I was recently given a 2005 gen 2 Prius with about 100 k miles on it. The car is in great shape other than the fact that the hybrid battery is toast. All the standard codes and a few bad cells. A gentleman i work with has donated to me a gen 1 hybrid battery from a car he is scrapping, approx 100k miles on the battery (was replaced at some point during the life of the car). What i am trying to find out, and this doesnt seem like something people generally do, is if i can adapt the gen 1 battery to the gen 2. Seems to me that the connectors are slightly different and the mounting. Nothing that i cant figure out on my own but....Has anyone out there tried this? Any posts out there i can reference? Again, i know that this is not a common thing to try but i am looking to try the free way before going and spending money. All thoughts and opinions are appreciated. Thanks for looking
welcome! iirc, it's not the right voltage. if you're handy, why not learn how to upgrade the gen 2 battery with gen 3 cells?
Although not an ideal solution, 28 of the gen 1 modules could be installed into the gen 2 case. The gen 1 modules are just a bit shorter in length, but it will work. There's even a thread on here somewhere where a person had a rebuilt battery installed in his Gen 2 and it ended up having Gen 1 modules in it. And that was from one of the big rebuild companies. Both Gen 1 and 2 modules are the same voltage, same capacity rating. The Gen 1 uses 38 modules, the Gen 2 uses only 28, causing the overall voltages to be different, but 28 gen 1 modules in a Gen 2 clamp/case will be the same voltage as an OEM pack.
While it's better than a dead pack, you'd be downgrading your packs lifespan and health if you were to successfully adapt it to fit a Gen2 chassis... If you like working on your car, it could be fun, but short-lived and then you'd have to make sure you can put a gen2 or 3 back on that modified Gen2 chassis in if you're luck a year from now... If I were you I'd put time into rebuilding the gen2 battery you already have and forget about the gen 1 pack... If you'd like details on how to rebuild, we're working on a sticky post about that, but in the meantime I could walk you through it if you want to go in that direction?
You got the car for free, you got the battery for free, I say go for it. If you need to rebuild the battery down the line at least you have some experience.
