Buying new Battery/ Core Credit

When I replaced the HV battery in my 2004 Prius with one that had been rebuilt by Remanufactured Hybrid Vehicle Battery Packs, I recycled my old one by dismantling it, tested and rebalanced each of the good modules (27 of the 28 were still good), and sold the battery modules to 6 other Prius owners to fix their batteries. I averaged about $27 per module and bought $40 in equipment to rebalance the modules so I cleared about $700 which went against the $2000 the ReInVolt battery cost me.

JeffD

 

I will be curious to hear about this as well. I am certain that there must be a way to ship batteries over here, via surface freight, such that the expense is not prohibitive. The dealerships may not be concerned about that aspect. Still, the cost of truck freight of a Reinvolt battery, for example, to the west coast, and then on to Honolulu Freight Forwarders, is not encouraging.

 

Hawaii808-

Curious to hear how things turned out... I'm on Maui and find myself in a similar situation with my Prius.

What did you end up doing? Did you replace the battery with a new battery through the Toyota dealership? Did they give you a core credit?

 

Did you get the diagnosis from Maui Toyota? What DTC's do you have that indicate the battery issue? Given the success that some have had with individual cell swapping, that may be better for us over here in the long run.

 

Yes diagnosis was from Maui Toyota. The first diagnosis came in July 2012. I don't recall the exact codes (there were several). I want to say one was P3009. Anyways, the car is a Gen 1 Prius with about 140k miles.

Maui Toyota quoted me close to $5,000 for a brand new battery. Instead I ordered replacement cells from Ted Barcelon (battery boy). A friend and I did the work ourselves. In total we replaced around 4 or 5 cells. The car ran fine for a couple months, and then the check engine light along with the red triangle came back on. We ordered a few more cells from Ted, took the battery back out, replaced the cells that were compromised. Same thing. The car ran for a month or so, and the lights came back on. I continued driving it until February. And then I disconnected both batteries, because the car wouldn't be driven the next 7 months (while I was on the mainland). I'm back and trying to decide on a best course of action...

I'm tired of swapping cells. Trying to decide whether to replace the battery with a new one or just be done with the car. That's why I'm trying to figure out if I can get a new battery at a reasonable price.

 

Anyone been in a similar situation? What did you do?

 

The retail price of a new battery for a 2006 is $2588.67 with a core charge of $1350.00 on the mainland. You guys really get socked out there.
OEM Toyota Parts - Discount Toyota Parts

 

No kidding. It's crazy!

 

I would say that 140K miles on Maui for a GenI battery sounds quite good. Each generation the cells were improved. But it is true that the cells are manufactured to close enough tolerances that they all tend to start failing at about the same usage level. So swapping of cells needs to be done with a fairly pessimistic view of which are ones are still good, I guess.

 

There must be a better way. I am going to call Honolulu Freight Forwarders and see what they say. These things are not that big, not that heavy, and certainly can't be considered all that hazardous if they are running around in our cars.

 

Curious to hear what you find out. Thanks!!!

 

Question: Did you just swap cells and reinstall or did you re-balance the whole pack then reinstall?

Re-balancing the pack is mandatory if you didn't do it. There are a couple ways to do it also.

 

Ouch. I didn't rebalance. What's the best resource for learning how to re-balance?

(I'll probably go that route. Just talked with Maui Toyota, and the initial estimate of nearly $5k still holds true... and they don't refund the core charge.)

 

Here's a good thread with great detail on re-balancing. He used special equipment (remote control car chargers) to perform the balancing but some folks have had success by just jumpering the positives and negatives together as seen in this link also.

Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement | Page 2 | PriusChat

 

The HV battery on my 2006 Prius (122,000) went out last week. After reading wonderful advice from this site, I bought a salvage yard hybrid battery and my mechanic is installing it on Monday. He is giving the old hybrid battery back to me to recycle. When my dead hybrid battery warning lights were diagnosed by Toyota, I was told that cell #9 was bad but the rest were good. Where can I sell the whole thing since I don't know enough about electricity to take it apart and sell it piece by piece?

 

You could put it on eBay. Just disclose it's known condition and price it about 15-20% lower than the salvaged HV batteries of the same vintage since they can be used without significant effort. Remember to get a good estimate of shipping costs before starting.

JeffD

 

Thank you for your advice. I have no idea how much a hybrid weighs or what kind of container it would ship in. Do you have information on this? Also when the mechanic leaves the old hybrid in the back of my car, they warned me that I couldn't handle it without high voltage gloves. Can I take it out of my car and set it on a shelf until it is sold or do I need to take special precautions to carry it?

 

There are more than just the "REVOLT" link above solutions. The repair and solution is dependant on how engage/involved/and hands on you want to be. Beside the local dealer you may also seek a non dealer. Check out ebay and different web search BTW Google search is horrible for this.

 

Yea not correct they are heavy and battery to ship all fall under some USA federal Hazmat stipulation for the carrier.......