Prius Battery Replacement Kit (GenII/GenIII) with NEW custom cells

It was a joke, regarding how VISA would extend the GB battery warranty. Hahaha.

moto g(7) power ?

 

@2k1Toaster - checking in to see whether you are still selling as I emailed a week ago through the web form to ask about availability and haven't gotten a response yet. Thanks!

 

EDIT- Should have read more carefully. Already answered. My apologies.

 

We have a 2010 that has started to throw the P0A80 code. This is the car my 17 year old is using to get to work. My wife and I were thinking that it may be time to replace it. But we have 28,000 miles on a rebuilt engine (243,000 miles total). Then I found this thread. I placed my order this morning and I am hoping that once this is received and installed, we will get a few more years before my son decides to buy his own car. I am thankful for this site and people like @2k1Toaster that have great alternatives to vehicle replacement.

 

Why did you rebuild? I'm nearing 299,999km ('only' ~184k miles) and its using oil (1 liter per 2-3 tanks, so quart per 17-1800 miles?) but for the rest it is still OK.

 

Bought a 2009 Gen 2 Prius last week. The diagnostic screen shows the battery to be at 13.9 v. I have read that 13.8 v, is okay. I was alarmed to find after having run that diagnostic test, that the battery was suddenly depicted on the display screen as having only a few tiny bars of light purple. Emotionally disturbing color that but upon driving it eventually restored to the usual blues & greens. I don't know how to interpret the changing from blue to green quite yet but, things seem to be working quite well as a system; hilly commute in mountainous terrain with no issues. The return commute is hilly near the end, but a majority of blue bars are present when I start out in the AM. With hope, that is good.

144K on the car. I've driven it about 400 miles with a 42.3 mpg average. Buddy says it blew a tiny puff of smoke when I started it recently. Some fasteners missing on the battery fan ducting so, someone did something, don't know what yet. Anyhow, life-changing to have stumbled into buying this car; I had no idea. After having read & learned about it I simply love this car, the engineering, its being #1 in reliability, the crisp sportiness of it, the support & knowledge sharing of good folks rallying around it, everything about it.

It seems to be a tailgater magnet; becoming more comfortable with that, and trying to become more comfortable with rolling through stop signs which I never do. A neurotic driver, I drive precisely between the lines, come to complete stops at all times, use blinker always, and always leave 3 seconds between myself & the car up front. Is it worth becoming a crap driver like so many, for a few mpg? Maybe...

Now that I have one & understand some of what it represents, I will always have a Prius. Bought a battery from 2K1Toaster last night. Do I really need one right now? Probably not. After having read this thread, I trust 2K1Toaster's engineering more than I trust US-China relations, supply chains, shipping routes or availabilty of materials. More comfortable working with him than the Toyota dealership as well & far prefer to work my own rigs. If I don't need the battery for this Prius right now, I may need it for my next, as-yet unknown Prius friend, that will soon land beside this one in my driveway. One, is not enough!

Many thanks to the electro-geniuses of this thread for their support and knowledge sharing. May the people of the Prius prosper!

 

No, you don't need to become a crap driver, continue as you are. Rolling through stop signs will not increase your MPG by any margin that could be measured.

Welcome to Prius ownership and enjoy your ride.

 

You must know from reading up on the subject that the (purple, green, blue) bars are for the HV (High Voltage, 200 to 250VDC) battery, the one you ordered from Toaster. And that the 13.9V reading was for the 12V battery (what you are actually measuring is the charging- and supplyvoltage from the HV battery via a DC-DC-converter to the 12V battery and all 12V electronics in the car). You both called it 'the battery' in the quote above, so even though you might know, I wanted to stress this difference for anyone stumbling into this thread.

My (also 2009) HV battery is on its way out: I start with full bars minus one and the heating up of the engine drops this to 2 purple bars in about half a mile. So I likely only have a third (wild guess) of the original capacity left, but it still works fine, no worse MPG than when buying the car 8-9 years ago.

