No more favours

The casing which covers the battery

Alll the indivual cells linked together

A "Merlin" engine from the science museum

All the cells exposed and each one metered.

A good friend of mine inherited my old Prius, at the time she was having an awful time, her husband had cancer and he died around a year later leaving her with 2 small kids.
I looked after the car since then and it nearly has 400,000 Kms on the clock.
All good until she rang me on my return from London,"John I have a problem the battery is gone in the Prius"
So I asked her to call over and she said she would be there at noon.
I got home and texted her to come as soon as she could.
I rang, no answer.
Finally she rang around 2.30 she rang me to say that she was in Howth.
She had been visiting some Chinese friends who had bought a house for €2 million.
If I gave you a bill for €70 per hour that I was waiting you would not be so happy.
I didn't say much more as I had used the time to steam clean the hall and sitting room.
I checked it and it was the dreaded battery fault.
So I took off my taxi roof sign and gave her the taxi to go home while I took out my spanners and wrenches and stripped the battery down.
When you are not used to doing something it is very hard work.

Really only one faulty cell and it was only 2 volts down.
But I have a plan.
Where all the cells were bonded together there was a lot of corrosion, I will get a small wire brush and copper grease and tighten all the cells back together and see how she behaves.

By the way you are working with 7.5 volts x28 then there is a transformer, so if you are awkward make your will first.

I bought a cell on eBay for €50 but it won;t be here until Tuesday.

I bet you I will solve the problem tomorrow.