Hi there everyone. I just created this account here because about two months ago, I found an amazing answer here that saved me from getting towed. My inverter pump went out and thanks to this chat, I was able to replace the fuse, disconnect the line and drive it to the repair shop. anyway I just got the Dr. Prius app. I’ve been getting 46 mpg average after 300-400 miles BUT please see the pics below from the battery test. It says “poor balance”. The other battery test says “61.5% fair condition”,,,,, Will the “poor balance” affect anything within the next 5k miles or so? I want to take the Prius on a 3,000 mile road trip to save gas BUT am not too confident with these battery test results…However, I’m not too worried about the results either. I am hoping to find someone knowledgeable who can tell me if I should be worried about these results in regard to a long road trip or not. My Prius now has 146,100 miles and probably the original battery but idk. I bought it last year with 120k miles. I bought it assuming Id have to replace or repair the hybrid battery BUT not really wanting to unless it fails totally… AND I don’t want that to happen on a road trip. EDIT: I might have been doing the test wrong because I was afraid to accelerate and brake too fast because my neighbors get pissed. I just went ahead and did it twice and it says “congratulations, your car is healthy” so I don’t know! thanks in advance for any info and time you might take to be me out!!!!
unfortunately, no one can tell you if or when your battery will fail, or any other part on the car. it's a 16 year old car, you have to be willing to take some risk. or not.
Yeah true! I’ve decided to risk it instead of taking my van as the test is pretty acceptable. It’s hard to remember it’s a 16 year old car with the timeless style! cheers
Dr Prius will give you data (and any codes) from the HV battery ecu and a guesstimate of battery capacity (it is NOT life expectancy). The most relevant data is Voltage Diff(erence). As long as that generally stays at around 0.3V or less then (as far as the ecu is concerned) the battery is good to go. It could still have some type of sudden failure, but typical module deterioration shows up as one block voltage not staying even with the others under charge and discharge loads. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
The difference in OCV of 1.2 V (or more) if you see it indicates a reversed or dead cell within a module. The 0.3 V diff is when the battery is working (i. e. charging/discharging). The algorithm is not quite straightforward as just a difference of 0.3 V. The battery control is looking for and monitoring many things that occur while the battery is being used.
