Glad to hear it. Yes, ~24 hours is good. Some people rush it or charge to a target voltage and end up not getting the full benefit.

 

You really should have discharged it down to 90 volts, charged to full, then discharged again to 90 Volts, and fully charge it again.

-NONE- of my batteries were ever fixed by just doing a grid charge (and hold). NiMH batteries need a couple full CYCLES in order to be restored again.

 

+1 on discharge. He probably didn't do it because he didn't get the simple discharger.

I have taken packs down to 1.8V with very good results.

soak charge for 24 hours.

500W halogen discharge to 120V (5A to start, finish at 3.9A)
40W Tungsten discharge to 1.8V (.33A to start, finish at .12A)

The pack peaked at a higher voltage the next go-round, but the 500W discharge time from max voltage to 132V (1.0V/cell) increased by 33%. Capacity went from about 60% rated to 80% rated after two deep discharges to 1.8V

Steve

 

Guys,

I just changed the batter, everything went well, battery from Bumblebee is installed and the car works fine. However the engine light, the battery light, and the IMA light are all on. I disconnected the 12V battery twice but still no change. Any idea how I can reset things?

Also the battery charge gauge is also all the way down, showing empty battery.

Do I need to charge this batter? Do I need to run it for a while?

Many thanks for your help!

 

Read the codes and contact Bumblebee with the results.

 

Thanks, Steve. I don't have the tool to read the codes. Is there any other solution?

 

Go to a parts store. I prefer O'Reilly's. Autozone should work too. Here, O'Reilly's will trade your their code reader for your driver's license while you use it in the parking lot. Without knowing the codes, it's impossible to know what's wrong.

Steve

 

Thanks, Steve. Good tip.

Is there a cheap type I can just buy?

I noticed today that the IMA is not working at all. It is just the gas engine which is surprisingly working perfectly fine.

This is confusing since I thought if the hybrid battery is not working, the hydraulic components of the car would stop working. Now, even when I put the switch on off (the switch on the hybrid battery) the engine starts fine and everything works without any problem.

 

There are a multitude of ELM32 blue tooth and WiFi OBD-II readers that you can buy. They will work with iphone and android apps to read & reset codes as well as other monitoring functions.

Personally, I use the paid version of Torque for Android. It's awesome.

I'm not sure why you would think the hydraulic components would quit working. The IMA battery is electric. What shouldn't work is auto stop and the electric AC compressor during auto stop.

Monitor your 12V health. If that light is on, you could find yourself stranded with a dead 12V from running the coils without any charge.

I know it's a hassle, but since you're dead in the water otherwise, I'd put your old pack back in and see if you can restore prior function. My fear is that you damaged something in the process.

Good luck,

Steve

 

Thanks again. I think that is a good idea to reinstall my old one specially since I did not put the seat back in so it is easy to do it.