Gen II batteries -- a worrisome trend

My 05 Prius HV Battery conked out at 177K miles. It was confirmed by codes P3000 and P0A80
My Independent Toyota Shop is offering to replace the battery at $3100, since the KBB value of my car is $4400, and the fact that I am broke, this is not a good option for me.

Right now, it is parked at Santa Monica Hybrid shop pending diagnostic and a quote for reconditioning.
Upon research, here is a detailed article about the specifics of Reconditioning from the auto shop's perspective - go to Auto Research and Design's website, go to Articles and Tech Info, and Click on the Article "Hybrid High Voltage Battery Testing and Analysis"
(In sum, this type of service good $ maker for the shops, as it is not labor intensive at all).

My other option is to rebuild the battery at $795 or install a remanufactured battery at $1400 via online stores like
hybrid battery repair and battery 4 prius
but I feel skeptical and scared.

Wish me luck. I will keep you posted.

 

Why do you have it at a shop for diagnostic? You already know it needs a battery with code P0A80. Seeing you mentioned something about being broke, you could have saved this diagnostic fee.

There are many people on craigslist that list services for battery repair and rebuilding. Prices I see start around $300. I'm not sure these are reliable repair services but it's a cheap option. I wouldn't hold my breath on the warranties that are offered by the people listing the services.

You can also buy a rebuilt battery from Dorman at your local auto supply stores. That will run you approximately $1500 plus installation charges. This battery will give you a 3 year warranty so it's not too bad of an option.

 

Ugh. When I first bought my 2007 Prius a year and half ago, there were a bunch of salvage HV batteries in my area for $350-$800. I just checked, and the list is down to about 10 and the prices start at $900

Supply and demand. Thankfully, I have my battery warranty intact for 1 more year and 20000 more miles.

 

Be aware that the time factor starts from "when" the vehicle went into service rather than the model year. Our 09 went into service in December of 08, therefore our hybrid warranty expires in December of 16. I know you said you have a year, but it might be less or more. Depends on the date of when the vehicle actually went into service. Toyota can answer that question for you. It will be in their records. Most service depts. can tell you this date.

 

Thanks- I am going off my "in service" date.

When I first purchased my Prius, I did a butt-load of research, and that included calling Toyota to get information on my remaining warranty(s). My Prius warranties started in March 2007, which is when the first owner drove the car off the lot.

Pretty cool, I think - because in my case I will be exhausting my warranty period with time and mileage probably almost exactly!! I drive ~20,000 miles per year, I have 80,200 miles on the car right now and I have almost exactly 12 months left on my warranty. So come March 2015, I should have 100,000 miles and reached my 8 year mark too

 

I did some research and read up on Luscious Garage's analysis about 'Rebuilt Batteries' and she discourages this due to many uncertainties with the success rates -- first, I could not find anyone who would install a reconditioned battery. My other option was to put in a Gen3 2012 hybrid battery for $1700, but there is no telling how good that battery is.

Having my car already parked at the Hybrid shop in Santa Monica (they didn't charge for diagnostic), eventually,after wrangling and negotiation, had my 14 of my modules replaced and the battery reconditioned and 'cycled' back to 95% of its original condition, with 1 year/12K warranty for $2000. Not cheap. I just hope I did not make a stupid move there. This shop claims they service a lot of Prius taxis.

There is not much known about this battery conditioning technology so I took a risk. I feel the only way to feel assured is to 1) put in a new battery or 2) get another Prius. I will continue to update to see how the car runs after this weird service.

 

There are many hybrid's in Santa Monica. If this is truly a hybrid repair shop, surely they would know how to fix the battery properly. I think if they did all the labor and fixed your car for $2000 and offered a 1 year warranty, it's not too bad of a deal. It's about half of what Toyota would charge you after taxes and labor.

 

and for you, with an 08 Prius... unless you are putting 100 miles a day, you have a little while before your the hybrid battery warranty expires. we are covered for 10 yrs or 150,000 miles in California. so if the battery is going to fail, you want it to fail at 140 so Toyota could replace the battery for you under their warranty, you probably have to pay for the labor, though.

 

I plan to hire a witch doctor at 149k miles for my 06 and 08 if the batteries haven't been replaced by then

SM-N900P ?

 

Nope, no labor. If its under the hybrid components warranty - whether that be the 8 year/100k mile one in non-CARB states, or the 10 year/150k mile one in CARB states; as long as the battery fails within that time period, you are out scott-free. Zilch, zero, nada.

 

my goodness... I am so sad my battery didn't fail last year. ugh!

