Traction Battery Failure at 107,000, need help wtih dealer

I can't help with additional arguments, but $1430 sounds like a pretty good deal.

Tom

 

Is toyota giving you free labor with the quote?

 

I think that $1,430 is a great price considering that your car is out of warranty. In my experience when the traction battery is dead various warning lights will appear suddenly and there's not much advance warning (I've had two traction battery failures so far, covered under warranty, after owning three Toyota hybrids.)

If no warning lights came on back at 95K miles, then no DTC will be logged. If no DTC was logged then there's no basis for the dealer Prius tech to replace the traction battery under warranty.

Which ECU needs to be replaced? Is it the traction battery ECU? I would question routine replacement of that unless it is proven the part is bad (specific DTC will be logged in that case.) With my two failures the ECU was not replaced in either case.

Your mpg decline could be due to a number of factors, such as rear brake drag, wheel alignment, tire pressure, new tires, etc.

Although it is true that Toyota's suggested MSRP for the battery is $2,200 there's no requirement for individual Toyota dealers to honor Toyota's suggested parts pricing. So if your dealer initially priced the battery at $3,895 that is just one blatant example of greed showing.

Good luck.

 

I also suggest you call Toyota at 1-800-331-4331 and fill them in on all the details. Get a case number. It might help motivate the Toyota shop in question, or direct you to another alternative. Also mention that your situation a topic of active disccussion among current and prospective Toyota owners at PriusChat. Good luck.

 

Hi wade...,

Take the $1430 deal. It sounds like they prorated the battery at the 150K miles expected life, even though your not in a CARB state.

 

That sucks.

We see poster after poster come here and ask for help and everyone would love to help but we need one thing and that's the codes the car threw. The dealer may be really drilling you and it might not need half those parts but without those codes you and I have no idea and are at there mercy. That's a bad place to be.

I do not trust dealers at all. I have worked for car dealers before and man oh man the stuff I saw they did to people.
If your going to fix this car and keep it please buy a ScanGauge here at Priuschat because it will read any future codes with a push of a button so you'll know what the car is complaining about before it hits the dealer. If the dealer thinks you know what your doing and talking about and are able to recite codes to them they will be a little more hesitant to rump you. I think.

The Scangauge does alot of things and reads codes on any OBD II car which is just about any car out there. Very valuable tool when you need it. Please purchase it here and support Priuschat!

But $1430 does not sound too too bad. Make sure you get a trans fluid change while your there too as you are way overdue if oem fluid resides. Good luck.

 

I wonder whether the dealer will put in a brand new battery or some sort of refurbished one or one from the junk yard?

 

1. Have you asked what DTC had been logged? If not I suggest you do so and post for group discussion. Then we can tell you the likelihood that the traction battery ECU has a problem.
2. The traction battery ECU is not going to kill the new battery. What it does is to monitor the voltage of module pairs and report to the hybrid vehicle ECU when the battery needs to be charged. If the battery ECU is not working, certain DTC will be logged.
3. Regarding a potential labor double-charge, the only labor that would be wasted is having to open up the traction battery case a second time, to remove and replace the ECU. That should be around one hour at most.

 

Is this the first instance of a Gen 2 battery dying?

 

No, but there haven't been very many instances of 2G traction battery failure so far, which is why you can buy a 2G salvage battery for ~$400 plus shipping.
eBay - prius battery, Parts Accessories, Cars Trucks - buy and sell on eBay Motors

 

The same happened with us this week.

At 113k miles our '05 traction battery had cell #4 go out. In fact today if blew up. It sounded like a back fire.

Not being able to afford the dealer prices I have since found on my own a used battery pack and a local mechanic is going to try and replace it on Tuesday. Wish up luck because it is our only car.

What other problems might occur with the failure of the battery pack that we should be warned about?
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You can find repair manual info at techinfo.toyota.com and I strongly suggest that your mechanic should download and study the info about how to replace the traction battery prior to performing the job, if s/he is not already a Prius specialist. Otherwise it will be easy to screw up the job or cause a safety hazard.

 

It's impossible to know how a second-hand battery might have been damaged or abused. Good luck.

 

i have to agree that $1400 is not a bad price if that includes labor. think about other cars and possible repair costs with that much mileage. transmissions would be more than double that and most of them would be out of warantee in less than half the mileage.

and ya, batteries fail so rarely that there are plenty of salvage out there. i talked to a guy that specializes in salvaging wrecks and reselling them and he says that traction batteries fare pretty good in wrecks he's had. he has only had one battery that "might" have been damaged. it did have extensive damage to case, so he decided not to use it although the modules appear to be ok.