Prius HV battery DIED at 101,000 miles! Will toyota warranty?

Hay Marshall, its Adam. I hope it all works out for you. You might be able to get a used battery from a salvaged car at a quarter of the price. I do not think they will cave on the warantee.

 

Good luck dealing with Toyota (I'm not trying to be sarcastic). My personal experiences have been....extremely disappointing. One alternative to a new battery is Re-In-Volt, which ships remanufactured batteries (their FAQ says it's ~$1500). Worst case scenario: give them a call and see what they can do for you.

Remanufactured Hybrid Vehicle Battery Packs

Also: apologies for some of the members - they seem to be acting like a-holes today. Maybe it's the weather or something.

 

And their labor is only around $300, if your car is drivable to NC.

 

Those are not remanufactured battery packs. They are used Gen II battery packs which are recharged, fitted with new busbars, painted, and shipped out. Remanufactured parts have had their core components replaced, and in this case, the core components are the cell plates and electrolytes. No one is replacing those parts.

Given that you can buy a low-mileage battery pack from a junkyard for as little as $400, it makes little sense to spend almost four times as much for essentially the same thing. If you check with independent shops that do a lot of hybrid work, you'll find that many of them simply purchase a low-mileage junkyard battery pack, just like Re-InVolt does, and install it. Sure, they'll mark it up, but not by $1000.

Go to Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market, enter your vehicle information and zip code, and you'll get a list of battery packs close by, with prices. It's nice to have choices. Good luck.

 

Your vehicle's self-diagnostic system has (1) observed battery pack deterioration, and (2) pinpointed it to a specific battery block. Anything is possible, but these codes are pretty darned reliable on the Gen II.

By the way, nothing in your diagnostic information indicates a problem with the battery ECU.

 

Your codes describe a bad battery. Something happened to a pair of cells and they are not staying in balance with the rest of the pack anymore. If they used Techstream to diagnose the problem it is possible that they recorded the voltage values for all 14 pairs, in particular the #5 pair. Alternatively, there is a problem with the #5 sense wire such as corrosion.

A good Toyota independent shop should be able to help you. But it is worth running the idea of a salvage install by your dealer as well. The main problem is that the dealer would charge the labor guide price for swapping out the 28 cells, rather than just ripping the bad battery out and putting the salvage one in. An indy Toyota shop might do the same but at least their labor rate is cheaper. $300 sounds about right for swapping out the entire assembly. There's no compelling reason to pay for a brand new pack from Toyota. Even the Reinvolt one is pretty spendy. LKQ in Ft. Meyers has 4 salvage packs for $500 a piece.

I do hope that you can get some help from Toyota. But if not, you have options.

 

No. You don't swap cells. You swap relays, ECU, etc. It's easier on the Gen II than it is on the Gen I, as the entire relay/ECU/current sensor assembly can be separated from the battery case as one component.

 

That's interesting. I pictured Toyota shipping the bundle of 28 cells and leaving the tedious stuff to the poor techs.

 

No, the cells are shipped assembled in the battery case, with busbars attached. Makes for safe shipping.

On the Gen 1, you transfer the fiddly bits from the old pack, one by one. On the Gen II, it's much easier.

 

did anyone read my comment?

 

did you read my post?

maybe its a faulty wire? or ECU thats reporrted a bad battery.
also corrostion can make messurement from a battery ohm( risistance) go way of.
if your going to buy a new battery try to get a ecu (that came ) with that battery.

also try to wait for toyota response maybe just those few miles and a 2007 model with a failty battery that toyota is willig to help you out!
in anycase its also in toyota's intressed to keep a good image for the prius and this is not suposed to happen

if you would have someone with a canview 4+ ( its the not buildin one ) in your south florida area then maybe you can see what happens during operation with the cells.
if cells stay OK driving and no cells behave strange even when driving EV mode and depleting and recharging it again during driving and then suddenly after al of this one cell ( a pair ) drops maybe its not the cell but something else like a sensor wire or battery ECU.

also what you can do right now is dissconnect your 12 volt battery ( search on this forum to see how ) and after 30 min or so connect it again and see what happens
then dont go start driving but keep the car in ev mode ( damm i hope you have that ) and the AC running to get the battery bars down!
then the ICE wil start after a while.

if nothing happens then! do the same but normally drive the car! if some error happens then maybe its a lose wire or connection in the battery ECU.
also try this on a ruff street ( lots of holes ) to see if that kicks it in!
after any error you can delete it by desconnecting the battery
there is also a way of on and off starts of the power button in a row but can not remember to get that message of the dash.

if the error happens when you deplete the battery and do a kickdown ( still in EV mode ) to start the ICE and make a run and then the ICE stutters to start and you get the error its maybe the battery!

 

Contact:

Mellor’s Automotive Inc.
1410 W. Newhaven Ave.
West Melborne, FL 32904
(321) 956-1997
Contact: Joshua J. Mellor
[email protected]

They are listed as a Preferred Independent hybrid car repair station at New Hybrid Reviews, News & Hybrid Mileage (MPG) Info | Hybrid Cars. I have no experience with them so get references.

JeffD

 

The codes indicate a problem with the pair of cells at block #5. This could be as simple as corrosion at the sense wires. That is a possibility given that you are in the high humidity of Florida. The freeze frame data associated with the trouble codes could possibly indicate a broken sense wire -- V5 would be close to zero -- ask your dealer for the freeze frame data and post it here. Or it could be that one or both of those cells has gone bad. That would show at V5 being 1.2V lower than the rest of the string. That is also a possibility given the hot temperatures in Florida. The next step is to pull the battery and take a look at it. This almost certainly be a specialty at Mellor's Automotive.

In my opinion, replacing just the HV Battery ECU is unlikely to solve the problem. It is possible that the service advisor mentioned the ECU to you as a way to manage your expectations (as in hey, good news, the ECU is fine so you only have to pay $3000 instead of $4000), or they just didn't know what they were talking about. P0A80 indicates trouble with either the batteries or the ECU, but P3015 pinpoints the problems to the batteries, specifically the #5 pair.

 

A mechanically inclined person can replace the entire battery assembly. This is what a salvage yard will sell you. You need a few sockets and a trim tool is extremely handy. Access to the service manual is highly recommended. It is difficult, but not impossible, to electrocute yourself. To dig in deeper, replacing bad cells, fixing sense wires, dealing with terminal corrosion, that requires a higher level of experience, such as being handy with a digital multimeter, and having familiarity with large series battery packs (like RC cars or EVs).