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So, electric cars and repairs. One of the drawbacks of the new technology most of us hope will cut down on some of our pollution.
A DIYer recently had an issue with his recently purchased Camry Hybrid. He was driving and a bunch of lights came on. He Googled the issue and it pointed toward a faulty brake actuator. He got the car used so there was no warranty.
He took it to the Toyota dealer and they spent 4 hours on it.
“Are you sitting down?”
“Should I be?”
“Um. Yea I think so. Your hybrid battery has ‘gone bad’ and needs to be replaced. It’s a $4400 job.”
He paid less than twice that for the car, but that’s probably not the important thing. $4400 repair???
He thought about replacing single failing battery cells.
He watched a Youtube video and learned how to disconnect the high voltage supply (this is a very serious procedure. It is dangerous. You need special protective equipment and you need to know how to do it safely.
You can remove individual failing cells and replace them for around $45. He did just that. He checked them all out but didn’t find any problems with any of them.
So he went on to corrosion possibilities. On the connectors. He popped them all off and cleaned them with vinegar solution (gently scrubbing with steel wool). He said it took around an hour to clean all the buss bars and steel nuts. He reinstalled them with anticorrosion solution applied.
All the error codes were gone. Everything was fine.
