Reality Check

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

#21

01-25-2010, 05:48 PM

linx3566

Active Enthusiast

Join Date: Dec 2009

Location: Mississauga/Toronto

Posts: 65

Re: Reality Check

Honda batteries can also replace individual cells - Hybrid Battery Repair can do this job for about 1250 as per their website

#22

01-30-2010, 01:37 AM

cwerdna

Pretty Darn Active Enthusiast

Join Date: Feb 2008

Posts: 269

Re: Reality Check

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tommy T

Interesting about the nature of interconnected individual cells. We went to drive a Prius a while back and the salesperson stated that Toyota's battery design enables replacement of individual cells.

Could this be a difference between Honda and Toyota's design? I did scan some Prius boards and saw almost no mention of recal and battery replacements as we are seeing with our HCH-IIs.

From what I've gathered on Priuschat, individual cell replacement is tricky as you need to replace bad cells w/others in nearly the same condition, otherwise you'll have an unbalanced pack causing other problems.

I don't think Priuses have anything similar to a "recal" because of how HSD works. Probably best to get someone who has both an IMA and HSD hybrid who has more technical knowledge than me to comment on that. Supposedly a symptom of failing battery when there are no warning lights and codes is that the SOC goes from full to empty or the opposite very quickly. IIRC, the battery fan ends up running a lot more than normal too.

As for replacements, no, there haven't been a ton, but it seems I see an increasing (not surprisingly) # of 1st gen Prius owners w/failed/worn out batteries. There aren't many 2nd gen (04 to 09) w/failed/worn out batteries.