Anyone ever need to replace their hybrid battery?

My 2005 needed a battery replaced at 155,000 miles.

 

Evelyn,

Would you be so kind as to post the name and phone # of the shop? I would definitely appreciate the info in case I need to follow suit with what you did.

Based on your last post, it seems you got your car fixed. Glad to hear it!

Ron

 

Hi Prius lovers,
I have a chance to replace my 2005 battery with a salvage battery owned by a prius rebuilder. The battery has 70k (2007 model) miles on it and has sat unused for over a year. He has charged it and scanned it with an obd reader and says it's ready to go for $500. Mine has nearly 250k miles and when the weather was warmer showed erratic bars, engine charging the battery on level ground even though the soc was green and once the fan came on in fairly mild temperatures. Voltage variance between the highest and lowest blocks is around .17v. During a test run one block registered a full volt above the average for several seconds on priidash logs (though the metric for deltaV did not reflect this).
I have felt I am on borrowed time though I am not having any problems now the weather is cool. Should I take this deal? The seller sounds willing to install and even waranty the battery.
Thanks,
John

 

I have some comments on this topic from about two years ago when I replaced my battery with a used one. In the intervening 25 months we have put about 45,000 miles on our Prius. It's an 06 and we bought a used battery from a salvaged 04 and put it in. The total cost was 800 bucks, but then someone from this site bought my old one for 100, so the net was 700 (Oh, plus the sales tax on 550 for the used battery.) For us it has worked. I also have an 07, and if it ever reaches that stage I will be on the phone to salvage yards looking for a battery. I live in northern Minnesota, but found 3 or 4 choices within 150 miles of where I live. Good luck.

 

I just had the same exact situation happen-noises, lights, exhaust, car didn't slow down. I have a 2005 prius w/ 65k miles. The dealership replaced the battery at no charge because its under the warranty. So much for lasting 100k miles. I live 5 miles from my job so I don't rack up many miles on my car. I am anal about keeping up with the maintenance. I guess the battery was defective or just not as good as they say. Just another FYI, my local dealer is horrible so I took the car to autozone first to get the code read for free. Then I took it to the dealership so they didn't try to tell me there was more to the problem or try to repair other items that weren't necessary.

 

Infant mortality is why manufacturers give a warranty (along with trying to increase customer confidence). Most Prii HV batteries last 200k miles and some significantly longer. Earlier failures are either due to a manufacturing defect or batteries subjected to overheating (blocked cooling fan, excessive ambient temperature, or heavy acceleration due to mountains, or towing). Mine failed at 195k miles and since the repair cost me less than $2k (a ReInVolt) that is $0.01 per mile which is not an onerous operation cost.

JeffD

 

I bought my 2005 prius with 81,000 miles on it. The battery failed at 79,xxx. The guy I bought from said the death triangle came on and it wouldn't go above about 30mph but he made it to the dealership where they replaced the battery under warranty. He provided documentation, but now I worry about why it went out so early to begin with and if it will happen to this one because of some defect with the car itself. It's comforting to know I have a new one though and I get amazing mileage out of it. Do you think the dealership would have made sure the fan was clean when they replaced it? I did the self check on the 12v too, I forgot to ask the last time it was replaced but it passed the test. It could have been that I live in south Florida, which is hard on the battery but 100% flat. Oh well, I know that if my battery ever does die, I'm getting a salvage as well. Very educational thread! I've learned so much from these forums..

 

I wouldn't count on it. Inspecting/cleaning the fan isn't part of their maintenance schedule, so I think many dealers are probably oblivious to the problem. Removing the right hand side panel from the hatch and taking a look is not very difficult, so I think it would be worth your while to get it checked out before summer.

Hot is bad but flat is good. So you don't really have the worst conditions for battery longevity. As long as your fan isn't blocked and you use the AC in summer then I don't see Fl as being any particular problem for it. I've got mountains and heat to contend with here, and that really is a bad combination.

 

Exactly 240,000 miles, more or less . Today my '05 gave up the ghost *snap* just like that. I drove it to take something to my wife at work and everything was fine. Came out started up and turned into traffic.... Triangle of Death, VSC, brake light and the vehicle exclamation indicator on the MFD all came on instantly. I had it towed to the dealership and it is a Hybrid Battery failure.

So.. now I'm in the market to refurbish a $2500 vehicle ( with a working HV battery ) with up to $3000 of parts and labor plus 4 new tires which were going to be needed anyway in a month or two ... or .... give her up. It's a shame really because everything works perfectly just the same as the day she left the lot with 7 miles. In addition there is not one single squeak or rattle, never has been.

