2005 HV Battery Replacement - useful info and question

Very interesting info regarding the expected warranty length increase. Thanks for sharing that.

One possibility would be to swap batteries between the 2004 and 2005, then you perform your $70 repair experiments with the failed battery using your car, to get any latent bugs out before swapping the repaired battery back to your wife's car.

If your wife wants a high level of assurance regarding road trip issues, she needs to buy a new car. Even if you buy a new battery for her car, any other number of problems potentially could occur now that her car has logged more than 100K miles.

 

There are basically four sources for replacement batteries, and in the end, they are all more or less the same.

The actual batteries are, as far as I know, no longer manufactured. So *all* batteries, even from the Toyota dealer, are rebuilt.

The four sources are:

* Toyota - your price seems to be the going rate.
* Aftermarket parts suppliers - I saw that Dorman sells them. You can order those through places like Napa Auto Parts or O'Reilly. I believe I saw it for around $2000, plus a $1000 core deposit that you get back when you return the old battery.
* Specialized hybrid battery repair shops, rebuilding batteries from retired Priuses. Those seem to be available for $1100 (with a 12 month/12k miles warranty) to $1500 (with a 24 month/24k mile warranty).
* Specialized hybrid battery repair shops, rebuilding your own battery. They'll test every cell, and replace only the bad ones. I've seen that for around $700.

Individual cells seem to go for around $25 (there are 28 cells in the battery pack).

Some of the hybrid repair shops seem to be fly-by-night operations, and I have seen some disappear, with their Web site being the only trace they ever existed. Others seem to be thriving and have been around for a long time.

A couple notes:
- The warranty terms should give you a general idea of how trustworthy these batteries are - and that's true regardless of Toyota or aftermarket.
- Your wife's short trips certainly contributed to the problem, and may even void the warranty on a replacement battery (I have seen a warranty that said you must drive the car for at least 30 minutes every other week).

I drive mostly highway, and my battery lasted for 300,000 miles (and was still going strong when the car died for other reasons).

You could solve this issue by alternating cars every week, so both cars get a regular highway workout.

If you can't do that, your wife might be better off with either a conventional car, or possibly an electric car. If you live in an area where it's available, you might also look into Zipcar or similar services. Since she only works one mile away, if health allows it, she may actually be better off with a bike, taxi, or similar.

 

^^^ this is incorrect ^^^ toyota batteries are new and still being manufactured. there is one clown here who insists they are not, but refuses to supply any proof. whereas, others have taken pics of the cell date codes.

thank you for the info on the three year warranty, that is a big change.

there are methods posted on priuschat for rebuilding that result in something better than whack a mole, but they take time and attention to detail. that's how dorman can give a 3 year warranty, and why they are not cheap.

 

About a year ago, my Prius started showing symptoms of old age, and for a while I suspected the battery. At the time, I shopped around just to have an idea what I was in for, and I recall asking the Toyota dealer if the battery was new or remanufactured. That is where my information came from. I haven't been able to find conclusive information online. One piece of information: the Gen 2 batteries are apparently very similar, but not identical, to Gen 3 batteries. An interesting site here is: Toyota Prius Battery - Information on the history, specifications, modifications and future development of the hybrid's battery pack. (they include the early Japan-only models, and thus count their generations differently - what I call Generation 2, they call Generation III).

The other piece of information is that I found a battery refurbishing company (Rebuilt Toyota Prius Hybrid Battery Reconditioned and refurbished with NEW cells. - no endorsement, I never dealt with that company) that offers three different solutions: Toyota Gen2 battery pack with used Toyota Gen2 cells for $950, Toyota Gen2 battery pack with used Gen3 cells for $1350, and Toyota Gen2 battery pack rebuilt with new Toyota Gen3 cells for $2350.

That suggests that both statements may actually be correct: the Gen2 batteries and packs are no longer manufactured, but the Gen3 batteries, which still are manufactured, may be compatible enough.

It's probably best to actually ask at the dealer.

 

It is good for Toyota to extend to 3 years. Right now a lot of Prius owners are mistakenly going with lesser quality refurbished batteries from 3rd party vendors due to the vendors offering longer warranties.

The difference is the vendor batteries fail and Toyota's new batteries do not fail. I cannot think of a single post on Prius chat where a genuine Toyota replacement battery has failed (in the USA). There was reportedly one case in Israel when the guy's wife ran down the new Gen2 battery after she ran out of gas.

On the other hand, very often we are hear about fails of the rebuilt 3rd party batteries. Often times the vendor does honor the guarantee and provides another rebuilt battery, but most of us are busy and cannot bother with an unreliable battery all the time. We need to fix it and forget it, if possible.

 

This is pretty good news. Has anyone else been able to confirm this and the timing of 1/1/16? I am currently in the process of sorting out how to replace my failed HV battery on my 2007, being so close to the end of the year, this would come in handy. A call to the dealer might be in order.

Thanks for sharing mark16+4+1!

 

Don't say toy
Toyota don't say there rebuilt.the people here will hammer you like they did me.they don't want to believe the truth watch they will pile on.your post. Check my post

 

Sorry bisco your wrong.

 

Merry Xmas to all

 

Hi Mark. Thanks for the miniVCI data, that was quite interesting.

One thing that really stands out to me regarding the 2004 data is that, with the exception of the one obviously bad module (pair), just how nice and consistent the other modules look. I think that pack is definitely a good candidate for attempting a simple one module replacement repair.

As others have already mentioned, if your wife is overly worried about the situation, then consider swapping the packs between the two cars. Or even easier, swap cars with your wife for a few months until the repair has "proven" itself.

 

Summit auto dorman battery 1305 and 975 core included is shipping to you and return of core.36 month warranty unlimited miles total cost after return 1305

 

Never heard that one before.

 

One interesting question here is how much longer you are planning to keep the car, and how you drive it. In my Prius, the battery lasted 300,000 miles, and the car eventually failed for other reasons. In such a car, it would probably make more sense to use a cheaper battery with a 1 year warranty, just to keep it going a bit longer. On the other hand, for the OP, a Toyota battery may make more sense because except for the battery, that car would still have a very long useful life ahead of it.

Well, first of all, there do seem to be quite a few fly-by-night operators in that market, but also some that seem to be surviving for a long time, thriving and expanding to multiple stores, which I take as a sign that they may be more reliable.

I'm wondering how much the failure rate really is. The tricky part about statistics is that you need to know what you are looking at. For instance, you may hear about failure of 3rd-party batteries but not about Toyota batteries, because few people buy the Toyota batteries at three times the price, so there simply aren't many out there that could fail.

Any idea how much the actual failure rate of 3rd party batteries really is? I can't imagine that it can be very high, or the warranty claims would kill the vendor in no time.

 

Yes I agree that there could be circumstances when a rebuilt battery makes sense. Often times it is quicker so you can get the car back on the road. Replacement at Toyota, especially if you want to bargain with Toyota HQ for a goodwill discount, can take a week or more. Of course, if you have good DIY skills you can fix it yourself.

Shucks no, we got no good data. That could be a good survey here on PriusChat, but that would only tell us what's going on with a few owners.

Anecdotally, we know Lucious Garage moved away from refurb batts several years ago due to reliability issues, and we have quite a few reports here of rebuilts going bad, often replaced under warranty. On the surface I'd say the rebuild vendors seem happy to honor their warranty multiple times.

 

Thanks Mark there is a lot of interest if the new Toyota replacement batt is really 3 yrs now. So far nobody else has heard that.

 

where do we find the 'toyota warranty policy and procedures'?