Watch my commute.. is this normal?

What was the length of the original warranty, and are you still within that time frame? If so then I'd definitely be pushing them for a second replacement.

So many people reporting problems with rebuilt batteries these days. It's starting to look like paying full price for brand new battery from Toyota is actually the best deal.

 

Good to hear! How's your MPG now? Keep us updated

 

How much did you originally pay for the remaufactured hybrid battery pack?

 

My ReInvolt battery was replaced by previous owner 8/6/2012, mileage at time 129k
He paid 2685.00 for it, labor269.00
I have 152k on it now, bought it with 143k, runs like a new one.
Good luck to you.

 

I was assuming mine was new....

 

I have not had any problem with my replacement hybrid battery .
Do you just think you got a bad one, and the reputation for most are pretty awesome?

 

Hi jefe, thanks for sharing your story. Good read, and experience to share with others.

I am a longtime member here, having a 2006 since almost new (demo car), and it has served me very well over the years, but I haven't spent a lot of time on the board in the past couple years.

In May 2013, I had the dreaded red triangle (at about 170K miles) - ironically as I was leaving to go to the dealer anyway for service - and it was diagnosed of course as a failing HV battery. Through the wonders of HSD, the car struggled a bit, but did not strand me, and I solicited 3 opinions from three dealers here in Toronto, and they all came back with the same diagnosis - full pack replacement, at a cost of about C$3300 including labour. Ouch.

Did my research, and found an independent guy in Toronto who works exclusively on Prius, and was loosely related to the Reinvolt community, who was able to rebuild my battery (replaced 4 cells) for C$1200 taxes in and 1-year warranty included. I have already put 36K miles in the 17 months since then, still running great. Currently at 205K miles (328K KM). I have had a few other ICE-related issues fixed by him as well (misfiring, etc), which he did for almost free. For anyone in driving distance of Toronto, I highly recommend him, great work. I only wish I had discovered him sooner.

In any case, I am not a hypermiler by any means, but I also driver 'responsibly' and make casual efforts to maximize fuel economy (i.e. try to avoid hard acceleration/braking, minimal use of A/C unless necessary, try to avoid using heat in the winter until ICE fully warmed up, etc.).

I have never really made a point of allowing a warm up, period, I usually just get in and drive, rather than "wasting" gas on warmup. However in the past few months, I did notice a similar behaviour to what jefe describes with the SOC; the SOC does not drop overnight, but for the initial drive, with the ICE warming up, the SOC drops down to 2 pink bars (very rarely see 1), before building back up. My drives are generally quite long, and while the first 5 mins is bad (as expected), my overall FE is quite good, in line with what I have had over the 8 years. (average 5.0L/100km over the life of the car, and around 4.7 over the summer - approx. 46MPG and 50MPG respectively).

I have asked my mechanic if this behaviour is 'normal', and he basically gave me a non-committal answer that he has seen it before , but not to worry about it if no code is coming up. Typical mechanic response, I guess.

I don't remember the SOC dropping at the start of the drive before, but I also never really watched it that closely. So, I am not sure if it is a factor of a rebuilt battery or not.

Either way, the car is running well and fuel economy continues to be very good, so it is more of a curiosity than anything else. Buys me time to
save money for the next gen Plug-In Prius.

Lastly - just thought I would add that I also replaced my HV battery before my 12V, which February of this year at 189K miles. It was still going, but the charge was showing a bit low (as it had been for some time), and I had the car at my mechanic for other work anyway, and replaced it proactively. He actually told me he has never seen the 12V last that long, and that I was on "borrowed time". LOL

Anyway, if you are still reading, my apologies for the long post. LOL

Cheers!

 

I see similar behavior from my 2005 with 233, xxx miles. It will drop a bar or two if I drive away before the engine turns on. I've noticed it's more fuel efficient for me to let it idle for 20-30 seconds before I pull away, therefore staying at 6 blue bars. Still gets 45-50 mpg!
What a wonderful machine!

 

But you are wasting gas. By allowing the SOC to drop down to one or two pink bars you'll be getting horrible fuel consumption (and missing every possible glide opportunity) until it recovers.

Many people have shown that if you're losing a lot of SOC during the first few minutes then you actually improve your fuel economy by letting it idle for about 40 seconds before driving. Just look at the OP's case, he (or she) got a massive boost in fuel economy by following my advice in this regard.

If you have this issue then warming the engine a little is a no brainer in my opinion. It's a win-win situation, as it makes life easier on both the battery and the engine as well.

 

After reading this thread, I agree completely, and will be giving this a try. It of course was not an intentional move to force the SOC to drop after starting the car, just a behaviour I happened to notice more recently, not sure if it was always like that.

When I was out today, I did let it warm up a bit before driving away, and the SOC did indeed stay up, but not a noticeable difference in fuel economy yet, albeit a small sample size.

Will keep trying this an see how it goes. Planning to also pick up a ScanGauge at some point as well, for more insight to what's going on.

 

Dorman (through Mr. Taylor) told my local installer that they would pay what they calculated to be a national average for the hourly installer rate - about $75/hr. I cannot see that being an accurate national average for a hybrid battery installer. Either way, they have yet to follow through with the reimbursement. So for an install from late June we're now at four months and Mr. Taylor with Dorman is still a ghost and not responsive. So why are they telling you one thing and my installer another?
Never again would I buy from either Taylor or Dorman. The double-speak is absurd. If a company has agreed to pay then they have a legal obligation to do so.

 

Sorry to highjack this thread!

I as well am a farily new Prius owner had my Gen II (04) since October, still learning alot. I recently have notice SOC drop which is differnet from the last 5 months, my SOC is almost always at 7 bars, but in the last two weeks I've noticed my SOC has been drooping off over night, down to one bar above the middle so lets say 4 or 5 blue bars. I have never seen a pink bar didn't even know they changed color again. I have been concerned about this as it is not the norm for this car. But if what you and everyone else is saying my car is normal now. This morning for the first time I moved it back out of the garage right after I started it, which it usually runs for about 10 minuted prior to backing out, normal morning temp in Ontario Canada this of year -15/-20'C, but this morning I needed something on the shelf in from of the car so I backed it out, once outside keep in mind this is 5:30 am, I tried to put it in park with the shifting stick, looking for park like a normal gas engine car I placed the car in "N" and the triangle came on and the dash said something about "the battery won't charge if the car is in neutral" place it in park. or something like that, this is the first time I've seen the triangle light up, was wondering if it worked cause it doesn't light up on start up. I don't have any codes ( that I know of) or CEL. This forum has scare me from checking my codes with an OBD II code reader as is seems to really mess up the car, not sure why but I have seen on this forum mulitiple time about this.
Wow long story short, if my SOC used to stays at 7 most of the time, even on cold morning starts, but now has dropped to 5 or 6 bars on start up and I get around 5 or 6 L/100 KMs during the winter and 4or 5 L/100 KMs during the warmer weather is everything working alright? No problems starting the car, no problems driving the car just noticed the sudden change and I am curious. No idea of the condition of the 12V battery as far as I know it working great, but could this cause this issue?
and what about the red triangle this morning?????