Will I be replacing the hybrid battery?

There are members here that still have their original batteries on the Gen1 cars. Not many, but there's some. Chances are, you will need a battery soon.

I tend not to trust what the dealership service guys tell me. Their interest is really not to look after my interests.

 

There are way more cost effective ways to fix your hv battery than going to toyota. Check out priuskings on YouTube.

 

100% have not changed batteries. However the Gen1 is a beta-test type car. Lots was learned and then the Gen2 (2004-2009) was made which is super robust. You bought a guinea pig and most likely you will have to replace weak components as the time comes. The traction battery in the Gen1's is a weak point and not as robust as the Gen2's that can go hundreds of thousands of miles.

This isn't a guarantee of imminent failure, but eventually it will fail.

 

IIRC, didn't Toyota recall and swap out ALL Gen I batteries? If this is true, then a simple VIN check at Toyota would let you know if you had an original, or replacement battery.

 

say what?

 

I could be thinking of "Resealing" the battery, not swapping it out. As I said above, IIRC....

 

For a long time, Consumers Union didn't have enough Prius battery replacement data to compute a figure. I believe just this past Spring they did release a result, that based on their annual surveys, they are seeing 4% of batteries replaced by 11 years out, rising to 5% at 12 years out (which is about where we are now).

If you consider that about 52,000 Gen 1s were built, that would mean by now there should be about 2,600 replaced batteries in the fleet ... even though that's a small fraction of the number of cars out there, it's enough to seem like a whole lot of dead-battery posts on a car forum. I don't have an easy way to count registered members of PriusChat, but I'm pretty sure it's closer to 2,600 than 52,000. And sure, some people join PriusChat just to preen about their cars, but I think a lot of members join either because they are having trouble with the car, or are worried that they'll have trouble with the car. So, the membership isn't a completely random sample of the fleet.

-Chap

 

Good thing engines and transmissions and brake pads almost never fail compared to non-Prius 12 year old cars.

Bob Wilson

 

Not sure how accurate the data is. Op talked to 3 known gen1 people, 3 out of 3 had battery replaced

 

I was a Classic Prius (2001 model year) owner, and that car's traction battery was replaced under warranty. Same is true for the 2006 Highlander Hybrid.

Amazingly the 2004 Prius traction battery is still working well after 182K miles, the car logs mpg in the high 40's even in the summer, running the AC compressor to maintain cabin temp of 75 degrees in 110 degrees ambient air temp.

 

pbohart
I had the same case in my gen 1 Prius. IMO you should continue to drive this and not worry about it. 84k miles are very little for Prius and HV battery cars need to be driven almost on daily basis. The way to looked it sat most of the time. I would drive it every day and hope for the best.
I had to change the HV Battery just about three months ago. If something goes worn call Toyota and make an issue of it and they will give you 1000 or so towards the replacement and then you can shop around. I git it changed for 2300.00 from Dealer here in Seattle are.
Right now please drive and allow the Battery to be conditioned on daily basis. Chances are you be good for some times. Age of the battery is a big factor. You may have to change it at some point of time. Once these old batteries start to fail just do not change individual cells. It is more cost effective to replace with new. It is simply too old. Once one or two cells are replaced more will go bad after a month or so. Thhis is exactly what happened to me.
Even if you did with my math you are 1300 and depending upon miles you drive a year I believe you can recover 1300 in a yea or so out of Gas savings.
Good Luck.

 

If you drive it long enough you will, of course, eventually need to replace the battery. The question is whether you will get enough use out of it before that time to make your original purchase price a good value. The same basic question is true of any car (if you drive a car long enough, you will eventually have to rebuild/replace the engine/transmission etc.). I would say if it is running/driving without throwing any codes, it gets good mileage, the battery cooling fan doesn't run except in extreme conditions, and the state of charge (SOC) stays mostly at "3/4" with a lesser amount of time at "1/2" then you are probably good to go for a while. Wildly fluctuating SOC and increased cooling fan use were the beginning of the end for mine. But the original battery in my 2001 lasted 286,000 miles before needing replacement.