Really good question IanL, which made me look back in to my OBD data before trying to make my own opinion on this issue.
My trip to work (50km) after all night plugged in with 240V/2kWh charging cable.
Knowing that at work I charge 8kWh from 40% to 100% tells me that my battery can take around 13kWh which is probably 50% off new battery capacity.
SOH 1 34%
SOH 2 72%
Range on meter showing 38km, but I know that I can make 75km without worrying.
After 3/4 hours of charging and rest of the night being plugged, BMS does what it can to balance but in the beginning of the trip this are the figures:
Cell 1 4.08V (worst cell)
Cell 2 3.95V (next to the worst cell)
Cell 96 3.95V (as bad as no 2)
Cells 3-95 3.90 (state of all “normal” cells)
My guess is that no 1 goes up to 4.2V and charging stops, and balancing until morning gets above figures.
After my mentioned trip this are the figures:
Cell 1 2.80V (worst cell)
Cell 2 3.51V (next to the worst cell)
Cell 96 3.57V (as bad as no 2)
Cells 3-95 3.65 (state of all “normal” cells)
After charging to 100% at work and leaving plugged for less time than in the night (probably between 6-8 hours) BMS managed to balance them to the similar values like in the morning before my trip.
My guess is that parallel with balancing redistribution goes around from higher voltage cells to the lower voltage. I know this is happening because after my car being parked whit-out charging, values are changing, specially no 1 gets some energy from no 2 and it’s voltage raises.
Now, if I disconnect no 1 completely (replace it with a connector/cable) and it’s voltage sensor cables connect to no 3 cell, charging will last longer because the worst cell now will be no 2 which is not drastically different to all others, and more kWh will be again stored in to whole battery.
To the question of what will happen with the balancing, I presume that BMS will have less work to do by not seeing bad cell anymore but two times values of no 3.
But main reason for doing this is to avoid having Turtle mode every time when no 1 goes under 2.5V which is a pain in the neck for me.
This is all my “theory” and hope, to be seen in practice soon.
I’m “lucky” that I have “only” 1 bad cell and this might work in my case.