Help! Had hybrid battery replaced 3 Times!

well I suggest you buy a new battery from Toyota and stop using these so called rebuilt batteries, this guy doing the rebuilding obviously has no clue how to do it correctly

 

Yes, this is normal... Your "premium" service is just some dude rebuilding old battery packs with used modules. If this dude has more than $20K in lab grade battery testing gear they could rebuild you a pack with a 3 year warranty in $1500 range.

But usually, they just have cheap gear and hopefully you aren't paying too much for this 3 week to 3 months type of not really warranty-based service.

Here's your options:

1) If you have a friend or family member who wants to learn this stuff we can walk you through all the steps and they can acquire a second pack and just keep rebuilding and swapping packs as needed and its super inexpensive but takes lots of time.

2) If you replace with brand new OEM you're looking at $2500 plus install fees, but pack will be good for a dozen to 15 years and you can put that pack in your future Toyota hybrid as long as its 2015 or older.

3) The problem with OEM Toyota batteries is that Toyota is greedy and they make the most profit off of the most advanced battery technology from the late 1980's. Meanwhile, the most advanced battery technology of the 2010's is way, way more efficient and affordable and is available again in June for $2200 via: https://projectlithium.com/?ref=9qLPw which is my affiliate link that gets you unlimited tech support and a discount on install. This also means battery charges faster going downhill, AC works better, MPG is higher, less loss of power on hard acceleration from zero mph up beyond safe freeway speeds and as mentioned above you can put that pack in your future Toyota hybrid as long as its 2015 or older.

 

You've got a bad battery pack that hasn't been load tested properly. The "supposedly" good batteries he placed into your pack; probably had the correct voltages, but wouldn't handle a proper "load" testing. I know some back-yard mechanics think; placing a headlamp across the battery is a valid test - IT ISN'T!!!!!

My old HCH (honda civic hybrid) did the same thing when the traction battery went bad under warranty. The reason the battery is drawing down and recharging quickly, is because of those bad cell won't hold it's rated capacities. Proper battery test equipment would easily find these bad cells; but that equipment is very expensive.

Hope this helps.....

 

who is this 'guy'?

 

There's more than a dozen ways to test/evaluate module health and one of them is load testing with a headlight bulb. And after 5 years of this work I can assure you rebuilders who have spent tens of thousands on high quality equipment can confidently offer a 3 year warranty on a rebuilt pack. The rest of us, we actually do pretty good considering the limitations... Some even get a year or more by doing nothing more than swapping out a bad module.

But in general, OEM Toyota packs are based on outdated technology that's incredibly heavy and hasn't been considered an advanced battery technology for more than 35 years. Soon as you put a project lithium pack in your car you'll wonder why you ever wasted your time trying to fix NiMH... And yes I'm still available to do it for people, but they're gonna have to get past me explaining all the reasons why a lithium upgrade pack is superior and more affordable in the long run.

 

OEM Nickel Metal Hydride is fine, Toyota still uses NiMH in some vehicles. There is nothing wrong with it especially in old vehicles that were designed for NiMH chemistry.

Why Toyota Still Uses Ancient Nickel Metal Hydride Technology In Hybrids | Torque News

 

I'm sure if I shipped you a NexCell Lithium pack for your car you'd change your mind real quick... NiMH weighs twice as much as any other hybrid or EV battery type.

It's also very inefficient and slow at receiving a charge and loses too much energy as heat. What's more it's way more toxic and and requires deep cycling to maintain capacity over its lifespan, which is why Toyota's greedy wasteful nature stuck with not deep cycling and just selling new packs before the old packs are truly bad. And perhaps most embarassing of all, the first years of the Hydrogen Fuel cell car the Toyota Mirai also had a the antiquated NiMh pack.

Just do research on DIY powerwalls and home solar and its integration w/cars and off grid living. It's a rapidly growing market and is going to have a huge influence over affordable living in our future and you won't find a single person who is wasting their time with antique electrolyte chemistry like NiMH.

And if anyone wants to know why Toyota is in last place when it comes to major automakers rolling out electric cars as quickly as possible, it's because Toyota has failed to advance their battery research for more than a 1/4 century because the profits from their patents/control of the NiMH distribution made them fat dumb slow and stupid.