 

That, is cool to know dolj, thanks for having mentioned! So many misconceptions about the Prius are being proven false in this experience with the car. It just keeps getting better. 47 mpg average on my second tank, with the studded snows finally off. If only I can finish painting the bathroom my reward will be installing new headlamp housings this afternoon. I think they are the right ones... Wondering if I ought to swap out the headlight bulbs while I'm at it. Haven't yet driven the car at night.

 

Well my recollection is that the 12v battery reading, was much lower than 13.9, I hadn't meant that battery. The first reading was the 12v battery, right & then when I started the car properly the second reading, which I expected to be the HV battery reading, was 13.9. I read that 13.9 was low side of alive for that HV battery though understood that there are other data points to consider. I could have been more clear, thank you for your advise. I have not yet learned what the 3 bar colors represent apart from purple not being great, but I will dig into that soon. There is a lot to absorb.

Here are actual measurements this morning, posted here in reverse order of appearance. Incidentally, apologies as I may have posted in a wrong thread for the topic a few times. Trying not to do that, actually.

 

Cool, you also have a 2009!

I have seen purple 3 or 4 times in 400 miles, I might have a little more time left than you. That is the question, how many more miles can you go. I was guessing that I am around 20% but, no real idea. I wonder if a weak battery leads to short-cycling of the ICE. Might still get great fuel economy but many more run cycles, I was sort of presuming that was happening but have no real idea.

You are considering Toaster's battery? Seems like a quality battery, no reason to expect less of it than Toyota batteries really. It ought to last about as long. It was developed with IR camera checking for heat etc. I believe, I am sure it will be fine. New battery, warranty, Seems like you are close to making a decision there. I was going to wait to install the new HV battery, but I would probably enjoy having it in the car now. Was thinking of connecting all of the positives together and all of the negatives together of the old cells, and leaving them stored like that for awhile, might help them balance out for re-use. Tons more reading to do before then.

 

I have considered Toasters battery but it would cost me more than a new Toyota battery due to shipping to the Netherlands. If I would go for one of Toasters' batteries, I might order 3 or 4 to split the shipping between the 4 packs, use one and sell the rest off locally.

From what I read and saw, I trust his batteries to deliver on its promise of being equal or better than the original. But as also mentioned, my Prius is starting to use oil, so loads of options to consider (Sell my other car and save 3k$/y in roadtax, buy an EV or even two (roadtax free), fix my motorbike, make do with one car, etc.).

The Prius only has the 12V battery to start up the computers and power central locking. Once the car is turned 'ON', even before the engine is running, the High Voltage battery takes over and everything is powered by a converter that changes the 200 volts of the high voltage battery into 14.1V (or 13.9V or thereabouts) for all computers, headlights, etc. You could remove the 12V lead acid battery at that point and the car wouldn't give a rats bottom. (Don't actually do this, it may still need this 12V battery to stabilise the voltage somewhat, but it has no real function at this point).
This converter is pretty much the same as your laptop powerbrick with the only exception that it can supply a little more (around 100A at 14V, laptop powerbricks are mostly 3A at 12V or so for a small laptop to 8A at 19.5V for a really powerful one).

I'm going to attempt a sanding (super fine 2000 grid iirc) and clearcoat spray on the headlights shortly (father-in-law is doing his Hyundai headlights, the 25$ clearcoat spray should be more than enough for 4 headlights but supposedly goes bad in a few days after mixing/opening). The yearly mandatory government car-test has still not mentioned the foggy headlights, but it will fail for sure in the next couple of years. How much were the new headlights?

 

Ask @2k1Toaster for a quote. I understand the bulk of the price he charges is for shipping and, I believe, he already has customers outside the US. The price could be lower than you expect.

