coasting in neutral bad for car?
 

Today I was driving down long hill at 65 mph and accidentally put the car in neutral, within 5-10 seconds the dashboard light up like a Christmas tree, with check vsc, check hybrid system, check engine light and ABS/traction control errors. I reached home with no problem but car didn't use the battery to go and ice never shutdown. After hooking up my scanner, I had error one cell was low..After resetting the code and taking the car for ride, everything seem to be fine and all cells are within 0.2 -0.25 v, with no single cell sticking out as low all time. So the questions are:
1. how coasting in neutral caused all those errors? Was coasting charging my batteries without any control?
2. is this indication of more problems coming up soon?
3. In case my battery gets worse (and it will, matter of time at 200k miles), should I recondition them, find and replace bad cells or get whole new battery? I like my car and want to keep it, since I drive 95% in crazy heavy traffic I probably saved $10k in gas and at least $2500-$3500 in transmission repairs.

Re: coasting in neutral bad for car?
 

1A. Hard to say
1B. No. Car limits charge based on temps, SoC and 17 block voltages.
2. Likely
3. Depends

What are you using to monitor blocks?

Re: coasting in neutral bad for car?
 

techstream.
really weird, come to think of it in neutral the car shouldn't be charging at all.

Re: coasting in neutral bad for car?
 

It isn't, but it was likely charging at high rate until the moment you hit "N".

You should select SoC, Current and the 17 block voltages. Record them while you discharge the car while it's in "N" with A/C on full blast, headlights on and rear defroster on.

Export CSV, zip it and post it.

Re: coasting in neutral bad for car?
 

Thank you S Keith, but I can't find current readings anywhere in data displayed, under hybrid system.It happened again during normal driving and I got error code A0AFA, battery was fully charged with all green bars and it cleared itself after engine shutdown. I did run your test as suggested, way past the warning on dashboard about traction battery being low and no error codes at all and module voltages seem to be fine. Now I'm thinking some connection on battery or computer harness is corroded and gives false reading, sometimes. So I.m thinking of cleaning all harness connectors, maybe take battery out and cleaning bus connectors also, So my question is how do you clean inside harness connectors? Spray alcohol inside and plug in, plug out few times? Put some dielectric grease to stop corrosion? I'm wondering if this isn't something trivial and simple to fix, as long as you know what it is. And again, how do you get current readings per module, I cant find it anywhere.

Re: coasting in neutral bad for car?
 

Also just found freeze frame data, I assume from the moment the code was set?, all shows normal, all modules show 17.1 v to 17.25, except #1 shows 17.81 v, would that cause low voltage error? I think I need to buy that battery conditioner.

Re: coasting in neutral bad for car?
 

Freeze frame data is typical gathered when commanded by the software. 17.81 is either wrong, block 1 is toast or blocks 2-17 are toast.

"module voltages seem to be fine" = ? Module voltages are numbers. They are not "seem to be fine". What were they?

Cleaning inside harness connectors: remove/install 10 times. The terminals are self cleaning, but since they are never removed/installed, they don't get the chance.

Busbars: remove from harness, soak in vinegar for as long as needed to dissolve corrosion. Rinse thoroughly. Scuff module side only with wire brush. Reinstall and tighten nuts to 48 in-lb

There is no "current readings per module". Since all cells are in series, all cells have to flow the exact same amount of current. There is only one current, "Batt Pack Current Val"

Re: coasting in neutral bad for car?
 

I could swear I saw you post current/ capacity per module in one of the threads here, so I guess this was out of car using dedicated hardware? I had delta pick charger/discharger for up to 12 cells from my RC heli, car days, I have to find it now.
Since I never had any error till now, chances are much higher 1 module is bad, than remaining 16. Voltages for 16 modules were within 0.15v of each other, Module #1 was 0.56v higher at 65.5% SOC, or it could be some type of error, is there any way I can force the car into full charge try to get error again to confirm it's #1 module?
I'm still trying to figure out how to export data from techstream into CVS file, this software is not really intuitive for me, but I will figure it out and post here soon.

Re: coasting in neutral bad for car?
 

Those values are not from Techstream.

Export data is:

File > Export Data

Make sure you ZIP the CSV file before you attach it here.

You can force charge the battery as follows:

Set parking brake
Ready
Connect with Techstream
Open Hybrid System ECU
Ensure you can see SoC and Batt Pack Current Val
Left foot FIRMLY on brake and don't let go.
Place car in Drive
Floor it. You should see current spike to a large negative value. It will then taper off and approach 0.
Release throttle and floor it again.
This floor it/release it technique will typically enable you to get it charged to > 70% SoC.

Re: coasting in neutral bad for car?
 

Thanks for all the help.
I have no problem reading, recording and exporting data, except it's a bloody mess, with everything in it. I can display on the screen just the data I want, but when I export it, it dumps all parameters into the file and excel does not display it properly . I'll figure it out, or maybe I'll just RTFM. BTW where can I get new Toyota battery? If I could get one for less than 3k, I would probably just replace it and be done with it.