hybrid and ECU section of the vehicle system. If not cleared with the S2000 some hurtling may result. Another problem is a high voltage leak. This will appear as a fault code with the triangle displayed initially but will normally clear itself out after one or two days. Without access to the vehicle we depend on the owner to get these problems fixed if they are present.

How To Get Your Battery To The Battery Clinic In Auckalnd

If you are in Australia you can either get someone to remove the battery or remove it yourself with these instructions. You will need to send the whole pack to us with the battery computer intact as we have to calibrate the computer to the battery pack with the S2000.
We have an arrangement with Jet Worldwide to transport the battery between Australia and Auckland. This is their contact.
Our contact in Auckland is Duane or Lisette they will handle all the custom declarations and documentation. The process is easy with them. If not the shipment could be held up for various reasons at either end.
When you are ready to have your battery collected, email us ( thebatteryclinic@xtra.co.nz ) your address for collection and we will forward the same message to Duane at Jet Worldwide. They will make the arrangement to collect from your address. They will also return the battery to your address when it is completed. We will include their freight cost in our invoice
The cost of shipment from Australia to Auckland and back is approximately NZ$850. ( Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane ) Charges may change and would be more expensive from other states. You could ask for a quote. We do not add any margin to freight charges.

How Long Does It Takes

Organising the shipment over often takes some time and may encounter some delays as the airline may offload the battery until they have space as they may consider the battery hazardous goods. We will complete the job within a week.
To save time we could arrange invoicing and payment early so that it could be sent to you as soon as it is ready.

What If The Battery Fail Under Warranty

Our warranty is solid, and we will repair free of charge under warranty no questions asked, but getting the battery to us is at your cost. Until we are able to arrange representation in Australia this is the best we can do.

Longevity Of The Prius Generation 1

It is true that these tubes are no longer available from Panasonic. At the Battery Clinic we break up the tubes and re weld good cells to make a new tube. After capacity rebuilding and cell equalisation these rebuilt tubes should last many years.
Worst case scenario these tubes are available new from China. They are slightly smaller and fairly pricey but can be adapted for use. We have this option should the situation arise.
As for the vehicle itself, if you have been fortunate enough to drive a Gen 1 car in good working order, you will know how powerful and smooth it is for a 1500 cc vehicle. See this blog on how good this vehicle is.
Not much goes wrong mechanically with this car. We recently reconditioned the battery of one that had done more than 250,000 Kms. It was still running smoothly and silently. We will be able to keep the battery going for as long as this vehicle can get a warrant of fitness.
Also in the pipeline are a DC to DC converter solution to increase it''s EV range and possibly to also make it a full EV vehicle. A full EV has limited range. This one has the best of both world if we can successfully make the conversion. You could say that this vehicle is future proof against obsolescence.
We hope that this assurance will help the Generation 1 Prius keep it's value.

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.