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Prius HV battery being replaced, questions

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by skippy911, Jan 21, 2012.

  1. skippy911

    skippy911 New Member

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    Hi all. My prius is an 06 with 93k miles on it. This morning leaving waffle house the Red Exclamation, check engine, little yellow exclamation and the mfd with a car icon, went on. The car drove normally, I checked the battery display page and noticed the bars were all the way down to 1 remaining. By the time I drove home, less than 10 minutes away, the bars went from 1 to full to 3 to 5. They were all over the place.

    I waited until 8am to drive to the dealer for them to check it out. I just got a call saying the main HV battery is bad and that it is going to be replaced under warranty. I have been getting steadily worse and worse mpg. Right now with pure city driving im only squeeking by with 39~41mpg. The ICE seems to come on all of the time as well.

    My questions are these:

    1) What is the warranty on the new battery
    2) How long should I expect the car to last with this new battery
    3) Does it really seem like the battery was the issue or is it something more
     
    #1 skippy911, Jan 21, 2012
  2. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    3) if we had codes, we could second guess the dealer, without them our guesses are less informed, like: "Be sure it is not just the 12 volt battery" But that is silly, even if it IS just the 12 volt battery, let the dealer replace the HV battery THEN point it out.
     
    #2 JimboPalmer, Jan 21, 2012
  3. skippy911

    skippy911 New Member

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    Haha I was thinking the same thing, ill let them replace the HV battery before putting any money out of pocket on the off chance it might be something simple like the 12V battery.
     
    #3 skippy911, Jan 21, 2012
  4. rogerv

    rogerv Senior Member

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    My questions are these:

    1) What is the warranty on the new battery
    2) How long should I expect the car to last with this new battery
    3) Does it really seem like the battery was the issue or is it something more[/QUOTE]

    With respect to your first question, depending on where you live, the warranty is either 8 years/100K miles or 10 years/150K miles. The new battery will be covered to that point. The clock does not start over, just as with any other warranted item. Otherwise, you could conceivably have batteries replaced multiple times as long as each one failed within the years/miles each time.
    Since hybrid battery failure seems to be rare, I think you can plan on a very long battery life with the new system.
     
    #4 rogerv, Jan 21, 2012
  5. Flying White Dutchman

    Flying White Dutchman Senior Member

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    is it the battery thats is going to be replaced or the battery ECU?
    because somethime dealers try to keep it simple and just say its the battery thats beeing replaced and then after the job tell you only the ecu was replaced ( of you look at the papers you get with the work that have been done ..)
     
    #5 Flying White Dutchman, Jan 21, 2012
    1 person likes this.
  6. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    Warranty will be the remainder of 8 years/100,000 miles, or 1 year/unlimited miles, whichever is longer.

    Cleaning out the HV battery fan is usually a part of this repair, but if you find out the condition of that from the service advisor or tech, that would help to know if it was (1) a random failure or (2) preventable battery overheating due to a clogged fan.
     
    #6 seilerts, Jan 21, 2012
  7. skippy911

    skippy911 New Member

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    Ill make sure when I get the paper work back that they replaced the battery and not just the ecu. I was told by the dealer that the new battery will have a 1 year unlimited mileage warranty on it, does this sound right? Ill also ask about the battery fan, thanks for the input :)
     
    #7 skippy911, Jan 21, 2012
  8. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    That sounds about right.

    What state are you in? If you're in CA or eligible CARB states, your original HV battery would warranty would be for 10 years/150K miles. See seilerts' earlier post.

    BTW, please put in your state in your profile. It's very annoying when people put in something so non-specific.
     
    #8 cwerdna, Jan 21, 2012
  9. skippy911

    skippy911 New Member

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    Updated :)
     
    #9 skippy911, Jan 22, 2012
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