I just stumbled across this today on YouTube. This guy in Idaho got a 2009 Hybrid in the shop with about 150,000 miles on it. No start/no crank, battery issues, and it had been fairly well butchered by the previous mechanic who worked on it.

In a series of 9 videos he fixes everything that's wrong, charges the battery, and solves a lot of interesting little problems including some wiring issues related to the heated post-catalyst O2 sensor. Wait until you see what the previous "mechanic" did to the driveshaft on this 4WD hybrid. Also he shows his HV battery charging setup and goes through his whole procedure.

Only a few hundred views per video, but there's some good documentation here of various issues including the shifter cable end, how the computer reads off the PRNDL, the MECS pump, battery charging, and many other things that might help someone. Lots of footage. His editing isn't great and some parts are repetitive while he's talking into the microphone, but a lot of it is good stuff and fun to see just how badly some "mechanics" treat the cars they work on.

Maybe stop by and give this guy some thanks for documenting it. I hope he doesn't take them down, they're good reference material. BL Automotive on YouTube. It's pretty clear that in the right hands these cars can last well over 12 years and 150,000 miles. The one in this video looks like it could go another 150,000 with some attention paid to it.

 

While I watched them all and appreciate the effort, I thought they were pretty rough. I'd guess that was the first "highbread" he ever worked on with the way he was stumbling through everything. When I was watching the series I was yelling at the screen he didn't have the green OK light....it took him way too long to figure out he had a depleted HVTB. BTW, the charger he used looks suspiciously like S. Keith's. I suspect he was a frequent visitor here.

 

Yeah I agree. He kind of stumbled around the car for a while, he should have edited this into a few less segments, etc., but there were a few things in the group of videos I think are useful, especially concerning how badly these cars can be mauled and messed up by people who don't know or care what they're doing. It's a real shame because that car looks like it could live for a LONG time to come with a little TLC and competent work. I posted it because there are a couple of things worth watching, or at least very comical, including that driveshaft front CV joint bouncing and banging around. How could anyone have let that out of their shop and gotten paid?

The other thing I wonder is: did he mess up the balancing between the front and rear driveshafts? Are they balanced together and installed as a balanced pair? The front unit has weights visibly tack-welded to it. He didn't appear to mark the shafts with respect to each other when he fixed the front shaft. Also, despite all the disparagement of the previous "mechanic" I don't think he ever checked whether the FLUID in the transaxle was the correct type. He noted that the guy wanted to put the wrong oil and coolant in it, but did he trust what was in the transaxle after that dude jammed it into the car?

So caveat emptor but there are some good bits in there, and a cautionary tale. These are great cars if you don't have to spend thousand$ of dollars to fix what someone else wrecked.

 

I think if they come apart in the middle they will balance separately. My honda's was one piece with a joint in the middle. If he took the joint apart and wasn't supposed to .....