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Replacing Battery for 2006 Prius to Lithium Ion

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Firefoxyoshi, Apr 10, 2017.

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  1. Firefoxyoshi

    Firefoxyoshi New Member

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    See, that is interesting and I'm glad a lot of you have such helpful information. The mechanic in question seems like they want to replace the entire nickel battery and put in a lithium ion one. But it seems it's a lot more than just that...

    Yeah I'm definitely going to try looking into replacing the battery or the cells myself with a friend before I really consider purchasing another one.

    Also, I just checked the 12V, it hitting around 11.9v without the engine on, once it is on it hits around 14.4v. I also figured it wouldn't be that since as soon as I turn my car on it goes straight to the gas engine instead of the quiet hum from the hybrid battery. But thank you for the suggestion, I would try anything at this point to see if it's anything instead of the hybrid battery itself.
     
    #21 Firefoxyoshi, Apr 11, 2017
  2. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    Replacing with lithium would be great.

    Even if the cost were double what you mention.

    For me, I'm most interested in how they are fooling the car into accepting lithium. I have lots and lots of automotive lithium batteries, would be great to put them to use in a Prius.
     
    #22 ericbecky, Apr 11, 2017
  3. Firefoxyoshi

    Firefoxyoshi New Member

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    Yeah, I have no idea... But it seems from what a lot of you here are saying that it may not be good idea to go with them and instead go with a dealership or find a new nickel battery and do it myself (or just get new cells).
     
    #23 Firefoxyoshi, Apr 11, 2017
  4. Priii

    Priii New Member

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    I heard Toyota was selling rebuilt batteries for around $1500 with a 1 year warranty. Also have seen services that come to you and replace your battery with a known good battery for under $1k...look on eBay.

    SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using PriusChat mobile app
     
    #24 Priii, Apr 11, 2017
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  5. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Seems like the safest bet is the new battery. Cheapest is the diy repair and a grid charger. Most adventurous learning experience would be the lithium transplant. It might be a disaster, or it might be amazing. Either way, we'd know more than we know now, but it's also the riskiest bet.
     
    #25 jerrymildred, Apr 11, 2017
  6. Priii

    Priii New Member

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    #26 Priii, Apr 11, 2017
  7. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    Really?

    You the best buying from a random guy on ebay that can't even spell the world cycled properly is the way to go?
    LOL
     
    #27 ericbecky, Apr 11, 2017
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  8. Priii

    Priii New Member

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    It's an option, there are other options on ebay also. My battery is fine in my 2010. If I had to replace it, I would buy the used / refurbished one from Toyota.

    SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using PriusChat mobile app
     
    #28 Priii, Apr 11, 2017
  9. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    The used refurbished from Toyota re only in a very limited California market and right now as far as I see they are on backorder. As if they aren't really even fulfilling the orders? It has looked that way since I've been checking on it since earlier this year.
     
    #29 ericbecky, Apr 11, 2017
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    while this is correct, it's only 1% of the story. new cells don' play well with the existing ones. so for a decent refurb, a huge amount of time is necessary to rebalance everything. his drives up the cost considerably.
     
    #30 bisco, Apr 11, 2017
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    you need a new 12v.
     
    #31 bisco, Apr 11, 2017
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  12. Firefoxyoshi

    Firefoxyoshi New Member

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    How so? Everything in the car runs just fine, and there's no real reason to show that it's not working properly, outside of the whole hybrid system not working, which I've already had diagnostics tests run on and they've said it's two cells in the main battery.

    From what I can tell, the only reason to get a new 12V is when it drops very low, which it is .1 under 12 when the car isn't on, and then ~14 when turned on.
     
    #32 Firefoxyoshi, Apr 13, 2017
  13. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    a new one is 13+, so, eventually, you may find yourself stranded.
     
    #33 bisco, Apr 13, 2017
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  14. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    IIRC, you said it was 11.9V. That's way low unless something discharged it. The 14V while running just tells you that your inverter is feeding 14 volts to the 12V battery as it should.

    Here's a pretty good explanation. Ignore the part about revving the engine if you don't have a multi meter. Very hard to do on a Prius and wouldn't help anyway. How to Test Your Auto Battery | Battery Testing & Maintenance | Autobatteries.com Without a good 12V battery it's really hard to figure out what else, if anything, is wrong.

    I once found that my 12v was down to 8 volts. Only problem was that the accumulator pump was slow to build pressure when I started the car. You never know what will happen with a low 12V battery.
     
    #34 jerrymildred, Apr 13, 2017
  15. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    #35 edthefox5, Apr 13, 2017
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  16. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    There's absolutely nothing wrong with Lithium Ion batteries. BUT...
    It's uncommon, untested, untried and unknown to the point of being nearly Pioneering to have a Nihm to Ion swap. I certainly would be incredibly hesitant about any shop saying they could do it, or even would do it, and especially for only $1700. Testimonials? Evidence of track record? Experience?

    As pointed out, it wouldn't even necessarily be about the physical change...it's that the entire system, software included is designed to work with a NiMH battery. I'd be very dubious that it could be as simple as swapping out the one for the other. I'd be worried that anyone thinking they can would be either incompetent or ignorant to the reality of the challenge.

    Plus the fact that in the original post, we are NOT just talking about a battery swap but also..."making me a plug in prius".

    $1700 for not only a NiMH to Lithium swap but also a standard to plug in conversion?

    No...something isn't right about the whole thing. Something sounds very, very wrong.
     
    #36 The Electric Me, Apr 15, 2017
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  17. Rmay635703

    Rmay635703 Senior Member

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    About 40 Caddy ELR batteries sold out of junkyards for $900 ish each last year.
    No idea how many are needed to motivate a Prius but if the BMS interface is cheap enough and you can get more than one cars worth from a pack I could see it.
     
    #37 Rmay635703, Apr 15, 2017
  18. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    Those are some huge batteries. It sounds like an interesting project. How did you find sales data for salvage yards? I searched my resources and can't find a single one. I'd buy one just to bust it open. Wiki shows that only 2958 total cars were sold in US and Canada before production stopped.



    Calendar Year     Total sales United States[37][38] Canada[34]
    2013     10 6 4
    2014 1,354 1,310 44
    2015 1,049 1,024 25
    2016 545 534 11
    Total 2,958 2,874 84
     
    #38 TMR-JWAP, Apr 15, 2017
  19. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    I believe last time I talked to Todd at tampahybrids.com he said he had a G2 with lithium battery's in it for sale.
    Maybe he can weigh in and call me crazy lol.....
     
    #39 edthefox5, Apr 15, 2017
  20. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    #40 bisco, Apr 15, 2017
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