 

Now, how does it compare to 3rd Gen battery pricing?
Can't you use modules from Gen 3 to rebuild Gen 2 battery?

 

Yes I've just had this discussion a week ago. Seems you can use the gen3 cells. Many battery builders claim that's what they are doing, but if you can simply swap 1 for the other. Who's actually going to say they didn't use gen3 cells? Unless you take it apart, you won't ever know.

 

Interesting. I live on high elevation and now that the weather started to warm up my battery cycles all the way up to 70% and all the way down to 20% (engine kicks in). It seems that is like that every day. For some odd reason the battery will never charge up to 80% (line missing on the charge screen). The only time my battery charged full to 80% is when I was driving down hill for 20 minutes.

 

Going back to worrisome battery trends, Hybrid battery will fail. My 2005 Prius with 118K mile failed with one battery block with 15.78 V (dealer vehicle diagnostic report). Toyota service bulletin T-SB-0153-13 "MIL On DTC PAA80 or PAA7F due to dust or debris in the HV battery cooling fan", Oct 8 2013 indicates the dust and debris build up in the cooling fan can limit the air flow and cause higher temperature operation of HV which can reduce the life of HV battery. Issue is when you see the alarm code, it already damage your hybrid battery.

When I took my Prius with alarm, dealer cleaned the fan and reset the alarm but it did not resolve the issue. I just wasted $400 for diagnostic and fan cleaning. Cooling fan housing is behind the back seat and backside panel have to remove to service the fan. It can be clean by owner (few DIY video related replacing HV battery showed how to clean the cooling fan). Prius is reliable car but HV battery is weakness. Toyota tested and set warranty limit on HV battery for reason. Longer you have Prius, your HV battery will go bad. I am disappointed by early failure of my HV battery and service and support I received from Toyota.

Can Prius chat member who replaced HV battery with rebuild or refurbished battery provide their experiences on reliability of rebuild HV battery?

 

Im sorry but your traction (HV) battery failed prematurely because it wasn't being cooled properly due to a clogged cooling fan. To say its the "weakness" of the Prius is the HV battery is not fair - your maintenance regime (or lack thereof) was the weakness of the Prius in your case.

Thats like saying that my fiance's Ford Escape is reliable but the transmission is the weakness, after it blew at 118k miles because I never serviced the transmission fluid. And now Im mad at Ford because of it.

 

We "lucked out"
On 3-9-14 our BP 2006 Prius 84,500 miles-bought 4-22-2006- failed
The red triangle showed up+check engine+VSC+BRAKE icon- came on-but only red triangle and check engine stayed on.
Checked code-forget what it was -but it meant BP failure-
Brought to dealer-they replaced it under warranty-44 days before END of warranty-and $3500 poorer.
No 7 years 10.5 months-and just 84,500 miles-not what you expect.
But New Orleans is HOT- and most of the miles-SHORT TRIP- maybe averaging 6 miles per trip
and it is Black on black-not a great color for a Hot Sunny climate

There wasn't much warning.My son mentioned several months before that it "seemed slower; accelerating at 60 mph"- I checked it-didn't notice anything-and no codes- he also thought it "was noisier"
None of these seem battery related-but who knows.
He says it "is quieter now"-perhaps he was hearing the battery fan??

Charlie

 

I'm kinda with Terry on this one Priusguy. Ok he maybe should have said the HV battery cooling is the weakness, but I think that's what he meant.

You see there was initially no Toyota maintenance schedule at all on the cooling fan. They may have received a technical bulletin about it now, but several years ago when people were first noticing this issue some guys here did ask the dealer service to clean the fan. They just shook their heads and didn't even know what it was or how to do it, because it wasn't listed in their "service schedule".

In hot climates the Gen2 battery cooling is a design weakness in my opinion, primarily due to the lack of an official maintenance schedule on the fan and the fact that it has no filter.

 

Cleaning the fan?
Is there a thread on fan cleaning-"how to"
And what do you clean- the blades? Squirrel cage type fan or more typical bladed fan?

 

Not a worrisome trend, reality, batteries die, especially when they overheat due to negligence, be it unknown or not? Is your's a gen1? Pity you didn't hunt up one of the used traction installers, so far everyone is satisfied, but not fixing the cause won't change the outcome.
There's one particular member griping about gen3 traction batteries, using the prius as a commercial vehicle (taxi) and continually starting stopping in warm weather seems to be detrimental to longevity, the cause being heat, the cure being an extended warranty(and custom cooling of the traction battery).
Anyway, not a worrisome trend,imho,ymmv