What problem is the Prius killer? What is the most common thing to take a Prius off the road?

Toyota has designed the Prius to go 180k miles, that's the life of the vehicle. The battery pack is designed to last the life of the car.

If you're planning to buy a car that has over 180k miles and want to reach 300k miles with it, then you are basically buying a car that's already past their designed useful life. Anything can break and it can be the kiss of death. But replacement parts are everywhere, if you're good at DIY, it may not be a kiss of death.

 

Ignore the title of this article:

2015 Subaru Outback and Legacy | Video Review - Consumer Reports

Scroll down to the table to see replacement rate based on model year as of 2013.

 

welcome! the problem is always when the repair seems more than the car is worth, or it's so old, you start thinking one problem will follow another. if you can diy, the mileage is a lot higher than if you have to pay a dealer.

 

Rather than absolutes, you might have given ranges e.g., 150K - 200K miles. Personally I think the average will be between 150,000 and 200,000 miles. But it could be lower when you factor in Prii with low mileage totaled in accidents.

 

Premature postage above. Here's my personal experience:

2003, 162K, failed, 36 of 38 modules completely dead (AZ)
2008, 130K, failed, HV leak, KOH leaking from 1 module (AZ)
2008, 142K (caught before failure, but capacity was so low, failure was likely to happen soon, AZ)
2006, 130K (caught before failure, but capacity was so low, failure was likely to happen soon, AZ)
2006, 154K failed, one module low voltage (most of its life in San Jose, 6 mos in AZ)

 

We do not know battery life data, Toyota probably does know for Gen2.

About the same time as Consumer Reports 2013 (which is a long time ago now) we had started several surveys here. I think Post #106 sums up my survey compared against Consumer Reports.
Hybrid Battery Survey-Gen2 Prius 2004-2009 | PriusChat

About this same time, @uart attempted to structure here a survey to remove the bias associated with the fact that those clicking on PriusChat may have battery issues.

In both cases we saw, in a minor sampling here, higher batt failure rates than Consumer Reports noted. However, the Consumer Reports data seemed consistent with Toyota claims of <1% failed. Note that was easy to say back then due to so many new Prii on the road. I have not heard Toyota repeat that number with updated figures so mushroom city (kept in the dark).

I am thinking failure rates could be 10% by 10 years old and may level off...not sure.

 

I've experienced the following

2006 - failure at 149970 miles
2005 - failure at 166800 miles
2005 - failure at 299000 miles
2007 - failure at 177000 miles

 

My '07 battery went weak (never died, did a proactive transplant) after 135K miles of desert mountain driving, but that's nearly worst case--high temps and lots of cycles. I believe the 180K number from Toyota. I also think time is a factor--a 10+ year old battery may be at some risk even with low mileage on it.

 

Great data...remind me to allow users to report more than one car next survey.

 

The Prius HV battery pack is a total of 168 individual battery cells. One cell fails and the whole car fails as there is no redundancy built into the Prius that disables a cell once it goes bad.

Trying to get an exact rate of failure for batteries is able like trying to get a failure rate for a business franchise. There are ways to make the numbers look a lot better than they actually are.

Heat is the major enemy of batteries and cars in the south likely have higher failure rates.

That being said if you are willing and able to do a little service work yourself, the Prius is very reliable and cheap to own. A complete used engines can be had for around $300.

 

The best deal is to buy a car with a failed battery at a significant discount and put in a new battery. That way your battery is good for 10 years and you don't have to worry about it.

I believe the car batteries that are fixed within a couple weeks of failure will last a while. The problem occurs when a battery module fails and the battery pack sits off to the side for a few months. This will make the other modules fail and then you end up with a battery pack that is completely useless.

 

Or for $30 fix the HV pack in 1 hour and laugh all the way to the bank with your $2000 discount on the car.

High mileage on cars now days is a bit overrated especially for the Prius so you can find a deal on high mileage car.

 

Are you 48mpg under a different name?

For anyone believing this, there is a salt lick accompanying it...

For a $30, 1 hour fix to work, it requires:

1) you are extremely proficient in removing/disassembling/reassembling/installing a pack (realistically, it's 2-3 hours).
2) you have obtained a good replacement module (eBay is not a good place).
3) said module in #2 is at the same state of charge within 5% of the rest of the modules in the pack and especially with its block-mate. If it's outside this range, particularly with its block-mate, the lower voltage of the two will fail prematurely.

The chances of #3 happening are very low. 5% isn't absolute, the the more it varies, the worse it gets

Even if all of the above 3 happen, you'll be doing it again and again until the pack's usable capacity is no longer able to function effectively in the car (reduced mileage, wild swings in the SoC meter).

 

Define high.

The problem with modern old cars is they're stuffed with expensive systems like antilock brakes, cats, evap, and computers. There's also mechanical stuff like radiators, CV joints, and suspension bits. The Prius adds to this list.

Buy as new as you can and good luck.

 

What is the most common thing to take a Prius off the road?
Motor vehicle accidents. Far more Prius are totaled than wear out the battery, so batteries are cheap on ebay.

prius battery -control | eBay

Even if you have the dealer install a new replacement, the Battery is not the most expensive repair, nor is it the second most expensive repair, although it is third.

The transaxle may fail. $5000 The only voodoo we have is to change the ATF WS periodically, I recommend 30,000 miles then 90,000 miles, then every 90,000 miles.

The Inverter may fail. $4000 Do not jump other cars and avoid getting jumped. Every so often look for turbulence in the overflow tank, so you know the electric water pump is working.

 

2005 Prius purchased new 11/2004 ~263,000mi, original everything except wear items. No problems yet with HV battery. Car sits outside all the time extremely cold winters (dips in the -30s), mixed driving but mostly highway, ~150mi/day daily driver. I believe that USE is a significant factor. Hope this helps.

 

does anyone use mkaresh's data?