Am I cool to monitor via OBDII (forscan, etc) while charging? When the car is in unlock the voltage is still seen by the battery module, it might have temperature too. The HV side on the car should be de-energized in that same position.

I get the feeling at 100w it's going to be charging quite a bit more than 4hrs. What is full charge on the pack? 400v or somewhere in the 3s? And to try to start it should be ~350v?

 

You can monitor it, but you'll need a 10A charger on the 12V.

If you're talking about the orange safely plug, it must be installed to keep the battery circuit intact. When removed, it literally splits the battery into roughly two halves.

4 hours is what's needed to reactivate the chemistry and impart sufficient charge to start.

Do not attempt to fully charge the battery. You will cook it.

 

Ok so what voltage should I see after 4 hours?

 

Depends on your battery and ambient conditions. It really doesn't matter what voltage you see provided you've pushed 4h * 350mA = 1400mAh of capacity in there.

You may see artificially high voltage early in the charge. This is a symptom of the cells being in a dormant state and having insanely high internal resistance. Do not be tricked into thinking it worked sooner.

The target is 4 hours, not a given voltage.

For reference, at 4 hours I would expect you to be 310-320V and possibly higher.

 

Yea, no way it works sooner. Most people I read on here have at least 250v+ when they start. The hybrid place I called did say all the ones they charged came back so I've got that going for me.

 

250V is actually below dead empty. 300V resting is barely above 0% SoC.

I have had some vehicles attempt to start in the 270-280V range. They attempt ONE time, fail, and then push the battery voltage as low as 180-200V. Pulling those currents at such low states of charge can damage the cells.

I've lost track of how many 09+ I've charged. It's well over a dozen since the end of 2016, probably closer to 20. The pandemic brought me something like 6 in a month. I've never had one come back.

 

With the pats lockout I don't think they were ever able to crank mine. It's really reassuring that you've seen ones that went that low but still came back. After the car starts and charges itself I will monitor how much voltage decreases sitting over night, etc. Charger probably won't be here till monday

 

Deep discharges are actually somewhat good for them if recharged properly. When they discharge to < 1V/cell, it eliminates the issues that cause capacity loss and effectively "reconditions" the cells restoring lost capacity. It is important to get them charged as much as possible to retain it. That's where the battery balancing feature of Forscan is very useful.

 

I got it started! The battery balance only seemed to bring the SOC into the 60s and didn't seem to run for an hour. I dunno maybe I'll have to do it again? I still have P0AA7 that illuminates the wrench but the car appears to drive just fine. Not much info on this code beyond "replace the battery" and the battery seems fine. Added distilled water to make up for seemingly missing coolant. Got a wee bit of white smoke when I first started but it went away rapidly and didn't return.

I have tiny bubbles in the mek resevoir but no such thing in the engine coolant. No shmoo on the dipstick, nothin shiny in the coolant. Will do a compression test tomorrow. Is the procedure from the 2011 SM correct? http://www.nicksmustangranch.com/Ser...tm#extract_177



BTW: I got the "B" power supply with the dimmer and indeed it does work. I read some posts from the guy who blew 2 of them out and that made me doubt. The "A" is almost unavailable and more money.

 

That's great! I don't know about the FORScan BB function, but this P0AA7 code is worrysome. It is an isolation fault, meaning that somewhere (either in the wiring, insulation, or even directly) the high voltage system is leaking current to the low voltage side. The problem is to find out where, and Ford doesn't even really want people to try. That doesn't mean it can't be done, but it's not easy. There is supposed to be a firewall around the HV completely isolating it from the rest of the vehicle. Given the history of the car and the problems you're reporting, take a look at this video featuring a Lexus hybrid that also lost isolation. These things are possible to fix without replacing the battery but it's a matter of really doing the detective work and being careful. Check this Lexus out: lots of reasons why on this car, including a leaking spot weld on the chassis and a HOLE in the battery case! There are other vids. out there showing the effects of water ingress and corrosion on Prius vehicles, and of course there are a lot of cables on this car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH-CjdWMmWQz

Yes, your crank starting procedure should be the right one.

Kind of worried about the MECS bubbles and the weepy coolant. One problem with the wrong coolant is perhaps increased corrosion that has led to other problems. OTOH how hard could it be to do a head gasket on this car?

Good luck! Let us know what you find.