$6,000 repair - are you kidding me?

prius battery -cable | eBay

For under $1000 you can ebay a used battery, do you have mechanical inclination and at least one strong friend? If not can you find a good independent mechanic where ever it is you live?

http://www.toyota-tech.eu/HYBRID/HVDM/EN/PRIUS_nhw20.pdf

 

Need new hybrid battery | PriusChat

This thread may give you more insight

 

Update your location. If you're in a CARB state the HV battery (if that truly is the problem) will be covered under warranty still. 10year / 150K miles.

Also at low of a mileage, generally the problems reported with the HV battery pack are not really with the pack. Could be a low voltage 12v auxiliiary battery. Could be a clogged fan, could be lots of other cheap things.

As for the brakes, you sure it is not just rusted rotors? Or do you mean if you press hard while the vehicle is already stopped, you get a grunting sound? Or is it only at low speed stopping, or friction braking? Need more details.

And the costs you are quoting are from the dealership. If you take any car to the dealership, you are going to be screwed. If you come off as car-helpless, you bet everything on the car will need replacement and your blinker fluid tank will be leaking as well.

Assuming it actually is the HV battery, you can get a salvage pull one for a couple hundred bucks. Here is a guy offering it for $450 and will come and install/swap your old one if you are in California or Nevada:

And if you really need the brake actuator, then $140:

The hybrid battery anyone can do with the PDF installation instructions found around here and some common sense. The brake actuator any mechanic worth his salt can do.

 

Where are you located? What City?

If we know the state and city we can advise if it us a CARB state thus you get the replacement battery for free.

If your not in a carb state check into these guys. They do it for about half the cost. Read there web site.

GreenTec Auto Hybrid Battery Replacement | Specializing in Honda and Toyota Hybrid High Voltage Batteries

The brakes we can recommend a good independent shop that fixes the Prius brakes for much less labor rate than the dealer or ask around a few mechanic shops were you live who is a good Prius mechanic. They can work with Greentech auto.

My guess is the cost for the battery is about $1,300 and the brakes unknown but it can be expensive. Brakes on the a Prius best to use a mechanic that knows the car.

If your in LA check these guts out very reputable.

Avi's Advanced Auto Homepage

If your not in LA they may be able to recommend someone.

 

Have you noticed, that to give really good advice, we need some clue where you are?

 

You inquired about this in August.

Need new hybrid battery | PriusChat

 

Before you panic about the HV battery being a goner, consider the 12-volt battery going bad and also another thing based on what you said.
When you say your rear passenger fan was on, do you mean the fan behind the louver on the passenger side of the rear seat?
That is the HV Battery Blower Motor. If it has gotten clogged with fabric fibers or pet hair over the years that could be the main problem. It can cause the HV battery to overheat and greatly shorten its life and cause error symbols like you're experiencing.
If you're a do-it-yourselfer, or know one, I'm attaching a file of how to clean it yourself, or at least check it out.
Minimal tools needed.
Unless it has been abused somehow you should get MORE than 120,000 miles out of your 2007 Prius HV battery.

 

OP lives in Arizona so she has no applicable warranty coverage now.

As mentioned in post #4 (as well as others), OP's best bet is to have used parts installed by an independent mechanic trained on Prius. Good luck though finding someone like that in the desert.

 

Hi Rhonda. The warnings do sound consistent with both a brake actuator and a traction battery problem *however* it's extremely rare to have two such major problems simultaneously. So it's definitely worthwhile getting a second opinion from either another dealer or an independent prius mechanic if possible.

BTW. Can you describe any driveability issues you were having, either just prior to the warnings and/or afterwards.

Is that just a good guess Patrick, as in "Rhonda Brown from Az" from the username?

