Well its been giving me the code for deteriorated hybrid battery since I got it 5 months ago. Now the car is draining the 12v when it runs, every time. for a while, it would be draining the 12v when it was running first when I would crank it up for its first ride of the day, sometimes. I would have the battery indicator light on the dash and my 12v cigarette lighter voltmeter would show less than the ~14.0-14.4 that it needs to be. What I would do, is I would rev the engine for about 20 seconds with rpm at about 2.5k, cut off the car, wait a bit, crank it again. If the battery light came on again I would repeat this process up to about 4 or 5 more times if I had to. Eventually (normally after 2 or 3 tries, really) the car would run properly with the DC voltage showing right for the rest of the day and night.

I have replaced the DC converter twice so far and I do believe my current one is working correctly.

I think I need a hybrid battery replacement or reconditioning.

I was hoping I could get some instructions on what charger and load tester I can get and how to use them if I take apart my battery and recondition it. I can buy some sticks new from ali express and use as many as I need. I want to do a good job but I want to do it as cheap as I can. I'm guessing about half the cells are needing to be thrown away and I would like to balance all the cells and package all the sticks back up for the best results. I also would like to really test what i buy from Ali Express very extensively and send back anything that isn't what it should be.. I have been reading up but its real hard to see how this job will go all the way from start to finish. I've got the seats out and I've had the cover off to replace the DC DC converter, I can pull the pack real easy. I've also installed the max volts grid charger which I understand to be a pretty crappy product. Since it cost me $200 I think I'll pull it out and sell it on ebay as a used product. Anyways, any and all advice is really appreciated.

 

When the HV battery is disconnected from the system due to a major IMA fault, 12V charging outside of about 1500-3500rpm is disabled.

Your chances of success are almost zero with a massive time investment. Mixing Chinese sticks with Panasonic ones is a recipe for disaster as they perform vastly differently and will **** the BCM off, AND most of the stick suppliers are selling the cast-offs of one of the TWO Chinese cell manufacturers, and of those two Chinese manufacturers, only one is okay. The other sucks, so you're getting the worst of either the best or the worst... but most likely the worst of the worst based on the pictures. When it comes time to do a warranty claim, they'll require you to ship it back to china at 2X the cost of a new stick, or they will claim an improper BCM mismanaged it and caused it to fail.

With my first two '06 HCH, I went through 15 batteries to get 3 good ones, and two of those 3 required regular grid charging.

If you want to do it right, call Bumblebee. Buy a new/refurb pack and be done with it. Your other option is to waste a ton of time and money. If you manage to succeed, it will be short-lived.

 

what if i get the regular sticks from the "okay" chinese manufacturer, and replace all 11 sticks? is that a viable option? how do you buy it from the "okay" manufacturer? what a ****ed up situation to be stuck in.. hah

thanks for giving it to me straight, though, that is invaluable

 

Doesn't matter. You're getting the second hand crap the big builders won't accept from either manufacturer. Yeah, replace them all, and it can work, but you're pushing the cost of a reconditioned pack and about 65% the cost of a new one, and you basically don't have a warranty no matter how many years they say they're warrantied.

You obtained a car with a major system failure. It's on the scale of a bad transmission. Used hybrids are frequently not good options, and used honda hybrids are often like punching yourself in the face when it comes to their batteries.

Do you want to fiddle or fix? If you want a weeks/months long project, pursue the stick refurb. If you want to spend almost as much as a high quality recondition on Chinese crap with no warranty, swap out all the sticks from Alibaba. If you want a fix and get 40mpg+ routinely, get a replacement.

You may get lucky with a stick purchase, but you will be right back here inside of whatever warranty they offer, and you'll be fighting for your warranty. IF they honor it, they'll replace whatever stick(s) is/are obviously bad. If you buy a replacement pack, and it goes bad in the warranty, you get a replacement pack.

 

I will be pursuing the path of reconditioning. I just got 11 used stick pairs from ebay for $315. That looked like a real good deal, guys selling separate sticks (or bundles of 2 sticks) are making twice that amount by breaking it up.

Which charger should I buy? I'm seeing several guys are using RC car chargers? Is that a good idea? Should I buy 2 or 3 of those to make things faster? Is that called for? What's the best load tester (carbon pile tester? ) for the whole project or do I need one for the sticks and one for the pack?

Thanks

 

OK ...all the batteries have arrived. I need to buy a charger. What charger and charging / discharging process can I read up on / purchase?

 

Targeted at Insight, but process applies:

http://99mpg.com/ProjectCars/grid-ch...mimapackwhack/

Turnigy Reaktor 1000W and a good 12V power supply (20A+). Without regenerative charging, you will be limited to 80W discharge power. Better results will be had by individually processing sticks rather than doing whole subpacks UNLESS you discharge into a battery to get the charger's 1000W/30A discharge capability. Charge will also log the entire process, and you should observe those results to insure nothing funny is going on.

Don't expect much help. I don't enjoy people setting their head on fire and then being the guy who hands them a hammer to put it out.

You would be MUCH better off processing the entire pack via the grid charge/discharge cycling process. Charge it back up, sit for 7 days and then test all 11 subpacks at that time.

EDIT: You should not expect a favorable outcome without luck.

 

How do you do a grid charge/discharge cycling process ? I am not convinced my max volts is even working. I might need to get a decent grid charger before I can even try to do this process. Which grid charger is half decent?

 

Main thing I'm after is getting back on the road without the 12v battery symbol active on the dash.

 

If that's your sole goal, you I'd give you 50/50.

2X APC-35-350 input in parallel, output in series with a 400V/1A diode on one or both output leads. Use pack master as on/off. This will give you 56-200V of 350mA charging, which is a little more current than the MV charger offers. If you hook the MV up and see the voltage increasing, it's working.

Use 2X 60W light bulbs in SERIES as a discharge load.

Charge until ONE of the following is met:

• 25 hours
• pack exit air temp > 100°F (You MUST force air through the pack - at least a trickle should be felt)
• voltage does not increase for 8 hours
• 20 hours minimum AFTER a discharge to < 120V

Discharge with bulbs in SERIES as you'll probably pop single bulbs.

1X discharge to 106V
2X discharge to 66V

Charge in between each discharge and after 3rd discharge.


Hmmm... just remembered you have loose sticks w/o a pack... Not sure what I'd do in that case. You could string the sticks end to end in series and simulate a pack on the bench, but that would be... exciting... from a danger standpoint.

Do NOT process sticks connected in parallel. Danger Will Robinson.