painturpool

Hi Everyone,

I recently bought this car with 190k km. The check hybrid light was on (vsc, tc..). Cycled all the batteries and most appeared to be bad.

I have the charge/discharge/capacity info, but to keep it short, the cells were tested as:

2x @5.33v (bad)
9x @6.5v (bad)
20x @7.8 and below (bad)
4x @7.9v >4000mah
5x @7.9v >5000mah

Bad means they didn't appear to improve with more cycles and posted low charge/discharge amounts. Many could not go above 2000mah.
To my unfamiliar eye, looked like a lot of them were not good and I didn't think it was worth it to look for replacement cells myself. Also for the price and huge amounts of time needed to test and reassemble a battery, I didn't want to have a battery with 3000mah.

Before buying the car, I read that most people have a handful of bad cells that need to be replaced. I didn't expect so many out of the whole pack. My thinking is that the last owner drove it until the battery was so low the car would shut off when driving. During that process, the cells just got worse and worse. I don't know if there is any merit to this.

I don't know the compatibility of cells between models/years, but my thinking was replacement cells would also be old. However, this might not be true if cells from newer generations can work. Would a refurbished pack have been a good idea?

Anyways, I decided to buy the lithium cells from Nexcell and will install them as soon as they arrive. Quite a bit more than a refurbished with 2-year warranty, but much less than OEM. Looking forward to the promised performance and just having new batteries. Maybe they perform the same as a new OEM? I would still be happy with that.

stopdrpnro

Any updates?

painturpool

Hi,

Installation was very straight forward, but I ran into issues the first time putting it back together. Car did not start and still had the check hybrid note. I was pretty worried as the car started before, and the voltages on the battery cells all checked out.

After removing it and double checking all of the connectors (did not touch the battery cells themselves) again, I was very happy to find out that the check hybrid notice/VSC light was gone. Car started right up. Voltage differences was 0.05V, and state of charge was at 60%. Everything looks good from the Nexcell Battery so far.

However, I actually made another post here regarding engine issues. Unfortunately, upon start up, it idled very rough.
I proceeded to change the oil only to find the oil was almost greyish and burnt rubber smelling. Maybe it is metal in the oil? I don't think the last owners maintained it well.

After changing the oil, to my surprise, it only rattled for a second upon startup (vvti rattle) and idled smoothed. However, now I get P0017 timing correlation codes.

It's been a rollercoaster. Although I learned a lot, I really do not have the expertise to work on the engine itself. I checked all of the VVTI oil control valves and camshaft sensors (crankshaft sensor not checked), and they are working fine.

I'm told by my cousin who is a mechanic, and he says 90% of the time correlation timing codes are due to stretched timing chain. Usually, faulty sensors will give a "open circuit" sensor code.

I thought maybe more oil changes and cleaning of the engine will fix the issue since it made a huge difference the first time. But after 2 oil changes and using Liquimoly Proline engine flush for 15mins, the check engine light still comes on and shows P0017(bank1 exhaust cam/crank sensor correlation). Longer drives (more than 30min) start to show P0016(bank1 intake cam/crank sensor correlation) and multiple misfire on 1/3/5 cylinders, so the entire bank 1.

The oil was relatively clean even after the flush, so I don't think the engine was actually that dirty. I also compared the oil control valves/cam shaft sensor to my 2008 Sienna, and they appeared to be much dirtier (more oil varnish) than the Lexus.

I'm no mechanic, but I'm thinking perhaps this car had regular oil changes previously, but perhaps neglected as of recent/last oil change.

I'm going to check the timing by opening the cover...but aside from that, I'm going to get a shop to work on it, or just sell as is.

If anyone has any idea of the cost of replacing timing chain/vvti gear, it would be helpful. I do want to spend the money to fix it because it's such a nice car and has a new battery. It's very smooth and has huge amounts of torque. But, I don't have much more time to spend on this...testing and charging/discharging the battery initially was like consuming my life. I wake up thinking of charging/discharging the next cell etc. And to do 40 cells was not fun. All to find out I should have just tossed the battery out from the get go.

TLDR -
-new battery was easy to install
-voltages/dr prius status checks out
-check hybrid/VSC lights went off.
-now P0017/P0016 and multiple misfire codes Bank 1 cylinder 1-3-5. This is a separate issue not related to the hybrid issue.

Link to other post on the engine timing issue. Check out the sound clips - https://www.toyotanation.com/threads...#post-14904128

natnut

I'm thinking of using Nexcell for my 2009 GS450h as well. Do let us know your impression of this new traction battery tech as you spend more time with it in your GS.

Alldatjazz

When I first bought my 450h I would have random misfire codes from 1/3/5 etc. I took it to Lexus, Toyota, checked it on Tech stream, did a leak down test, compression test.... You name it, I tried it. I got a different answer from each tech each time. It drove me NUTS.

What I eventually did was run a bottle of seafoam (through the vacuum lines etc), and put fuel injector cleaner every time I filled the tank up. Then I'd run the car HARD on some back roads.
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The codes went away after the 3rd time. They never came back.

These cars have both port and direct injection. I could never get a straight answer as to when/why which injector was being used at any given time, but I have a hunch that whatever injector it uses when it starts, got a little clogged or something. Idk. It never showed on tech stream.

Those problems also gave me the crank position sensor errors etc. All are gone now.

I hope it's as easy for you as it was for me. Although getting there sucks

painturpool

New updates on my post. Slowly getting closer to trying out that new battery...

https://www.toyotanation.com/threads...#post-14904128

Thanks for the support