Old Battery ?

I have a 2001 with 64K miles with the original HV battery (14 years old !) How long do these typically last? Is it a function of both time and service? So far it's performing as always. What would be the first signs of aging, etc.?

Reply to
Stephen G. Giannoni
Loading thread data ...

Hi,

On Tuesday, February 3, 2015 at 1:26:11 PM UTC-6, Stephen G. Giannoni wrote :

The failure mechanism is the electrolyte dries out. The terminal seals of t he 38 battery modules have a rubber "O" ring to seal in the small amount of gas that forms in normal charging. But when the battery gets hot, the "O" rings let a little of H{2} and O{2} out and over time, this dries out the e lectrolyte. Hot climates with little shade and hilly terrain driven at high speeds heats the battery modules to higher temperatures. So some will fail sooner than others, usually the ones in the middle of the pack where it is most difficult to keep them cool.

The next generation battery modules have improved terminal seals and more i nternal, cell-to-cell connections to reduce resistance. The 2004-09 modules were a substantial improvement and the 2010-current even better.

If you have a Prius-aware scanner, one that can read the battery module-pai r voltages, you can get an idea of how well the pack is balanced. There is also a procedure described in Volume I of the shop manuals about how to tes t the pack.

When modules in the pack are ready to fail, they lose their amp-hour capaci ty. So the pack appears to charge very fast and discharge very fast. Eventu ally a cell within a module will short out and then you'll get an error lig ht and a Prius-aware scanner can identify the failed module. This is anywhe re from a week to a month before the pack fails where the car no longer run s.

We've written fairly detailed descriptions about this over in the PriusChat forum as well as the Yahoo Group, "Prius Technical Stuff." Both have much better archives with PriusChat dating from 2004 and "Prius Technical Stuff" from 2001.

GOOD LUCK! Bob Wilson

Reply to
bwilson4web

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.