Battery rebuild in orlando

welcome!

not sure about orlando, but you might want to check in with todd at tampa hybrids.

 

Your nearest Toyota dealer, 2,500$ for a new traction battery and 2-3 years of 50mpg plus mileage, or rebuild it, go a month, rebuild it, go a month, etc.

Spend 1500 for a rebuild of old parts, old battery that die parts or 2500$ for all new parts, installed by a factory trained tech, Jmho,ymmv

 

understood. still worth a call. brilliant gen 2 guy, friendly and very helpful advice, i have no doubt.

 

Call your local NAPA - I believe they sell "Dorman" remanufactured batteries for hybrids. 2 year warranty on them? Just ran a quick search and it appears that here in Indiana at least they are sold by just about every auto parts store out there.

Might be worth a call.

Link to "Dorman" website which can tell you who to call in your area. Hybrid Battery Pack | 587-001 | Remanufactured Hybrid Battery | Dorman Products

I can't vouch for them, but have read here on Prius Chat of a couple people who's used them. One guy, it worked for about 6 months I think, but they promptly sent him a replacement under warranty.

{edit} - 3 year warranty on them. Advance Auto also sells another brand. "Cardone" - no reviews for that brand however and I've never heard of them.

 

Nope. DO NOT DO THIS. Not Dorman nor Cardone. You'd be better off to replace the one or two failed modules yourself than take a punt on one of those "rebuilds".

Your best advice is in post #2. Call Todd, at least, and talk your options through with him.

PS, be wary of reading up information in old threads, say more than 18 months to 2 years old. A lot has changed in the HV battery landscape in the last 12 months and some of that old info is not relevant in today's environment.

 

You can also consider the replacement battery offered by the member 2k1toaster. I think they are new units from China for 1600$. You have to install yourself though.

 

I agree with Fred. If you are DIY @2k1Toaster kit of new cells is your best option for $1600 shipped. You get to keep your old battery and can resell some used functional modules to recoup some of the cost.
Todd at Tampa Hybrids sometimes has good used batteries available. I believe @jerrymildred here has one.

EDIT Here is the link to 2K1Toaster's site.

NewPriusBatteries

 

@ozzy96, I second (or third, or something) the warning about the Dorman and other rebuilds. They don't last long.

Talk to Todd at Tampa Hybrids. If you're at all handy and sure your battery is the problem, take it out and take it to him in another vehicle. You can trade it in on a used battery that has a full set of original cells transplanted from a totaled Gen3. He also may be able to test the battery on the bench and tell you exactly what's going on with it. Price varies with model year of the donor car. The last I knew, it was $2000 for a 2015 battery and lower prices for older ones in $500 decrements, iirc. That was about 7 months ago, though so it may be different now. Todd no longer does the whack-a-mole process of replacing individual cells like Dorman.

Or get with @2k1Toaster about the new 3rd party cells he offers, which would be more work, but get you a brand new battery for way less than one from Toyota.

A used up Prius traction battery is far less traumatic than a bad automatic transmission on an ordinary car.

 

Todd has also put NiMH Gen 4 cells in a Gen 2, if he has one from a totaled car.

 

I thought about mentioning that, but didn't want to throw out too much at once since I don't think he gets his hands on the Gen4 NiMH very often. That would be really nice, though, and I imagine they will get more common before long since I seem to see more Gen4's on the road every day.

 

Only Trims One & Two have NiMH though, Two ECO and up (including Prime) have Li-Ion.

 

Didn't realize Dorman / Cardone batteries had such a bad rep. Apologies... Had only seen a couple threads where people talked about them as I mentioned earlier. Figured with a 3 year warranty they would have been alright.

 

Many times the warranty only covers the battery, not installation. Just because the warranty is 3 years does not mean the battery will last that long.
A new Toyota battery only has a 1 year warranty if you install it, but a 3 year warranty if the dealer does. Since they are the same battery, they should last the same time if competently installed.

Here is an interesting thread by one of the hobbyists here. He starts off my evaluating a failed Falcon Hybrid rebuilt battery.

Just Another HV Battery Thread and Experiments | PriusChat

 

The cells are not the only thing that can fail. You might get lucky and find corroded connections to be the culprit. If the connection goes bad, the ECU doesn't get an accurate reading when under load.

 

Be sure the connections are torqued the proper amount.