 

So those headlights for me were $116.99. They delivered fast but, Netherlands I would have no idea. They are packed very well. Looks like a straightforward install. I'm about 75% sure that they are the correct part. I swapped the lenses out on my F-250 & it looks just great with the new ones. Gives it the feeling of it being a new truck though it's 18 years old. Polishing those lenses should let more light through, I started out by doing that on my Prius lenses with a kitchen scrubber, made it better but ended up scratching circular lines in them. So I did them in basically. Got some hub caps coming, they were $50. I am thinking that I had better buy a new battery, I mean the 12V, smaller battery since the voltage reported seems lower than it ought to be from what I've read. Not completely sure about that. I can't find an aftermarket 12V battery for it, guess I have to get the Toyota battery.

Yeah hit up Toaster, I think I paid a lot, like $300 for the privilege of being in the US on shipping of his battery though it's entirely reasonable and included in the cost, you could luck out, could be cheaper! I hope that I get a bumper sticker with the battery.

At 53 mpg around here it's a no-brainer; I am getting a second Prius.

I suspect I am burning oil as well but have to quantify it once I've brought the level up to the dot, I don't want to overfill it. Oil looks burnt so changing that out asap.

Three Thousand in road tax! For one vehicle? No doubt it all goes to a good cause but, seems a bit much.

 

I have had contact with Toaster before, hence me knowing what shipping costs. But haven't made up my mind. No core-charge at Toyota here for the old battery.

As for 12V battery, there are loads of posts on here about that. BritPrius did 'research' on it fitting a wheel-chair battery. Since the 12V battery does not have to start the Prius, you can use deep-cycle batteries: they can stand more abuse* but supply less starting current and since you don't care about the latter in a Prius...


* abuse as in e.g. accidentally leave the dome-lights ON or discharge halfway.

 

I am a bit of a battery hobbyist, salvaging good AGM battery cells from dead UPS's to tinker with, also buy them aftermarket to adapt for projects but for the Prius small battery, since I don't know of an advantage to monkeying around with the existing 12V battery I will probably just get a Toyota replacement that has the proper posts & connectors. Thanks for the tip on the battery threads - it was encouraging enough for me to locate the search function for the forum. I'll check the info, maybe I will change my mind after reading. Converted a pedal boat to electric recently, it uses 5 ea. AGM 12v batteries for various things. I experiment with 18650's a bit. But I digress, this thread is about HV battery packs.

 

This morning after some time I noticed that the check engine light was on. Last time it was 1121 I believe. I pulled into the Dunkin Donuts drive-through, there was a small line so naturally I attempted to read the code - I didn't turn off the car however - I just plugged in the reader. It read that same code, 1120 or 1121, the tri-valve remaining open code. It had showed up previous about 2 1/2 weeks ago; I had cleared it and it never returned. I attempted to clear the code, it looked like it cleared but then just as I was pushing the button with the brake on, the code reader fell out of the socket. This was just as the dashboard was beginning to display. The check engine light remained - along with our friend the red triangle, which I had never seen illuminated before. When I got to work, I tried the code reader again - there were no codes, and the red triangle along with the check engine light, had disappeared again.

Leaves me with the question - is it possible to monkey around with the code reader, disconnecting it abruptly at the wrong time, inadvertently creating that red triangle's appearance, or is it for the most part the real deal when the red triangle shows up. 'Cause if it is, looks like the Toaster battery swap is coming up much faster than I thought. I have 53 mpg on 220 miles or so, the car showed no loss of power, or battery power that I could detect.

Anybody willing to take a guess as to what happened with that red triangle this morning, I know I haven't provided much information but would love to hear any thoughts, thanks.

 

The only time I’ve seen the red triangle on my car is when I hadn’t closed the door completely and was trying to drive it. It gave a cryptic sounding message and had me really worried to the point that I got out of the car and got back in, upon which I realized my door hadn’t been fully closed and when I closed the door after getting back in, everything was fine. I would imagine having a reader slip out of the OBD socket while it was trying to interface could potentially cause a similar temporary problem.

 

This is a strange, oft-repeated shortcoming of Toyota design: simple mishaps, a door ajar, or 12 volt battery running low, trigger bizarre displays that leave owners with little or no clue as to what the heck is actually wrong.