2012 Prius 144k miles. Car has been performing well and no major issues. However it suddenly displaces a few warning lights: check engine, brake, traction control, and the master warning yellow triangle light. Pictures attached. Don't know what is wrong. Hope to get your insight.
Did you ever think about using a scanner to reading the trouble codes that the car is trying to tell you about? Is this a 2012 Prius OR a 2012 Prius c?
Not sure if we should drive the car, so purchased a scanner online and waiting for its arrival. Will update once getting the codes. It is the 2012 Prius.
You can get some of the codes this way while waiting for the scan tool to arrive: Blink (a/k/a Flash) Codes – How to. | PriusChat
Just got the scanner Ancel AD310, error code P0A80. It looks like I may have a traction battery problem. How far / long can I drive the car with the error code on? What kind of consequence will it have?
Try to keep everything in one thread rather than multiple treads. Copied from one of your other threads: Copied from the Grid Charger thread: Continuing the discussion in this tread. It would be very valuable information to look at the freeze frame data for the P0A80 code. The Ancel AD310 scanner that you purchased is a very basic scanner. I think it is not able to read freeze frame data for trouble codes. The freeze frame data will pinpoint which battery block is the problem in your battery pack. If you are going to recondition the battery pack yourself, you will need a better scanner to find the bad battery modules. I am assuming that your car has been driven back to your home where you are able to work on it. Post a screenshot of the Dr Prius app showing the battery data.
Thank you for the screenshot. The Delta SOC (state of charge) is showing 11.00%. A healthy battery pack has a Delta SOC of 0.00%. The Delta SOC is the difference in the SOC of the battery blocks. This means the battery blocks are not balanced to each other. In this case, a grid charger should be used to do a 24-hour low current balance of the battery pack. This should bring the Delta SOC back down to 0.00%. A complete reconditioning of the battery pack (charging and discharging cycles) per Prolong's instructions is recommended to regain some of the lost capacity of the battery modules. I use the Prolong charger and discharger one time a year to recondition the battery in my 2011 Prius 151k miles. I have done this for the past three years just to keep my battery in good condition. I have been very happy with the results.
Thank you @Brian1954 for your analysis and advice. I plan to DIY a grid charger, and will let you know the result after completion.
@Brian1954 While waiting for the parts to arrive for the grid charger build, I searched Delta SOC on PriusChat, and found your posts @https://priuschat.com/threads/maxiapp-diag-2500-reports-hv-battery-needs-balancing.253499/. While the pdf file you attached talks about the Delta SOC, it doesn't explain in detail: 1) How does the battery ECU / HV ECU calculate the Delta SOC of every battery block by using voltage and amperage; 2) Is the Delta SOC a real time or accumulative value as reported in the Dr Prius' screen shot; 3) Is it the real time or accumulative Delta SOC that triggers the P0A80 code? Just wondering if you could enlighten me? I vaguely remember the Delta SOC was higher 130+ miles ago (when I cleared the P0A80 code) than the 11% on post #9. If rebalancing the battery resolves the problem, what should I expect to see the Delta SOC change? Thanks.
I did a search for Delta SOC for the Prius about two years ago. I did not find much information at the time. I was interested in learning more about it. 1) I have no idea how it is calculated. Voltage and current are the only two parameters that I know that could be used for the calculation. Maybe there are more parameters that are used. 2) I assume that it is an accumulated calculated value. It does not make any sense to me that it would be a real time value. 3) As far as I know, the P0A80 code is triggered by the voltage difference between the highest and lowest battery block voltages. When the SOC of the battery blocks are not close to being the same to each other, as current flows into and out of the battery, there will be a voltage difference between the battery blocks. If all the battery blocks have the same SOC to each other, the voltage difference between the blocks should be very small. The other scenario when you see voltage difference between the battery blocks is when one of the six 1.2v cells within a module goes bad. You will see this under high current flow out of the battery. The voltage of one of the battery blocks will be 1.0v to 1.2v lower than the other battery blocks. In this case, the only way to fix it is to replace the bad battery module. In your case, I am hoping that a 24 hour charge top end balance of the battery pack is all that is needed to keep the P0A80 code from reoccurring. I think the Delta SOC will come down to 0.00% after doing the top end balance. It would be better to do the complete three discharge cycle reconditioning procedure per the Prolong instructions to regain some of the lost capacity of the battery modules. It takes me 5 to 6 days to do the complete battery reconditioning per the Prolong instructions. I hope this helps a little. I will not be available very much over the next two weeks. I am taking a vacation and am doing a lot of traveling.
Thank you very much @Brian1954. After receiving all the parts (it will take 2 weeks+), I will start to build the grid charger / discharger, and do the 3-cycle reconditioning procedure following the Prolong instructions. Have a nice vacation!
The Prolong website has the following discharge instruction Light Bulb Discharger User Guide – Hybrid Automotive: "When using the light bulb discharger, you MUST connect the light bulb discharger to the car harness before installing the light bulbs. When finished discharging, you MUST remove the bulbs before disconnecting the harness. Connector damage will happen if this process it not followed!" Could someone explain why the sequence is so important?
Only a guess, but the connector terminals might not be rated to be made/unmade under the levels of flowing current the light bulbs consume.
My discharger consists of two 40 watt incandescent bulbs, which produce a load of ~350mA. After discharging, I unscrew one of the bulbs and turn on the charger.
Have you ever plug / unplug the connector (to the battery discharge cable) with both light bulbs installed?
