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The hazzards of owning a hybrid

Had this discussion with a friend. The packs aren't serviceable by the dealer. It's not the dealer's fault they can't diagnose the pack themselves. If anything it's simply poor design of the pack that allows the corrosion/tarnishing to occur in the first place.
 
Carson Dyle said:
Hell of a story. I'd be so incensed at that dealer, I'm not sure I could keep myself from hurting someone.
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Dealers are forbidden by Toyota from doing anything other than swapping out battery packs, iirc.

The dealer cannot fix a battery pack, even if it's a simple and obvious repair.
 
NutBucket said:
Had this discussion with a friend. The packs aren't serviceable by the dealer. It's not the dealer's fault they can't diagnose the pack themselves. If anything it's simply poor design of the pack that allows the corrosion/tarnishing to occur in the first place.
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This is what I would go with. It would be one thing if you had certified battery service technicians that could diagnose and replace bad or dying cells and they still only told him the replacement costs.

Problem is car servicing has become more and more of a parts replacement system. Less and less stuff is re-workable. If something gives up an error it gets swapped.

In this case I wold ask why an "un-serviceable" battery pack had unsealed connections to each cell. Why isn't like an RC car or any other multi cell battery system where only the single connector to the device is open, and even that connection should be in something "more" sealed than a steel casket under your carpet. Something like a connector inside the casket where the single connection creates a seal would be a billion times better.
 
Toyota threw in an extended warranty for the hybrid battery in my car for as long as I have the car so I'm not really worried about it.
 
Insomniator said:
Yeah I wouldn't expect the dealer to spend 4+ hours diagnosing something that might not end up with a fix.
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Do voltage checks of the 34 individual cells, then clean all contacts. To me, that sounds less labor intensive than a tire rotation, oil change and brake inspection.
 
Did you watch the battery video?

It'll take an hour just to remove the battery given that it is not a standard procedure whereas a tech can probably get the wheels off of a car in less than 5 minutes.

No dealer will clean the contacts either. There will be an invoice for 34 buss bars and that is only after they verify beyond a doubt that that is the issue.

In this scenario, the guy had absolutely nothing to lose so he pulled the thing apart then cleaned the buss bars on a suspicion.

At no point did the owner of the camry blame the dealer, I don't see what you're getting hung up on. It sucks sure, but we live in an age of replaceable parts. The labor and parts that would have gone into this would cost a few hundred at the dealer anyways so it wasn't actually $4400 vs $10 in reality.
 
the dealer most likely has to deal with a liability such as the car bursting in to flames because the tech who serviced the car had a feeling.

i don't know if you guys have sen a lithium ion battery catch fire but it's not a pretty sight and it is hot like 1000 plus degrees hot.

makes sense why toyota just replaces them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTbUP0sGQT8

a laptop with a lithium ion battery failing.
 
master_shake_ said:
the dealer most likely has to deal with a liability such as the car bursting in to flames because the tech who serviced the car had a feeling.

i don't know if you guys have sen a lithium ion battery catch fire but it's not a pretty sight and it is hot like 1000 plus degrees hot.

makes sense why toyota just replaces them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTbUP0sGQT8

a laptop with a lithium ion battery failing.
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The Camry uses NiMH cells.
 
master_shake_ said:
regardless...

that is why they don't service them.
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See post #5.

They don't service them, but it's unlikely to be out of fear of a fire.

It's most likely a bean counter decision.

It should be perfectly safe to remove one bus bar at a time to clean them, never having more than one off at a time.
 
LTC8K6 said:
See post #5.

They don't service them, but it's unlikely to be out of fear of a fire.

It's most likely a bean counter decision.

It should be perfectly safe to remove one bus bar at a time to clean them, never having more than one off at a time.
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or all 34 at a time

Soaked all 34 buss bars in a vinegar solution then a gentle scrub with steel wool before going into a solution of baking soda and water to counteract the acidity of the vinegar. I'm holding one cleaned and one dirty buss bar. This process was also done on the steel nuts that hold the buss bars on. It took an hour or so to clean everything up and reinstall (with anticorrosion solution applied) before I reassembled the battery.
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having worked at toyota for a while now, I can honestly saw I fucking hate the prius even more now. Such a piece of crap. At one point last month I had 2 towed in a day for 2 weeks straight.
 
You know I've wondered why they don't use something like penetrox on the electrical connections to prevent such a thing. This was a major issue on the 2001-2003 Prius yet the '04 doesn't have this issue. Why the fuck would the '07-'12 Camry Hybrid have this issue???
 
I did a similar repair on a 2001-ish Prius, including replacing a voltage sensing harness. It's really easy.

This cock-nozzle gets 6,000+ fake internet points for following a DIY on a website... no internet justice.
 
tortillasoup said:
You know I've wondered why they don't use something like penetrox on the electrical connections to prevent such a thing. This was a major issue on the 2001-2003 Prius yet the '04 doesn't have this issue. Why the fuck would the '07-'12 Camry Hybrid have this issue???
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$$$ at manufacturing. The hardly make shit on the cars sold as new. Engineers say it won't be an issue until after warranty expiration, so they don't care. See this in a lot of manufactures actually. Especially the Rav 4 strut design. They have a washer that breaks off and gets jammed into the piston at around 45k miles and then requires replacement of the strut assembly.
 
HybridSquirrel said:
$$$ at manufacturing. The hardly make shit on the cars sold as new. Engineers say it won't be an issue until after warranty expiration, so they don't care. See this in a lot of manufactures actually. Especially the Rav 4 strut design. They have a washer that breaks off and gets jammed into the piston at around 45k miles and then requires replacement of the strut assembly.
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Classic Toyota shenanigans. For more evidence, check out 1zze-fe oil consumption. :awe:
 
JCH13 said:
I did a similar repair on a 2001-ish Prius, including replacing a voltage sensing harness. It's really easy.

This cock-nozzle gets 6,000+ fake internet points for following a DIY on a website... no internet justice.
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This is the guy is a part of the enthusiasts group that build and maintain Jurassic Park Jeeps and Explorers. So not just some average run of the mill cock-nozzle.

Here is some of his early work on his Explorer.

http://imgur.com/a/DMJKl#0
 
I look at it like this: if just one other guy finds the same problem and fixes his battery pack using this guys (stolen,borrowed,copied, use whatever term you want here) information, it is a success and keeps another battery pack out of the recycle loop.
That is the big 'gotcha' that hybrid and electric car antagonists like to toss out, the battery pollution.
 
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