Replace Hybrid Battery -- Where to buy dead battery to repair?

Hi. We want to purchase a hybrid battery and attempt to repair, recharge, re-balance, etc as described in this excellent and helpful forums. I'm an engineer and this all seems trivial to do after purchasing the appropriate chargers. This is for a 2005 Prius which is a Gen II battery.

Background: My daughter's Prius battery died 18 months ago and we got a "refurbished" one from a local guy who is very nice and knowledgeable. He replaced it 2 times for free during the 12 month warranty but now the warranty is up and he wants another $1000 to start over again. There are others online that are a bit cheaper.

This time I want to DIY and purchase a dead one and repair it and then replace my daughter's and then repair hers to keep it as a spare. I'm also considering teaching my wife how to refurbish and re-balance to help me resell them as a side business.

Does anybody know where I can get a dead battery? So far on eBay everyone one wants the old battery returned. And all the ones that I can find are already refurbished. Research shows that there's aren't really any selection of Prius at junk yards.

Any ideas? I'm nearly to the point of buying a refurbished one and paying the "core charge" to keep ours.

 

Here in the forum I read people calling many junk jards and none of them having any Prius cars for parts. Do you agree?
I don't want to wast time calling them in vain unless it seems likely to find one.

 

Yes. I have seen ads for 28 (new?) models for $999.
But I also want a core to build the replacement battery,
cycle it, balance it and such so her car is drivable until
until the rebuilt battery is ready.

People who sell all 28 modules. Are they new? or do they
somehow rebuild old modules?

And I'm calling a few junk yards now to see.

 

Ahh to be more clear in my origin post title it says "Replace Hybrid Battery" because her cause is throwing that code right now and her battery isn't keeping a charge very good. But not totally dead yet.

So I'm building a replacement so her car won't be out of commission for over a week while repairing her battery.

 

Yayyy! I just spoke with a guy while will accept $500 for a battery from a Prius
whose gas engine died but he kept the batter to resell. I'll get it tomorrow.
Thanks everyone for the input.

FYI, I tried 4 junk yards and they all said they don't have anything for me.

 

Thanks for that advice! I was wondering how to check it before paying.
What tools should I take with me? I haven't opened one up so I'm assuming
taking phillips and standard screwdrivers plus metric sockets will be enough.
What else? I'll bring my meter to check a few of them at least, randomly
for voltage.

 

Frankly, I'm willing to replace all the modules if necessary to have a really solid battery for
my daughter's car. I think $500 for the ECU and SMRS and the core is not a bad deal
even if I end up replacing all the modules. Don't you think?

 

I do appreciate advice, "Moving Right Along". Still did you read where I said that I'm happy to replace every single battery module? At that point it before essentially a very solid battery, right?

My thing is that I want to build my own battery. But just to get the core metal container that all the modules come in along with the ECU And SMRS is very difficult to get a hold of. I was faced with buying a "refurbished" battery for $600 which will likely have only 1 or 2 modules replaces and then a core charge of $750 just to keep and have my own spare battery. That is $1350. But now I'm getting a "dead" battery for $500 and will spend perhaps $1000 on all new modules. So for $1,500 I'll have a battery that's unlikely to fail for years.

Plus, I'll have the dying battery to tinker with and refurbish myself by replacing 1 or 2 modules, then cycle charge it, rebalance it, test it out in my daughter's car, and then resell it to someone who doesn't find this kind of thing "fun". And get their dead batter and do it over and over. I wanna get my wife involved to help with doing the reconditioning process and help with phone calls since she doesn't have a day job. Then I'll help with local installations.

It'll be fun thing for us to do together and make a little money.

Now that you see the full plan, where are the holes?

 

Jadziasman. I must be missing something. But if I replace the entire set of 28 modules...then she has basically a new battery.

I'm considering to replace the leads to the batteries also with new ones that are more resistant to corrosion and essentially have a better than new battery. It should last for 4 years or more.

I see guys on eBay offering 4 and 5 year warranties on reconditioned batteries with ALL new cells. But they charge upwards of $2,500.

I will enjoy doing this myself and costing only $1,500 for a reconditioned battery with ALL new cells.

Is that so dumb since I'll thoroughly enjoy myself saving both the $1000 and the technical work is fun too?