Just had to replace the Main Battery in my 2001 Prius

Driving to work this morning the Red Triangle appeared on the video
display with a picture of the battery and the word "Main" under it.
The car run begins to act very strange with the IC engine RPM going
very high. I pull over and turn off the car, when I try to restart it
is completely dead.

I get it towed to my local Toyota Dealer and after a few hours they
call to tell me the main battery must be replaced. The good news is
that the entire replacement cost is covered by the warranty.

I purchased the Prius in Oct of 2000 and it has about 75K miles. Other
than the recalls, this is the first trouble it has given.

Has anyone else replaced the main battery yet?

Does this mean the new battery will last 5 more years?

The reason that the ICE just revs up with no power being delivered when
the main battery fails, is because the delivery of power to the ring gear of
the Power-Split-Device (and to the wheels) is dependent on there being power
delivered to MG-1 to counter the torque of the ICE. Otherwise the Sun gear
just spins and no torque is delivered to drive the car.



"Allen" <allen.massey@> wrote in message
news:1161192471.152662.150360@e3g2000cwe. ...
> Driving to work this morning the Red Triangle appeared on the video
> display with a picture of the battery and the word "Main" under it.
> The car run begins to act very strange with the IC engine RPM going
> very high. I pull over and turn off the car, when I try to restart it
> is completely dead.
>
> I get it towed to my local Toyota Dealer and after a few hours they
> call to tell me the main battery must be replaced. The good news is
> that the entire replacement cost is covered by the warranty.
>
> I purchased the Prius in Oct of 2000 and it has about 75K miles. Other
> than the recalls, this is the first trouble it has given.
>
> Has anyone else replaced the main battery yet?
>
> Does this mean the new battery will last 5 more years?
>

Byrd wrote:
> The reason that the ICE just revs up with no power being delivered when
> the main battery fails, is because the delivery of power to the ring gear of
> the Power-Split-Device (and to the wheels) is dependent on there being power
> delivered to MG-1 to counter the torque of the ICE. Otherwise the Sun gear
> just spins and no torque is delivered to drive the car.
>
>
>

Thanks for that explanation, I have been trying all day to figure out
why the ICE behaved the way it did when the battery failed.

Will the newer Prius fail in the same manner if the main battery is
lost?

Allen

out of curiousity, have you had the SSC 40G hybrid battery resealant
campaign done (or whatever campaign # it is in your home country)?

mrv@kluge.net wrote:
> out of curiousity, have you had the SSC 40G hybrid battery resealant
> campaign done (or whatever campaign # it is in your home country)?

My car was not subject to that recall.

I have only had the steering rack and computer recall's

On 20 Oct 2006 06:32:17 -0700, "Allen" <allen.massey@> wrote:
>
>I would of liked a "HAL" like announcment on
>the display that there is an 90% chance of total battery failure within
>the next 72 hours.

hehe, I.m getting kinda old. Can we ger a human beiing version
when that's accomplished? Thank You.

"Bill" <bill@home.now> wrote in message
news:X8OdnXjivcyj0aXYnZ2dnUVZ_qadnZ2d@onvoy.com...
>
>>
> That's just great . We can only hope Toyota will re-design the device
> so the ICE can propel the car if the main battery fails.

The great thing about the Toyota's hybrid transmission is its simplicity.
However, it does mean that the ICE has no low end torque to the wheels, as
it counts on the electric motors to perform that function. I cannot see any
way that Toyota could provide backup for this kind of failure without
turning their beautiful, simple, reliable transmission into a complete
kludge. Therefore, I doubt they will ever consider trying to engineer a fix
for this.

Paul

Michael Pardee wrote:
> <HCLQ> wrote in message news:nfs8k2d8makof0nmg0g5i0g3v3ntdh90gq@...
> >
> > Will they bury the victims in a hybrid coffin?
>
> Awfully dramatic. In 35 years of driving I've experienced sudden shutdown
> many hundreds of times and never panicked over it. Virtually every car made
> can be expected to die unexpectedly at some time, and main battery failure
> is so rare as to not be worth worrying about. The Nissan I traded in for my
> wife's Prius died several times a day for two months - sometimes only for a
> second, sometimes for half an hour - before I was able to track down the bad
> connection responsible. If stalling were all that serious there would be
> ambulances sent out as a precaution when a tow truck was dispatched.
>
> Mike

Michael Pardee wrote:
> "Allen" <allen.massey@> wrote in message
> news:1161200346.863575.300500@m73g2000cwd. o...
> >
> > I have read many accounts of people running out of gas and the electric
> > motor allowing them to limp to a gas station. But evidently the ICE is
> > not very functional as a standalone power plant.
> >
> Not functional at all if the electrics fail; the electrics provide the
> "ECVT" transmission action. It makes sense the ICE would rev freely under
> those conditions. It is interesting that without the battery operating the
> HV system is basically inoperable, but it's not terribly surprising.

To further describe it.

This is how "neutral" works. Since the gears in the tranny/diffy are
always engaged, neutral is achieved by disconneting all power from both
electric motors. This is why the batteries will not charge in neutral
- no power goes in or out of the MGs. In neutral, the ICE spins but
delivers no torque to the wheels as MG1 freewheels backward. Losing
the HV battery system will create the same condition - like putting the
selector in "N".

On the other hand, if you run out of gas, or the ICE otherwise fails,
you can "limp" around for a short time on MG2 until the batteries die.