It gets missed frequently.

What are you going to do about your battery now? Blocks 15 and 11 are likely to throw codes any moment.

 

The car needs a lot of basic maintenance done including tires, brakes, all fluids changed, belts, hoses, etc. I'm going to tell her to get all that done and then I will keep a check on the battery while she drives it as long as she can (which may only be a few months). When it fails again or is about to, then it will be time to replace the whole pack.

Is it possible to buy all new cells or is it better to just buy a whole new pack? I have seen new battery packs for around $1800 but they only have at most 18 month warranty.

 

You can't buy new modules.

New pack from toyota is pretty spendy, and you have to turn in your old battery as a core. However, it's the best solution if the plan is to keep the car for the long term. One should expect comparable life from a new pack as the original. There are other options out there. You might find a local battery builder who will do it for less. If you're in the Phoenix area, I'd be happy to help...

Given the voltages I saw, I will be surprised if the car goes a full tank before it codes unless that was some sort of timing issue where the voltages were captured at different times and not representative of real-time conditions.

 

Places like greentecauto.com have rebuilt batteries for $1900 and new ones for $2400 so still expensive but not as high as OEM. Don't know if those are any good or if there are better places to buy them.

Yeah I will be surprised if this pack goes long before it throws the deteriorated code again. This pack is probably 10 years old now so it's near the end. Before I reassembled the pack all modules were at least 7.4V each. They haven't been charged in 8+ months so it's possible they were near depleted. I don't know what the voltage profile is for these NiMH packs but when they are severely depleted maybe voltage drops by a volt or so which could explain the readings I saw.

I let the car run as long as it would so the pack should be charged now. I will check out voltages this weekend again with the mini vci and see what they look like.

So I was just looking at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_Synergy_Drive and I see that the camry's hybrid drive train can run most everything from the ICE. Is there a way to force the ICE to run all the time? With the heat of summer upon us I think it would prolong the battery if AC always runs from ICE instead of battery pack.

I'm near New Orleans which is a bit of stretch from Phoenix I do make it out to San Diego for work (3 times in the last 3 months) but the car stays here. Not that it would make it I think

 

They're as good as any. I personally wouldn't buy the "new" ones. You can get a Dorman from many auto parts stores (Napa) for about $1700 with a 3 year warranty. If you don't mind swapping it out once or twice during the warranty period, it's probalby your best bet. The greentecs don't have a network like Dorman, so you'll likely be out one-way shipping per replacement.

The 8 month sit is a factor, but none of them should drop like the lowest two if they are healthy.

The hybrid battery starts the ICE, so if it deteriorates to the point that it can't start the ICE, you're dead in the water.

The car won't use the battery if it can't do so safely. I know of no way to alter the car's default behavior.

 

I replaced my '07 TCH in '12 with a Lexus ES hybrid, but I recall the '07 had the eco/normal/sport driving mode options. Putting it in sport mode and driving it gently, should keep the engine on more and keep the batteries more topped off, but I doubt it will make much difference, and will cost a small bit in fuel efficiency. Note that using sport mode with a heavy foot will likely put greater stress on the battery with greater current draws during accelerations.

As far as the battery is concerned, the drive motors and the AC motors are just users of current, and the AC is rather tiny relative to the drive motors, so there is no need to focus on the AC as a special burden to the batteries. It is true that current can be shuffled between MG1 and MG2 with little to no impact on the battery, while the AC motor always comes from the battery, even though it could be almost directly coming from MG1 or MG2, but that AC load is very small compared to MG1 or MG2 when they are pulling from the battery, and they can pull from the battery even when the engine is running. While the car can run (once the engine is started) without current going in/out of the battery, performance and fuel efficiency will not stay high in that mode, as that precludes regen or reuse of the regen energy captured, and prevents the battery from augmenting the power of the engine under high loads.

 

A/C full load is about 8A. ICE-driven MG1 will provide all necessary current to run the A/C if the battery can't handle it and will frequently provide a surplus for battery charging and feed into MG2.

MG2 is exclusively traction power and regen.

 

I just pulled a live capture using techstream of the hybrid control data. All battery voltages ranged from 15.51 down to 15.22 with most being around 15.44. It says all internal resistances are 0.019 Ohms. I'm not sure hot it calculates that.

I cleared all the code and will drive it around for a while and do another capture.

 

A range of 15.51 to 15.22 is troublesome.

I recommend you conduct a discharge test:

Reset 12V
Car REady
Connect with TechStream
Go into the Hybrid ECU
Data list
AFter the ICE turns off, hit the record button at the bottom right
Turn A/C on full blast, rear window defroster on and lights on.
When ICE restarts, terminate the recording
Export as a CSV file
Send it to me.

 

Hello all. Got a couple questions:
I have 2007 Toyota Camry hybird. The car has been real good to me and the family, practically repair-free aside from routine things and normal wear. However I am suddenly getting the dreaded Check Hybrid System and Check VSC System that seems to go hand-in-hand. I don't have a code scanner, and I've read mixed comments on whether a consumer/pro-sumer scanner can get these codes accurately. But I'd rather pay the money to buy the scanner than pay the dealer (even if I have to go to them for a repair, I like to be informed going in). If there is a scanner I can buy, could someone recommend the brand/model?

Also any thoughts on how likely it is this could be a 12v issue? Reason I ask is two-fold. One is that several months ago, while camping with my son I left the car on to charge his ipad (I know I know, camping with an ipad!), anyway that actually killed the battery. Car would not start. Which seemed really odd. Should not have been able to drain the battery I don't think. Still I got a jump, drove it around and it started the next morning no problem so I figured maybe it did drain it. The second part of this happened on a trip back from Denver (I live in CA and had no trouble on the drive out)-- after the car sat for 2-weeks while I was overseas--it first threw the Check Hybrid System /VSC while I was idling at a rest-stop at 1am at night. I was in no position to figure out what was going on as it was mountainous and it was below freezing outside. I drove it to the next exit, stopped and tried the old "turn it off and turn it back on" trick. It did reengage the hybrid system and then after I got home, the next day the light went off on its own. I thought maybe it had something to do with the conditions. It being bitterly cold and having sat that long. Fast forward to this week almost 2-months later, in sunny southern CA, driving it every day and it's acting up again. Only now it's more frequent. 12v?