Wow. Tax on what? you aren't buying a product. Are services taxed in your area?

In the vast majority of cases, this isn't a DIY effort unless you're already very comfortable with high voltage. The "figure it out myself" folks are likely going to damage the vehicle or themselves.

You call these guys?

https://www.jimsautomotive.com/blog/albuquerque-hybrids

 

Yes, services are taxed the same as products. And yes, I called that place. They will only work on foreign vehicles. They won't touch anything else.

 

Sounds like you're stuck with the dealer option. In my opinion, given that this issue arose from it sitting for too long, the chances of success are high; however, that assumes the dealer is competent. My first experience involved a dealer charging the customer $1000 in diagnostics, which included using the special charger; however, they failed to charge the battery.

 

When you say outputs wired in series do you mean to wire the positive of one charger to the battery, the negative of another charger to the battery, and the leftover outputs to one another? Does it matter which charger's negative and which charger's positive output is connected to the battery?

 

I really don't like risking $2k without a guarantee that it will work. What do you think of these options?

1. A reconditioned battery from besthybridbatteries.com for $1949 plus shipping with a 3-year warranty or from another similar place.

2. A used battery from a salvage yard -- but how would I find a good one? And I don't know if they have any warranty.

3. I don't know if this is a bad idea but what if I take my battery in the trunk or back of another vehicle to bring to another city where someone could charge it, since I can't find anyone here to do it? Do you do this yourself or know of anyone who does? I wonder how much they would charge.

Thanks, S Keith, for all your replies.

 

#1 will probably result in a battery that is inferior to the one you have.
#2 may be worse than where you are now.
#3 There's a guy in Phoenix who will do it for $450 including building you your own "jump charger" where you could hook it up and charge it from an electrical outlet if it happens again.

 

Hey, quick question:
Can I charge my FEH by towing? My HV bat is discharged from sitting 6 months and I just installed a new 12V battery. I have the 2006 FEH and using the magic button at the driver's side kick panel yielded no results... So I just wondered what my options were. I'm going down my list and towing was third. I assume the answer is no, but If the systems are all ok and just the HV bat is discharged, and I key on and tow (and slightly brake for dynamic charging), I wondered if there was any harm / any gain.

 

No, but that's a great way to destroy the transaxle.

Make sure you are following the HV jump start procedures correctly.

• is your HV battery the original? If it's been replaced with a newer model year, it may not have the jump start anymore. The jump start converter is IN the HV battery.
• when jump starting, are you doing it without the key in the ignition? Basically, you just open the driver's side door, open the panel, press the button and walk away.
• It may take multiple jump starts to actually get enought juice into the battery to permit starting. Long term sitting causes the voltage to go dormant. Brief charging can inflate the voltages to where the car thinks it can start, but as soon as you attempt to start the car, the HV battery voltage plummets.

I recommend the following steps.

1. Ensure the HV battery safety disconnect is installed to permit normal operation.
2. Attach a 10A charger to the 12V battery.
3. Disconnect the 12V battery for 15 minutes
4. Reconnect 12V battery and ensure there are no loads on the 12V (no interior lights, etc.)
5. Press HV jump button
6. Close driver door and walk away, set 30 minute timer
7. repeat steps 5 and 6 eight times.
8. repeat steps 3 and 4
9. attempt start.

The HV jump start takes approximately 8 minutes. The purpose of the 30 minute wait is to insure the 12V remains charged by the 10A charger between jumps. Per the manual, two HV jumps can deplete the 12V battery.

If you have a 20A+ charger, you can do the jump charges every 15 minutes. Additionally, if you jump the 12V with a running vehicle, you can jump pretty much continuously as you'll be supplying all of the HV jump current from the running vehicle, but you will have to leave the jumping vehicle running the entire time for over an hour.

 

Lastly, once the vehicle is started, it will need to charge itself. Let it idle until the ICE shuts itself off.

 

Hi S Keith, i read a number of threads where you've helped others with an issue where the high voltage battery was experiencing an issue. I'm hoping you can give me advice on how to handle the situation I'm currently in. I have a 2006 FEH. About a week ago I was driving, and the car shut down with the 'stop safely now' error being raised. I started googling from the car to see what the problem might be, and came across the trick where you hit the button on the driver side panel to jump start the HV battery. That did the trick and I was back in business. Note that I only drove the car for about 5 minutes after that. In hindsight i should have driven longer to give the HV battery more of a charge. I started the car 3 more times over the next 2 hours, but after the third time I experienced the 'stop safely now' failure within just a few minutes. i jump started the HV again, started driving, but hit the same issue again 5 minutes later. Now the jump start needed 3 cycles this time, and I decided to just get the car home. Subsequent attempts to jump start the HV battery were met with a blinking green light on the jump start button, which indicates that the 12V battery doesn't have enough juice to adequately charge the HV battery. At this point I had a rental car, so I connected the 12V battery from that car to the 12V battery of my FEH, then clicked the jump start button on the driver panel. After one cycle my FEH wouldn't start, but after a second cyle (with my rental car still connected to the FEH) my car did manage to start. However, it only started for about 5 seconds before it died again with the stop safely now message.

this all happened about 5 days ago. I bought a 2016 ford edge as a replacement, but my FEH is still in my driveway. I don't want to take 200 dollars so someone can scrap it because I think it still has some life in it. I'd like to sell it if possible. This leads me to my question. Should i have AAA come out and charge my 12V battery, and attempt to jump start the HV battery again? do you have a better suggestion for jump starting the HV battery? Keep in mind I don't have any tools for measuring the quality of the HV battery, so I don't have a way of seeing that my actions are giving me the outcome i'm looking for. Is there an easy way for me to measure it that doesn't require hours worth of my time?

Thank you ahead of time for reading this novel. I wanted to make sure i gave the full sequence of events so you could factor that into your advice.