From what I've read herein everyone seems satisfied with Re-Involt here in NC.

 

I have a ReInVolt in my 2004 Prius - about $2000 and you are back up running for another 150k+ miles.

By the way, the Private party value of your Prius is $5000 at KBB, not $2500

JeffD

 

Hey Jeff,

How many miles do you have on your Prius now?

Ron

 

That's my plan. I just got to figure out how to get the Prius from Texas to NC when our's finally goes. Either that or I will have a battery drop shipped to Houston and find someone to put it in for me.

 

My ReInVolt was installed at 195k miles, the odo now reads 238k miles.

JeffD

 

Thank you for the very good useful information. 195K is excellent for the original battery.

 

My 2007 is in the shop right now getting a new hybrid electric battery. Its at about 103k, never had a battery problem. I have notice a bit of a decrease in MPG over the last year, but I typically have blamed that on my husband. It never occurred to me that it might be an indicator of impending battery failure.

Very happy that in CA the battery is required to be warranteed for 10yrs/150k, so I only pay to have the thing towed to the dealer.

Interestingly, most folks are reporting that they had a brake indicator light come on when the battery quit. I did not. I had the triangle of doom, the VSC indicator and the check engine light, but no break light. Computer threw off codes P3000 and P0A80, so here we are.

 

Good to go another 103k.

 

I think this kid of repair/exchange will be compensate by the mother Toyota Co. They even claim the labour spent. Dealer is not crying .

 

An interesting article: "Battery life and death"

That batteries have a finite life is due to occurrence of the unwanted chemical or physical changes to, or the loss of, the active materials of which they are made. Otherwise they would last indefinitely. These changes are usually irreversible and they affect the electrical performance of the cell. This page describes the factors influencing battery life.

Battery life can usually only be extended by preventing or reducing the cause of the unwanted parasitic chemical effects which occur in the cells. Ways of improving battery life and hence reliability are also considered below.

Calendar Life and Cycle Life

Battery performance deteriorates over time whether the battery is used or not. This is known as "calendar fade". Performance allso deteriorates with usage and this is known as "cycle fade"

Battery Calendar Life is the elapsed time before a battery becomes unusable whether it is in active use or inactive. There are two key factors influencing calendar life, namely temperature and time, and empirical evidence shows that these effects can be represented by two relatively simple mathematical dependencies. The Arrhenius Law (see below) describes how the speed of chemical reactions increases with temperature, in this case the rate that the slow deterioration of the active chemicals increases. Similarly the t1/2 (or √t ) relationship represents how the battery internal resistance increases with time t.

Temperature effects
Chemical reactions internal to the battery are driven either by voltage or temperature. The hotter the battery, the faster chemical reactions will occur. High temperatures can thus provide increased performance, but at the same time the rate of the unwanted chemical reactions will increase resulting in a corresponding loss of battery life. The shelf life and charge retention depend on the self discharge rate and self discharge is the result of an unwanted chemical reaction in the cell. Similarly adverse chemical reactions such as passivation of the electrodes, corrosion and gassing are common causes of reduced cycle life. Temperature therefore affects both the shelf life and the cycle life as well as charge retention since they are all due to chemical reactions. Even batteries which are specifically designed around high temperature chemical reactions, (such as Zebra batteries) are not immune to heat induced failures which are the result of parasitic reactions within the cells.

The Arrhenius equation defines the relationship between temperature and the rate at which a chemical action proceeds. It shows that the rate increases exponentially as temperature rises. As a rule of thumb, for every 10 °C increase in temperature the reaction rate doubles. Thus, an hour at 35 °C is equivalent in battery life to two hours at 25 °C. Heat is the enemy of the battery and as Arrhenius shows, even small increases in temperature will have a major influence on battery performance affecting both the desired and undesired chemical reactions.

The graph below shows how the life of high capacity tubular Ironclad Lead Acid batteries used in standby applications over may years varies with the operating temperature. Note that running at 35 °C, the batteries will deliver more than their rated capacity but their life is relatively short, whereas an extended life is possible if the batteries are maintained at 15 °C.

Battery Life and How To Improve It

 

Update:
I looked into a Re-Involt battery. The store where I worked would install it at the 'employee' rate. The cost to get the battery to the shop was going to be ~$2100. Installation was going to be ~$300.

I was able to get a new Toyota battery installed for ~$2500 with another 10 yrs/150K. I went the warranty route. Back on the 'road to 300K'.

 

I would love to know how you got such a deal including the warranty. I have checked with three dealers in my area and they all want about $2500 for the battery, $400 labor and only offer a 1 year warranty (no milage).