Help! 2005 Prius with 180kMi needs new battery pack

But most don't drop $2 - 4K parts. I still can't understand all the jingoism surrounding the Prius.

 

Your guess, based on......nothing but a guess, I guess.

And "jingoism" ??
I think that characterization is inflammatory itself and the term
doesn't even really apply well.

It is simple pride. Maybe misplaced and maybe not.
Certainly NOT something worthy of a debate, I think.

Might as well debate who is the best NASCAR driver.

 

I'll go out on a limb and predict that most Gen 2 Prius' will make it to 300K miles even though some will need traction battery replacement before reaching that milestone. Since you have "only" 180K miles (mine has 30K more miles than yours with the original pack), it's a reasonably safe bet that you'll make it to 299,999 miles with a replacement pack.

Your choices are limited. You can sell your car as is but you won't get much for it. You can purchase a new or re-manufactured pack with no assurance that something else will fail that will cost you even more. There are few guarantees with a nine year old car. But remember, it is a Toyota and the Gen 2 Prius was built to last.

I encourage you to replace your traction battery (new or used).

 

Hi Greg. If I were in your position I think I'd go for one of these two options.

1. Straight secondhand (not rebuilt or reconditioned) from a lowish mileage wreck. This if you plan on keeping the car three or four years.

2. New battery from Toyota if you plan on driving it as long as possible and joining the 299999 club as jadziasman mentioned.

 

I hear ya, then you gotta go with your gut. I did forget to mention one option to you and that's Steve at autobeyours.com. I forget he started reconditioning batteries. Now I know you'll find plenty of good feedback on him.

 

I'm interested to know the name of your Phoenix dealer parts dept source for future reference.

 

What's the online price and the final price in person?

 

I buy majority of my parts from there now, I just didn't know there's still room for negotiations beyond their online listed prices. I've heard of people ordering over the phone and going in to the dealer to pickup. That method is cheaper than their regular over the counter retail price.

 

Congrats to you. Assuming you had disconnected the 12V battery as the first step in the process, the DTC would have been cleared.

 

well done!

 

Just to make the decision even harder, I recently reconditioned my own battery pack with help from posts on here. I bought two replacement cells off ebay for a total of $85, an instructional dvd for $15, and 3 battery chargers to do 12 batteries at one time for $450. I had some 16 ga wire and some crimp on terminals and wire nuts to make jumper wires with. Besides my time, my investment has been $550. I still plan to sell 2 of my 3 chargers to recoup some of that. I was able to get all of my batteries back to about 95% of the original 6500mAh capacity. So far, so good.

The guys at the dealership sounded shocked to hear that I fixed the car myself when they wanted about $4900 to do it. It did take me about a month to do it though. The wife got to drive my 2o year old beater for a while, bless her heart. It was well worth it for me. It's not hard at all if you have any kind of mechanical ability.

 

Wow greasemonkey, that's a pretty steep price that the dealers were asking. Are you in the US or somewhere else?

 

This is a quite a price at the dealer. As you would expect they have a higher cost than independent shops.
That said, if the new battery is $2,500, that is an awful lot of up-charge.

While you saved money doing it your way, most people do not have a month that they can be without their car. It does provide great satisfaction, though. Congrats.