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When did your battery fail?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by THF, Apr 11, 2014.

?

When did your battery fail?

  1. 1 - 25,000

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%

  2. 25,001-50,000

    1 vote(s)
    2.4%

  3. 50,001-100,000

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%

  4. 100,001-150,000

    5 vote(s)
    12.2%

  5. 150,001-200,000

    2 vote(s)
    4.9%

  6. 200,001-250,000

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%

  7. 250,001-300,000

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%

  8. 300,001+

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%

  9. No failure yet

    34 vote(s)
    82.9%
Multiple votes are allowed.
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  1. THF

    THF Junior Member

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    My HV / traction battery just failed, unfortunately, at 192xxx miles. I am wondering what other folks here on Priuschat have experienced. Selection of multiple votes in case you have had multiple failures.
     
    #1 THF, Apr 11, 2014
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    2004: no failure so far, currently at 170K miles
     
    #2 Patrick Wong, Apr 11, 2014
  3. jadziasman

    jadziasman Prius owner emeritus

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    Build date - March 2005

    217,500 miles and counting.

    Monitoring HV battery block voltages daily with Torque app for android. No weak blocks (yet). Temperate climate, relatively flat terrain, and 20K miles per year use are helping to prolong HV battery life.

    Of course, the traction battery could fail today. No surefire way of knowing when and where it will croak.
     
    #3 jadziasman, Apr 11, 2014
  4. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    Bit of a loaded question if ever there was :rolleyes:
     
    #4 GrumpyCabbie, Apr 11, 2014
  5. alfon

    alfon Senior Member

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    2010 Prius / purchased new May 2009. approaching 112,000 miles. Oregon has a 150,000
    mile warranty. So far the battery is functioning just like it was the first day we purchased the car.
     
    #5 alfon, Apr 11, 2014
  6. uart

    uart Senior Member

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    If you ruled out (or at least put in a separate category) people how first sought out this site because they *already* had battery related problems, then you might end up with some kind of useful statistics on the current rate of battery failures. Given the loaded nature of the question however, even in that case the results would be extremely questionable.

    If you're just looking for data on the battery lifetime then you have to understand that no matter how the survey is posed you are inherently only considering the earliest few percent of failures.

    So sorry, but I can't see any meaningful statistics ever being drawn from this particular survey.
     
    #6 uart, Apr 11, 2014
  7. Easy Rider

    Easy Rider Active Member

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    Which battery are you talking about ?
    You know that every Prius has TWO......right ??
     
    #7 Easy Rider, Apr 11, 2014
  8. THF

    THF Junior Member

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    How are you doing this? I would be interested in that.
    I appreciate your skepticism, however one can assume that a goodly percentage of the members of this forum are on here for many other reasons. As we see from the poll anyways, several have said no failures.
     
    #8 THF, Apr 11, 2014
  9. THF

    THF Junior Member

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    Double post.
     
    #9 THF, Apr 11, 2014
  10. Former Member 68813

    Former Member 68813 Senior Member

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    IMHO, if you want to learn anything from a poll on this topic, you should ask about life in years and not miles. Miles are totally irrelevant for HV battery. Case in point: the more hwy miles, the less work for the battery (unless one drives in hilly area).
     
    #10 Former Member 68813, Apr 11, 2014
  11. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    SF Bay Area, CA
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    No failure yet, but only at ~75K miles. Car was bought new in January 06.
     
    #11 cwerdna, Apr 11, 2014
  12. THF

    THF Junior Member

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    I would tend to agree with you, however economics and environmentalism are the only things that sell the Prius. (I do not consider the fancy computers and increased functionality of regular driving the main selling points, although they are points.)
    The economics of the Prius say that the battery should last as long as possible to save as much money as possible per battery lifetime. Premature failures result in an increased amount of time that must be driven in order to recoup losses.
    In the event economics fail, which they usually don't, environmentalism wins, which is why everyone should drive a car with a huge toxic battery, right? (Not putting down Prius in any here, just stating that the battery is not without significant impact.) therefore the battery must collect as many miles as possible in order to gain positive factors such as the reduced amount of fuel needed. Since I do not know the gallons of fuel needed to produce the traction battery, I cannot contrast these points very well. Therefore, I argue that mileage is indeed important and that each battery needs to collect as many miles as possible in order to be beneficial.
     
    #12 THF, Apr 12, 2014
  13. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    I'd say how many 'hours' the car has been on rather than years or miles. 10 hours a day in slow, crawling traffic is going to be much harder than a 50 mile each way commute at 60 mph. Both cars could cover the same mileage in the same number of months.
     
    #13 GrumpyCabbie, Apr 12, 2014
    THF, Tony D and uart like this.
  14. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    can you give us any data on the 'significan't impact' of the battery? i thought they were being recycled and re used.
     
    #14 bisco, Apr 12, 2014
  15. cthorsman

    cthorsman Member

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    July 9, 2013 at 295,000 miles. Cause - lady ran a red light and TKO'd my 2004 blue prius.

    Actually, the battery still worked, but the car was bent in a variety of unnatural ways.
     
    #15 cthorsman, Apr 13, 2014
  16. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    Here is a link to results of a similar survey recently completed:

    SUMMARY and CONCLUSIONS
    It's time to sum up this Gen2 hybrid batt survey. The survey results are more useful than I first thought, when combined with Consumer Reports 2014 Auto Issue new data on Prius batteries.
    • 126 responders
    • 20 replaced batteries (18.9%)
    • 14 of 20 replaced under 150,000 miles (70%) most of these probably under warranty
    • Next survey we should ask how many of the replacements were under warranty
    (see above post for more details)​
     
    #16 wjtracy, Apr 14, 2014
    THF likes this.
  17. cthorsman

    cthorsman Member

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    Is there any accurate resource on data re the traction battery life of the Gen 2 Prius. It is an interesting topic.

    This week I have been reading in the forum about the battery pack, life of cells ... Way over my head but very appreciative of those with greater knowledge and experience taking the time to share.

    Based on my reading, I did this morning pull out my battery fan and brushed off the accumulated dust and debris. In the next few days I will tape filter material over the vent grate.
     
    #17 cthorsman, Apr 14, 2014
  18. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    Consumer Reports published Gen2 (and Gen1 and Gen3) batt life data a few months ago, which I presented in the prior survey posted above.
     
    #18 wjtracy, Apr 14, 2014
  19. cthorsman

    cthorsman Member

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    wjtracy, thank you. I had jumped there before, but this time I scrolled down and found your recap of the Consumer Reports info. I am bouncing around threads picking up ideas on ways to treat the battery pack to aviod problems for as long as possible.

    I like my Prius. I like it every time I pull up to a gas pump.

    It is not perfect. I have one issue I intend to attack soon, but what ten year old car doesn't?
     
    #19 cthorsman, Apr 14, 2014
  20. THF

    THF Junior Member

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    Here is an interesting article concerning batteries and hybrid cars.
    HowStuffWorks "Does hybrid car production waste offset hybrid benefits?"

    The article ultimately concludes that hybrid cars are (duh) more environmental, and that the battery production and technology does cause hybrids to be more energy intensive than regular cars, but cannot be negated by the tremendous gas economy of hybrids.
     
    #20 THF, Apr 15, 2014
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