 

I get that the Lithium might be a better alternative, but it's hardly proven to be better. What's proven is product engineered by the largest Hybrid car builder in the universe, I would trust their engineering. Also you having an incentive to keep pushing this Lithium battery makes your opinion a bit biased

 

IMHO; I'd tell whomever sold you this repair: "This is your FOURTH strike", If you cant fix it properly this time - I'd expect a refund!!!!

If you need that car to run reliability, replace the pack with ALL NEW batteries - rather than playing "wack-a-mole" with old used "premium" batteries.

How many cars have you ever owned, where the 12V battery lasted 16 years? The best battery I've ever had, lasted me 10 years. It died the next day after a 3 mph fender bender. It was a daily driver.

 

Lol... The proof is thoroughly documented in battery science. Anyone with even a cursory understanding of the history of battery technology know the long ago essential role NiMH played in what happened thanks to the early days of the space race.

But go ahead and choose to take the blue pill of cluelessness & forever be obedient to corrupt corporate profiteering... As you say when it comes to that level of immoral corruption & dishonesty Toyota truly is: "the best in the universe"

Or as Native American John Trudell often explained: "Believe Less & Think More."

As in the reason people are so easily corrupted and led to the worst/most profitable for exploiter's option is because they lost connection with their own moral compass and the basic intellectual capcity to analyse the facts and refuse (based on belief) to understand the how actual thinking is a source of discovering the truth that grows and changes as it learns, also known as "woke."

And how funny is it that the term woke is something the majority understands and supports and the minority thinks that despite being aligned with the confederacy they can still pretend that they won the war but the rest of the world simply excludes their failed ability to think from the future we're heading into.

 

Toyota new battery costs less than $1800 brand new from my local dealership. This is a PROVEN battery to last 10 years or more. I'm sure that's the evil company making all this money after 10 years of reliable service. How much is the non proven Lithium battery?

 

So funny how according to you we're only allowed to talk about the benefits of "proven" battery technology from 3 or 4 decades ago when the truth is an actual intelligent process of thinking and learning about battery advancement in the past two decades leaves Toyota in last place compared to all other major automakers who have invested tens of billions in every other possible battery design other than Toyota's outdated/failed NiMH chemistry that used patents to deliberately slow down EV technology rather than advance them.

There's no shortage of lithium based cars on the road for more than a decade and all signs point to way more Lithium-based packs on the road in the future not less. Unlike Nimh, that's as dead as the last century when it was first considered advanced, LiFePo4 and many other Lithium & Sodium chemistry are thriving while Toyota makes excuses for why we aren't ready for EVs.

 

Why so much push back on the well tested lithium pack by Dr. Prius himself.

Plenty of patients took the lithium pack when the pandemic of NiMH ended up killing prius's all over the world.

None of which knew exactly what it was or its chemistry makeup.

Good for the cold and overheated.

Not too heavy on the body.

 

There is no push back and both of you know it. Both of you have incentives in pushing project lithium, it's in both of your links. Why spend more money on an unproven product when you can get the best proven OEM solution that's worked 10+ years for less? That's where I'm getting at. More power and performance??? We are talking 1.5L prius here

 

As you say: "This is a PROVEN battery to last 10 years or more," while entirely excluding from consideration all other PROVEN batteries from other car makers that have no issue being in use for 10 years or more. You're preaching exclusionary dogma, not actual critical thinking & analysis base on scientific advancement.

 

Project Lithium is not from other car makers. Do you remember everyone use to push the unproven Chinese batteries from newpriusbatteries.com? What a horrible ending for the people that bought it and believed the initial hype

 

All other car makers have invested 10 of billions of dollars in lithium based battery chemistry while Toyota sits on the sidelines pretending they still have a future despite rejecting the future that every other major auto maker has found success in embracing.

 

I guess when you're the largest car company in the world, selling the most hybrid cars in the world, you have the right to do what they're doing. We are still talking about a replacement battery for a car from last decade right?

You don't have to embrace the newest thing out, just have to be good at what you're doing best.

 

T. Rex use to say that about their dominance of the world and look at them now... Nothing more than giant bones in a museum... Maybe you can find more clueless fanboys that support your dogma elsewhere, but PriusChat is going to continue to help you think-learn-understand about the benefits of using the most advanced battery chemistry on decades old hybrid cars that's original NiMH battery packs are more suited to a museum with dinosaurs than an actual project that should still be sold as brand new in modern cars.