Not another 12V battery question!

My 2013 Toyota Avalon Hybrid keeps not wanting to start, even when I'm being very careful to conserve the battery. For an example, last night I shut off the car and made sure all the interior and exterior lights were out immediately. The car usually keeps the headlights and interior lights on for a few seconds, but I didn't let it even do that and shut them off manually. I also locked the Avalon (proof all the doors were closed properly). But when I got back to it less than 7 hours later, the battery was only putting out some 6 to 7 volts and the car wouldn't start.

It's on its original 12V battery, which is going on 9 years old now. So it's probably time to replace. But when I went to all the autoparts stores, nobody carries a battery for it. I was told that they can request the battery, but would have to call me back later with both price and date it would come in. That was yesterday (Friday) and I probably won't get a call until at least Tuesday.

So do I get whatever aftermarket battery this is that so far I have no idea of what brand it is, what guarantee it has, how much it will cost or when I can get my hands on it, or should I go potentially 120 miles one way to a Toyota dealership to get an OEM battery for $300? Of course, mind you the OEM battery I have now lasted nearly 9 years.

 

Thanks! I've never been told that there might be a car part, but nobody is sure if I can get it or what it will cost or when it could come in or even how long it will take until I can know for sure. So it's nice to know that others have their doubts about an aftermarket option as well. If they get back to me I'll let you know. But I think this Monday or Tuesday (depending if the dealership is open) I'll call in and order an OEM battery and make plans to go get it when it's in. I need a 12V for the Prius as well and might as well as go to the big city for both.

Yes, there's a non-hybrid V6 version of the Avalon. And yes, it seems to use the exact same battery.

Ya, it's in the trunk like my 2006 Prius, so technically it's part of the cabin air space. So it's supposed to be AGM for safety reasons.

Probably. But I didn't want this to turn into a "how make sure your battery is actually old and bad" thread. It always seems to me that on the web if you don't rant enough and instead you just say "I have this or that problem" then you get a lot of people that get on and only question whether that's really the case.

Tell me where the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is. I'd like it if someone who has actually bought a battery for this car or a car with a similar situation could tell me what worked for them. You asked if I'm sure that I've exhausted my resources here. I could keep calling and going back and asking until I either get a yes from at least one store or a definite no from all of them. It would be nice to know if someone else has already tried that and what their outcome was because so far I've been told that I might be able to get a battery from a store here in town, but who knows for sure.

 

Yes, there is a hose that goes on the battery.

I suppose some have found ways to vent the tops of regular lead acid batteries out of the cabin. But unlike in the Prius, the cubby where the battery goes in the Avalon is a very tight space to work in.

 

Doing some research, Toyota has 2 batteries that will fit. The S55D23R, as @Elektroingenieur mentioned, and the S65D26R. The second battery is a bit bigger and looks like it has the vent on the other side, so it would need a longer hose to work possibly. The Ah specs, according to https://dcpower.co.nz/wp-content/themes/dcpower/uploads/SA-S65D26R-Data-Sheet.pdf are 55Ah and 75Ah respectively.

Since there's not a huge difference in price, I'm feeling I'd possibly prefer the 75Ah S65D26R battery. We've had battery problems before due to my wife walking around the car doing things without turning off all the lights. When you get close to the car the interior lights turn on, and the headlights won't turn off until you're far enough away. So this has lead to the battery draining

Throwing another option out there, that I'm tempted to get but scared to at the same time, is a Winston LiFePO4 12V battery. Even the 90Ah LiFePO4 is way smaller in every aspect than the Toyota Panasonic batteries, and the 60Ah is about $300, about the same price as a Panasonic from Toyota. Of course that doesn't include shipping, so no idea how it would pan out in the end. And the problem that I forsee is the cold weather. Winston says their batteries are rated for -40°C. The company GWL recomends no colder than -25°C, which it can get colder than that here. And generally, I've heard you really don't want to go below even 0°C with a LiFePO4 battery.

A side note of why I'm interested in LiFePO4... maybe even a much bigger one that fully fits in the space even if it's nearly a thousand dollars, is I'm getting into amateur radio and have a mobile HF/VHF/UHF radio to throw in one of the cars. LiFePO4 is the prefered choice for these kinds of radios because they work best at higher voltages, closer to 14V, and LiFePO4 keeps it's voltage higher for longer, whereas lead acid drops quite a bit after a while and doesn't hold as much of a charge. And running the radio with the car off is preffered to reduce RF interferance from the car's electronic's.

 

When I went around to autoparts stores I took my battery out so they could see it in case that would be of any help. But when I put it back in the Avalon I didn't hook up the hose. After a couple days of driving, now there's definitely a strong odor in the trunk that wasn't there before. Coincidence?

I see the voltage at times goes up to 14.5V, which isn't enough to kill a LiFePO4 battery as you say, but not getting 100% out of the battery would likely happen, since it is recomended to charge to 14.6V WINSTON Lithium Battery 12V/90Ah (WB-LP12V90Ah) | shop.GWL.eu. Mind you sometimes the Avalon only holds charge voltage at around 13.5V. But on the other hand, supposedly you never get 100% out of a lead acid battery anyway, and I already plug in my car's block heater and may need a battery heater and have been leaving a lead acid battery maintainer also attached to the setup, so adding a LiFePO4 charger in the mix would not be out of the question.

Looking around I found for $376 total I can get a 90Ah pack of cells and a 120A BMS. 4Pcs EVE LF90K 3.2V 90Ah Lifepo4 Rechargeable Battery Cells Solar System Batteries lithium ion battery (eelbattery.com) and 4s BMS 120a LifePo4 with M6 Threaded Terminals – Overkill Solar Of course this setup is even more cold problematic (no charging allowed below freezing and no discharge below -20°C or just under 0°F off the top of my head). I guess I better start looking at battery warming technology if I'm going to go this route.

I'll keep looking around at all my options though.

 

Well I finally just pulled the plug and called the nearest dealership, and they have one in stock for $325 with tax included.

That dealership normally 60 miles away, but the road is closed all week and only lets limited amounts of traffic through at 3 specific times per day, which means you usually end up having to go the 120 mile way around (even more if you wait in line on the way back and don't make it by the time the cut off the limited number of vehicles). Or you can get there hours early and wait until they open the road.

However, the road is open this weekend. Sadly, the parts department is closed. But they said if I paid for the battery over the phone, someone in the sales department could just hand it over to me since sales is open on Saturday. Another option would be to have a friend go pick it up for me.

The reason I decided to go with the OEM is that 1) an aftermarket AGM battery doesn't seem like an option. Nobody has gotten back to me out of the three parts stores in town. And 2) I'm just to afraid of using a lithium battery of some sort that can be damaged in cold weather, and we can get very cold weather here, sometimes down to -40°F (-40°C), and a fully charged lead acid battery is good down to -70°F (-57°C) IIRC.

I can experiment with LiFePO4 later, and maybe have it in the house where it's warm until I need to go out; then throw it in the car and go.

 

I picked up the battery yesterday and put it in today. Hopefully this stops our no-start/dead battery problems.

 

It was the same OEM Panasonic S55D23R battery that was in there originally, only newer of course. The old one I took out has a date of June of 2013 on it. The new one has a date of May of 2021 on it.