Thinking of purchasing a 2007 Prius with 36,000 miles on it. Should I be concerned about battery?

it's not a 2000, what year is it, 2010?

 

other than his screaming, seems like a pretty good deal. but you would have a better idea of your marketplace than i.

 

of course, the more mileage, the more concern. your hybrid warranty is for another 50,000. but the transaxle and everything else is on you. do you want a car that absolutely won't cost you a dime after you purchase it?

 

no, but i can afford a new one. if i couldn't, i would probably be driving a used camry or some such. but i have a low tolerance for risk. i'm not even in the stock market. you will get plenty of people here telling you to jump on it, and i'm not in disagreement. if you don't mind the minute chance of a 4 digit repair, go for it.

 

simpler, my daughter is driving my old '08 with 90,000 miles or so. i have no problem with that. car is like brand new.

 

That 2010 might be a good bet but that's getting pretty close to the price of a new Prius C. Have you seen the "C"? Do you like it? I think if I were to purchase new today, I'd be looking at the C. It's more spartan than the regular Prius (which I like, actually), delivers better fuel economy and starts at about $19k msrp.

Toyota Prius c | Hybrid Hatchback

 

There are a number of videos on YouTube that claim that it's fairly normal for the hybrid battery to fail after 7-10 years, but there are some cost-effective alternatives to replacing the whole battery. Often, it's a single cell which has failed, and if you can isolate it, a replacement can sometimes be obtained for less than $30. The cells will then need to be re-balanced. The drawbacks to this method include knowing how to work with high voltages without getting yourself fried, and knowing how to isolate and re-balance the cells.

 

I just rebuilt my battery in my 05 with 2012 cells, and the funny thing was i bought the car with 72k miles, and I could see someone else had already changed some cells before me. So I guess you never know when the cells are going to fail. Mine is a Florida car, and the heat just kills batteries. Car lead acid batteries only last a couple years down here, and same battery up north may go 7yrs. .

 

I just replaced a battery for a guy that has a 2005 with 59k miles. He bought it 6 months ago with 36k from a dealer that claimed the "little old lady story" which was probably true.

Lack of use kills these batteries. For the same money he could have purchased a 2007-2008 with 100k and have a back-up camera and AUX port and probably not have have a battery failure. Or he could have purchased the same year car with avg miles and paid about $2-3K less, probably not had a failure but have the money left over and then some to pay for future repairs.

 

Excellent! My plan for my '07 (when the time comes...) is to go to gen3 cells. Rolling the dice with other gen2 cells seems like a route whose time has come and gone. Would you be willing to share roughly what it cost, whether you bought an entire pack or individual cells and how the car is tolerating it's upgraded pack?

Thanks.

 

The gen III packs seem to be cheaper than gen II because there is less demand. Most gen III's are still covered by the warranty and obviously newer and less likely to fail.

 

Unfortunately that seems to be true for both nickel-cadmium and lithium batteries. They tend to drain themselves if left unattended for a few months, and if left too long, they can become a "brick" or irreversibly dead. I am sure this characteristic varies considerably between battery types and manufacturing processes, but I have never seen a rechargeable battery with the "10-year guarantee" you see on some alkaline batteries.

I don't know any easy solution, except plugging in a plug-in, or making sure a non-plug-in is started at least every month or two. Battery maintainers are no good for a hybrid because the voltages don't match. Perhaps some sort of alarm should be a necessary requirement.

 

I'd say go for it! I've had my 2009 Prius for almost 4 years now, best car I've ever owned for maintenance and gas mileage. Welcome to the forum.

 

I paid $800 ouch for the 2012 pack, just the cells still squeezed in the left and right clamps. Made it nice, because I could run cycles on them on my charger before installing them in my case and end clamps. I'd rather spend the $800 on the 2012 pck. than for a rebuilt 2nd gen pack. Also, the 2012 pack cells returned much better numbers on the charger than my 05 cells did for sure. I might even replace the two weaker cells in my 05 pack, and just sell the whole thing to re- coupe some of my money when I get some time. Another thing I found out rebuilding these batts. is, when your all done cycling them , load testing them, and voltages are about all equal, let them sit for a week or two, then you can run another voltage check on them, and you'll see the ones now that are going to give you a problem again. Also watch the ones on EBAy with real high voltage readings, those have just been bumped up with surface charge, when you load test them, they drop down to 6volts real fast, I got scammed on two for rebuilding my 05 pack the first time.

 

I think fear of mechanical failure has been Toyota's winning card over the years. Toyota has consistently ranked at the top in reliability ratings. The long warranty (8 years in most countries) for all hybrid components, says a lot.

 

Thanks.[/QUOTE]
I paid $800 ouch for the 2012 pack, just the cells still squeezed in the left and right clamps. Made it nice, because I could run cycles on them on my charger before installing them in my case and end clamps. I'd rather spend the $800 on the 2012 pck. than for a rebuilt 2nd gen pack. Also, the 2012 pack cells returned much better numbers on the charger than my 05 cells did for sure. I might even replace the two weaker cells in my 05 pack, and just sell the whole thing to re- coupe some of my money when I get some time. Another thing I found out rebuilding these batts. is, when your all done cycling them , load testing them, and voltages are about all equal, let them sit for a week or two, then you can run another voltage check on them, and you'll see the ones now that are going to give you a problem again. Also watch the ones on EBAy with real high voltage readings, those have just been bumped up with surface charge, when you load test them, they drop down to 6volts real fast, I got scammed on two for rebuilding my 05 pack the first time.[/QUOTE]

Great work, makes a lot of sense, imo. $800 for the gen3 modules actually sounds like a good price to me... I see a lot of ~$750-$1500 for them on eBay, and I wouldn't hesitate to pay into that upper range for a 2013 or 2014 pack. Good odds of ending up with a really fresh pack for an aging gen2 Prius at still substantially less than a factory replacement. There is another report of an early failure of an aftermarket pack (supposedly brand new cells with a 4 year warranty) on another thread here today. Makes it hard for me to trust the aftermarket guys regarding honesty AND competence. I think your method is the way to do it. And for sure, most all used gen2 cells are well on their way to having seen better days at this point.

Thanks for the overview of you project, appreciate it. Best of luck with the new pack but I don't think you're really going to need it.

 

I think it's fair to assume that battery technology is maturing. They are becoming more reliable, durable and efficient over time.