Help! 2004 - 150K miles and battery issues

I wish the newbies would look at the DATES on posts before responding. This thread will soon be two years old, so any advice provided is unlikely to help the original participants.

 

Sorry, I was just browsing and found this........

 

did we ever get any info about what finally happend?
the car is stil driving around?

the dealer can connect a service device where it will read the cell voltage's of the HV battery pack
you can do this during driving to and see what the cells do.
with this you can see without taking anything appart if there is a problem with the battery.
also hv battery can be read and you can see if its drops fast.

 

Any new update/experience for same situation - about to buy a 2010, III given 0% financing, 1750 over Blue book, and additional potential dealer incentive

Need to make decision by Post Turkey Day

 

A Gen II Prius (2004-2009) is a much better value. There are a lot of them on the market right now and prices have fallen quite a bit. The HV battery lasts for a very long time. If you buy a car that was originally sold in Maryland or another East Coast state that has adopted California emission standards, it should come with a 10 year/150,000 mile warranty on the HV battery. I would expect that you could put 100,000 miles on a 2009 with just oil changes and tires. In this economy, don't pay $1750 over Blue Book for anything!

 

Sorry new to chat, so I need to e-speak more clearly.

What I meant was that the dealer would PAY me $1750 ABOVE BBK when I buy a new 2010 Prius (debating between III and IV), they also have 0% financing, 2 year free maintenance, etc. We will prob buy the car, but issue whether to trade it in the 2004 car as the trade in reduced monthly payments @ 60 month 0%, and reduced the MD sales tax.

 

You are talking about a 2004 Prius that you are trading in for a $1750 over wholesale? Okay, so buying NEW is always worse financially than buying used, but, given the poor market for Gen II (at least it is pretty bad out West) you are probably better off taking that deal. Just be sure to decline all offers for extended warranty and make sure that the price you are being offered on the Gen III is consistent with what everyone is paying. I would expect your 2004 to last for many more years with regular maintenance, by the way, if you were thinking about keeping it but got worried about long term reliability by this thread.

 

The battery manual can be had over the internet, not from Toyota, and costs about $50. You need to Google for it. It tells how to safely remove and disassemble it for testing each individual cell and for replacing a bad cell, or easier yet, buy a new traction battery from an 09 wreck for around $750 and put that in, but using your current charging computer module from your current year's battery pack put in where the 09 one was in the 09 pack.