 

Ok, if you are not getting noticeable driveabilty issues then the HV battery might not be bad. The usual driveabilty symptoms associated with a dead HV battery are:
1. Lack of power (and mad engine revs to try and get any power) and
2. Very rapid swings in the displayed state of charge while driving. (See energy monitor screen)

Regarding point 2 above. How often do you watch the energy monitor screen (the one that shows the wheels turning and those little orange and green arrows etc) while driving? Some people love to watch it all the time and some people never look at it, it's a personal preference thing. It can reveal a fair bit of info regarding the HV battery's health though, if you know what to look for. If you look at the battery icon on that screen you'll see it's got 8 bars on it, with the number of bars indicating the level of HV charge. With 1 or 2 bars the display is red (low charge), with 3 through to 6 bars it's blue (medium charge), and with bars 7 or 8 bars it's green (high charge level). Can you tell us what degree of variation you normally notice in the number of bars showing, and in particular, if that is now behaving differently to normal.

Finally, the blower in the back running real fast can be a symptom of battery failure. But it can also just be caused by hot weather and a clogged fan. This happened to me a few years ago and all I had to do was to clean the fan and ducts. See: Fur and dirt causing major battery problems | Page 2 | PriusChat

That's good. A 12V battery can go weak pretty easily though, so even though it's probably ok it wouldn't hurt to simply take a cold voltage reading to be sure. There's a pretty easy self test you can do right from the prius display (I cant find a link right now but hopefully someone will post it).

That statement seems a bit odd to me. I don't believe there is any mechanism that would allow a weak HV battery to cause a brake actuator failure. All the more reason to get a second opinion I think.

Is that more like a clicking noise or more like a simple grinding or scraping noise. A grinding or scraping noise is typical of just some rust on the rotors and is no big deal. It happens quite a lot because the friction brakes don't get used much on the Prius. I'm not sure what a failed actuator sounds like, I think it might be a clicking or chirping sound, hopefully someone else can pitch in and describe exactly what to listen for.

 

We're considering these guys (for replacement battery on a Honda Civic Hybrid). Here's their second gen Prius page. There's two options: a battery with re-used/balanced cells, or one with new cells. For both the case and electronics are re-used. Scroll down the page to see the new cell option:

Toyota Prius Gen 2 Hybrid Battery | GreenTec Auto | Hybrid Battery Replacement

You would get in touch with them, and get a recommendation from them for an installer in your area, and have the battery shipped there. There's typically a $500 extra charge, refunded when they receive your old battery (which they will rebuild, sell to someone else).

 

Going to the stealership will always cost you. At least it is cheaper.

This is full of logical fallacies and actually contrary to most people's experiences. For contrast, my 2006 with almost 120K miles on has had $0 in repairs and the only things done were regular oil changes and filters. Everything else is original, and this is closer to most peoples' experiences.

You are also comparing the replacement/repair costs of a new vehicle to what you were probably used to before, a much older vehicle. A non-hybrid of the same newer vintage is also much more costly to repair.

A brake actuator in a Lexus GS is also in the $3K range to replace. Most newer cars have replacements in this price range, it is not a simple valve anymore. Well it is, but then it is covered in expensive and proprietary electronic goo. As for the battery, how much does it cost to replace a transmission? About the same, and no other maker would cover the cost like that out of warranty.

Your inability to locate a mechanic is unfortunate. But doing a quick Google, it shows Auto Tune Automotive (a recommended hybrid specialist per some green car sites, also through google) is 55miles away from Buckeye, AZ. If saving a couple grand is not worth 1 hour of your time, then you would be rolling in the money and not caring about a paltry $6K repair since you would lose more than that waiting for the repair to be done at $1000/hr. There are people who make that, so perhaps that is the scenario here, but something tells me no since you financed $9K.

Sometimes you have to help yourself too.

 

Good point Rhonda. I always look at my car as an accident waiting to happen.

Sometimes a good old fashioned Honda Civic or Accord or Toyota Camry is the better car cause hybrid components can be expensive

I buy new cars so I pay a lot but with the used car you pay less but repair bills come sooner

9 k loan balance is very good. Not much left. Hopefully when this is over you will get years of worry free motoring since the worst is over

 

i am confused. did you pay over $10,000. for a 6 year old car with 110,000 miles expecting the battery to die and then it did?