Hybrid Battery Repair Part 3: Battery Reconditioning

How to set up the settings on battery charger/dischargers:

Fan (blower) connection:

March 8th, 2022 update:
After 2 years, I finally posted an update video!

April 21st, 2021 update:
It's been 6600 miles and over a year since I fixed the car now, and it's still running great!

June 26th, 2020 update:
I've driven the car about 3000 miles since it was fixed and I haven't had any issues with it up to this point :)

Please like, share, & subscribe if you enjoyed it and want more videos!

[Adzeoda]

I love this….for my repair the biggest investment was time and that is a cost we rarely count. But overall doing it myself still saved me a bundle. The repair shop wanted $1650 plus my pack and Toyota wanted 4100 -1500 for core. Spent about $150 total on equipment, a module and a replacement harness because I broke a sensor taking out bus bars. Grateful for all the knowledge shared on platforms like this one.

[lightrevolutionsdotcom]

WOW! You are a patient man, and resourceful. I have been 'obsessing' over my own battery problems, so it was strangely consoling to hear how much time & energy you put into your situation, losing sleep & frustration. Psychologically, I thank you for sharing your experience, sincerely, thank you! I am also very happy for you that in the end your car is running better & you are happy with the process. Certainly, there is some sense to using a Hybrid Shop where they have the right equipment & repetitive experience, and you demonstrated a "partnership" method of DIY & shop work wherein you brought just the battery array to the shop for half the price to recondition versus if they did all the disassembly & reassembly and so forth. Overall, Your editing & presentation was efficient & inspiring on a few levels.

[panosalex]

MY FRIEND you have fight with devils and you give your time and eford for this video, really congratulations for everything, thank you, you deserve the best for your car.

[panicosvasiliou]

Thank you very much for the videos . I have been watching your videos while I was cleaning the basbars, discharging my 28 batteries with a scooter motor initially, later with a radiator fan, down to 7.5 volts. It took me 3 days in total. It was tiresome BUT, it was worth it because the batteries are awakened now. A big thanks to you for helping me and I believe a lot of others...

[treylyde]

You’re a genius. My grandparents would have made you executive on their will. Very impressed young man

[PterippiGaming]

There are two processes that are often mixed up: balancing and reconditioning. Balancing can indeed be simply done by hooking up elements in parallel (although I recommend using at least 10 ohm (10W+) resistors between elements on one of the sides to limit balancing currents). However, this only balances groups of 6 NiMH cells (as we have 6 cells in series in each module). So inside of each module you can still have over/undercharged cells (e.g. 0.7, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.4, 1.2 result in same 7.2 V voltage as 6 cells 1.2 V each). Balancing (first) and reconditioning them (at later cycles) to restore some capacity of those cells inside of a module is what requires lots of slow charge (0.1C or 0.5-0.7 A for 7.5Ah rated cells) cycles with low DoD (10-20% from what I found in online sources). Discharging battery element completely (as suggested to 0.4 V/cell or 2.4 V/element) is a very easy way to finish off your unbalanced element as those less than average cells will get to lower voltages than permitted by chemistry. Balancing all of those elements connected in series at once with HV charger is only going to scale this unbalanced cell problem to element level and instead of 6 cells connected in series you will get 168 cells in series. So it is the WORST approach if you consider the condition of your battery elements.

[alimanfoud]

what an amazing video, I want to thank you very much for going through all the troubles and labor to produce a miracle

[brucebell]

I watched your fine commentary and your solution. Still battling to repair mine on my own. BUT I am prompted to write to say your car seems to have preignition problems on cold startup. I had that myself. Suspected a leaking head gasket- took it to Dayton Toyota twice, and after 2 visits and $500 they said get a new engine as they can't find the problem (coolant loss and preignition on cold start). This took me 6 months before I got around to replacing the head gasket myself, only to have battery issues after it had sat for much of that time, hence me watching your video. Thanks, but I fear you have the same problem, and it will get worse. Scares you, actually. To any man who respects machinery, it makes you cringe to hear it fighting itself, lol.

[andybentz]

Awesome videos! Thanks for taking the time to do them. I am going through the same exercise you are and also came to the same conclusion. I ultimately brought the battery to a EV repair shop. Although my journey hasn't ended yet (because when i reinstalled and drove 40ish miles the red triangle came on) i will be saving a lot of money and time too. Thanks again for the very detailed videos!

[theaussienurseflipper.]

For me in Australia. I think the way I going, is buy second hand battery from wrecker $500AUD with 3-month warranty. Give me time to check all the modules in my battery and keep the top ones and sell the average ones, they go for $60 a module. Recruit someone my money. Cheers for video

[stuartshellenberger]

Awesome video with excellent explanations

[alekjuskevice]

This has been a great journey. there is a lot of information in these videos.
Again, thank you, from New Haven, CT

[marklll]

16:50 for anyone else that could be the sound of cylinders are flooded with coolant or oil - head gasket or piston o-rings replacement needed

[frankpleitez]

Thanks for sharing ❤
But now I understand why it cost so much for a proper charging discharge equipment !
I know a good system will cost between 12k to 30k dollars!

[noahauman]

Great video. Thanks for putting all this together!

[roabueme]

The engine knocking at around ~17:28 is your head gasket failing. You have coolant breach causing engine to knock. Should not let that happen too often as it damages the connecting arms of piston. Don’t put liquid gasket sealant on coolant reservoir either as it will cost you more to get that cleaned up when you finally get head gasket replaced.

[VibrationsfromMirror]

YOU ARE AMAZING! Teach two in person and keep the education flowing! AWESOME!

[fernandoaraiza]

Great videos.
1. Comment and two questions.
Question 1:
Taking into account of what you spent and labor and how long you didn't have your car. What do you think is a fair cost to have this done with a week turn around?

2. Any modifications you can think of to get more air into the middle modules/ cells.

1 comment.
The sound you heard when you restarted the car is actually a serious manufacturers defect. The head gaskets aren't working as they should and condensation gets into the cylinders. That sound is water in the cylinder. I believe Toyota is dealing with a class action lawsuit that can lead to a recall

[PatentLicht-ysyt]

Thanks for sharing, love it. Hope to see your update after a year.

[brianrolshoven]

The part where the engine chugs and rattles could easily be the maf sensor by the throttle plates.
Alot of people misdiagnose their triangle of death and crappy running engine as a bad traction battery..
Just remove the maf via 2 phillips and squirt in only mass air flow cleaner. Clean about 10 times..this crappy start up noise will go away.
And in many cases debris on the tiny coils inside the maf will not allow your cars to start in any mode