Time for a new traction battery

If the orange maintenance plug is pulled you get a red triangle and exclamation point and a code I can’t recall. Not sure you’d even get the point of monitoring the pack modules.

 

Well, an unfortunate update is that after two years of not much use (which is certainly a contributing factor) my NexPower (Project Lithium) LiFePO4 v2 has coughed up a P3000 error, one module showing overcharged.

How it played out:
Over the past month we'd been getting the car out for drives every weekend and all seemed well. Then on Saturday it started and ran, but the dash was blank. The SOC on the MID showed full green, then quickly dropped to 2 purple bars. So we let it sit in park recharging for a bit, got back to 3-4 bars before it would even let us turn it off. Then turned it back on and got "Trouble" and check engine light. We could hear popping sounds from the rear and then a strong smell, like nail polish. We shut it down and I came back later to connect OBDII and the Dr. Prius app, confirming the P3000 and module 10 with way higher voltage than the rest.

I'm still not ready to quit on this car though. After considering options again and reading reviews I've ruled out GreenBean and Hybrid2Go. Checked online for OEM options but they all require a $1350 core that I can't satisfy now. Local dealership wants over $3K for just the pack, plus the $1350 core.

But when I originally did the NexPower install I'd sent the old cells to 2ndlifebattery.com for a little cash back. So I checked with the owner, Joe Merrill, and he has some options based on OEM Gen4 cells, with 4 or 5 year warranty depending on how they test out. He was great to talk to and I couldn't find anything bad said about the company in my searching. They're also fairly close to me so that's a little reassuring.

So I've ordered a Gen4 "brick" with the 4 year warranty option and get to look forward to my 3rd traction battery replacement project. Good thing I've been going to the gym consistently!

 

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Joe answers the phone and email himself. He replied to my initial email yesterday (Sunday).