Long parked 2001 Prius startup help needed

[RedDevil]

Take a look at What to Do When Your Hybrid Car's Battery Dies - Popular Mechanics
Even gently towing it with the ignition on might work, if I draw the right conclusion from some of the facts presented there. It would put the generators in the HSD to work, they might feed the electronics and allow the engine to start.
But I will take no responsibility on this: I claim total innocence in these matters.

[P-hack]

that would be cool if it worked, push your prius around with some regen using another car and see if it lights (after clearing any/all codes and topping of the 12v battery).

Though this is discouraging:
"The worst consequence of a tapped-out Prius would be if the depleted nickel-metal-hydride propulsion battery sinks too low in its charge that the engine and motor/generator cannot charge it. In this case, the battery would have to be charged by a Frankenstein machine that exists only at Toyota dealers. Toyota says that no dealers have ever reported needing to use the machine since the Prius's 2001 introduction in the U.S. Still, you don't want to be the first. "

[Jyden]

Originally Posted by War_Wagon

While that would be the logical next step, I figure y'all are right about what I need to do with this thing, I just needed to hear it from a few people that actually know what a Prius is for a start ha ha. I guess it'll cost what it costs, but at least then I can either drive or sell the thing. As the auctioneers say when you pay too much for something "It only hurts for a little while"

I happend to drive one myselves (Yaris Hybrid AKA Prius C), and I cheked in the manual for your problem, and it states:
Call A.D. at once!

I you are not familiar with the Prius Batterypack (EV battery) I would suggest that you stik to the advice ind the cars manual, before you hurt yourselves or the system beyond repair....

[Cobb]

If you seriously want to diy this then you need a bunch of those meanwell power supplies. You want to hook enough of them in series of the dc output for the cut off voltage of the prius pack 280 maybe a good ball park. You can use others as long as they are stackable. Then you got to find the leads to tap and polarity to make sure you do not reverse charge it. There are plans online for makin grid or maintenance chargers. Mike at 99mpg car has some plans and you can find them for sale on ebay.

[War_Wagon]

I think I have an old portable diesel genset that has 220v somewhere, but honestly at this point I like having all my fingers in their correct locations and me with high voltage seems like it would be a bad combo ha ha.

[Cobb]

If you hook your 220 gen set to your prius battery I hope you record it for youtube.

You need almost 300 volts dc and an amp or so. You want to do it slowly, 350ma is even better once you start to approach full. You dont want to damage anything as those packs and cells are hard to find.

[P-hack]

Originally Posted by Cobb

If you hook your 220 gen set to your prius battery I hope you record it for youtube.

You need almost 300 volts dc and an amp or so. You want to do it slowly, 350ma is even better once you start to approach full. You dont want to damage anything as those packs and cells are hard to find.

Well that is what the lightbulb is for, a 40 watt bulb @ 120v uses 333ma. You do need to monitor pack voltage occasionally, but a couple light bulbs and a voltage doubler (or rectifier if you have 240v) will force a limited amount of current into the battery. Although it is horribly inefficient, it has been done before. As the pack voltage rises, the bulb resistance goes down and allows the current to stay somewhat stable. The goal is to get the pack charged just enough to start the engine. at 6.5ah it will be fully charged in 20 hours at 333ma rate.

But running a couple 40 watt bulbs for 10-20 hours is pennies next to buying fancy chargers.

Another option, I have a triton RC charger, you could charge each cell individually, and identify potentially bad ones (and replace them).

[jamesqf]

Don't know much about Priuses, but with the Insight, I would pull out the battery pack and charge each individual cell (or stick, in the Insight).

[Daox]

If you have an SGII there is an X-gauge that can display your traction pack voltage. I would try that out and see what it says.

[RedDevil]

The Insight pack has a switch midway the pack that breaks if the power is off, so there will be no power to the terminals and no way to charge it when the power is off.
This may also be true with the Prius pack, which would make it a lot more difficult to charge it.