Realistic battery life

I retract my statement then. Don’t worry, the EGR manifold cleaning surprised a lot of people also.

 

Yours is a sad story, but maybe one some of us need to hear to temper our expectations. Whatever you decide to do, best of luck to you.

 

See, that's the difference. 500,000+ miles is a function of distance. 8-10 years is a function of time. Most of the cars that you read about the hybrid battery lasting a ton of miles, usually do so in a relatively short period of time- like with a taxi.

I believe that battery life is more of a function of years, not so much miles. With that in mind, yours died early. You said you are the 2nd owner? When did you buy it and how many miles did you put on it? Have you tracked the fuel economy, if so, what has it been?

 

The Toyota warranty for the Hybrid system should give you a good idea of expected battery life: 8 years 100k miles in most states 10 years or 150k the rest of the states. That suggests to me that most people will get more than the warranty life out of the battery and a few will get less.

 

That warranty is standard in the US with the purchase of a new Toyota Hybrid, I have had no experience with the warranty neither of my cars (the Prius was sold many years ago) have had any troubles with the Hybrid system.

 

A hilly terrain (more regen power) with thinner air at that elevation for cooling may be more stressful for the battery.

I had an instance where battery temp was at 60°C, ambient temp was bellow 30°C. It was the down hill regen to 8 full bars, stopping the car in the middle of the hill for lunch, one hour latter battery temp was at 60°C. The car worked, but going up the hill the engine was doing all the work, it was like battery was disconnected from the drive system.

 

My sisters 2010 has 250,000 miles and the battery is still working great. The engine almost made it to 200k but it's headgasket blew and it burned a lot of oil. Newish engine, and old battery working great.

 

Ok, you've got me beat. When I read @Robert Holt's post about the HV system shutting down at 55°C, I thought I had come close to that (I remembered it as 54°C), but then I looked back at my earlier post and see it was actually 58.4°C. Same situation as yours, we had climbed most of the way up Mount Charleston (near Las Vegas, NV), we stopped at a viewing area, so I turned off the car as we walked around for an hour or so. When we got back to the car, I powered it up and the HV battery fan roared to life. (I had never even heard it running on any occasion before nor have I heard it since). I pulled out my OBD2 reader, and saw 58.4°C for the middle sensor on the battery. That scared me. I believe if I had left the car powered on for the hour or so we were there, probably nothing would have happened.

Our car now has 267k miles, still on the original HV battery, apparently going strong even after the above-described abuse.

 

Also the two things that kill Prius batteries are heat and mountains. You don't get super super hot, but you are most likely doing some up and down.

Well my kit is only $1600USD and is brand new...

 

Interesting. Would you say that's comparable to OEM or better? I assume same Ni-MH technology?

 

Same.

 

So why don't YOU start a hybrid battery service? Be the first to start it in mexico.
I'm certain you could make a good business out of it and probably make good money.

 

With any older car you face this dilemna, sooner or later. I agree the prices are too steep for many items, but they are what they are. Nobody is trying to insult you, it just at some point you have to let go of the car, move on.

 

3 year warranty on the original Prius hybrid battery in Mexico? Wow.

Andres V, did you buy the Prius with rapidly declining hybrid battery? Or did it work fine for a while before you experienced problems?

 

1. How long have you owned this Prius?
2. How many miles did you drive it before experiencing the problems?
3. What was your previous fuel economy compared to now?