2006 with 102.4K miles battery failure

...well so far none of the battery experts here on Prius Chat has identified vehicle color as a contributing factor, rather car age, miles, use profile, and geo location (heat) as main factors. But I am hoping you are correct, of course.

 

Car color will correlate with heat (dark absorbs more solar energy). You are relatively immune being in Nova, 4RNR is in North Carolina - a bit warmer clime.

JeffD

 

Yes, I've seen tests that show the interior temperature of a white car, when parked in the sun, can stay quite a lot cooler than that of dark colored car of the same model.

Summer here in Australia can get pretty hot so this was something I actually researched when looking to buy our s/h Prius a few years back. For this reason I was only looking at silver and white, with white as my primary preference.

Considering all the other factors though, owner location, terrain and type of driving etc, I doubt that the color is really that high on the list of factors affecting battery longevity.

 

It seems like white car should help keep interior cooler, but there was a recent post here about a recent study that saw no benefit of color, re: they all equilibrate to the same maximum temp. Although I was wondering if the white cars took longer to heat up to max temp. Some cars (mini-Cooper?) and school buses have white roofs and I tried to find a reference about the logic of that (cooler?) but I was unable to find any explanation.

 

It's not all about the external color. The color and materials of the interior, as well as the windows and tint obviously have a very big impact. But with all other things equal, tests I've read and personal experience lead me to believe that a white car will stay slightly cooler.

I'll try to find one of the reports I looked at when trying to figure out if this was important or not (back when I was looking to buy). There was one test where a guy placed thermometers in a line of identical (except for color) cars in a car yard. All the cars were parked with the same orientation and receiving the same amount of sunlight and the white ones recorded a couple of degrees C cooler.

 

12.4 unloaded after a night's rest is OK. You should also test it under load (turn on the headlights) and see if it drops suddenly below 12v. When it does, think about getting a new one.

I put in an Optima Yellow-Top after 8 years of use, a great replacement 12v battery for a Prius.

JeffD

 

2.4 K over the warranty and they would not cover I would not purchase from them again. I would be pissed as well. H

 

You might write to the Toyota Customer Experience Center about your situation, and provide a copy of your repair invoice. Maybe Toyota will give you a further break on the price you paid.

 

Had similar issues this past winter at 107K miles. Had been complaining of loosing charge from 4 or more bars to 1 or 2 in less than a mile (relatively flat 25 MPH speed zone) and when I stopped at Stop sign the car hesitated because of the lack of stored power in main battery and I had to wait for the engine to start to start moving. Finally on one trip I was going all over the gauge from red bars to all green and back. Dealer confirmed bad battery and because I had been complaining for a good 9 months of this condition the Dealer got Toyota to replace battery and gave me a break on the labor. The only bad deal is the battery is only warranted for 1 year or 100K (that's 273 miles a day (or 1,917 miles a week) for one year). Ha!

Climate:
New Mexico hot can get to 100 and in the winter of 2010 we had a couple of weeks with really low <-10 days they even had to ration natural gas because of delivery problem during that cold snap.

Terrain:
Mountainous. Live at 7500 feet traveled to east coast and west coast across Rockies to to Steamboat Springs through a 10,500 foot mountain pass several times.

I do believe this contributed to failure and think the Prius is more for city and urban rather than rural traveling and moderate temperature and non moutainous terrain conditions.

 

^^^
Hybrid Battery Replacement Options | PriusChat might prove interesting/insightful. Notice seilerts is also in NM?