Hybrid Battery Replacement?

Still under warranty

 

...

 

You have to take the car to the dealership to even attempt a warranty claim. If Toyota covers it, then you won't pay anything. If they don't cover it, you'll be out the diagnosis fee.

The longer CARB warranty applies to cars that were initially purchased in a CARB state and registration continually maintained in a CARB State. I don't know if Mass is part of CARB, when they adopted the CARB standard, and what model years it covers. That being said, Toyota has made exceptions.

Toss the Haynes to the recycle bin; it's junk. Get the Official repair manual from the makers of the vehicle.
TIS

Enter the 21st Century and get mini VCI w/ Tech stream (Amazon, eBay). Many postings about setup, configuration. Use on a spare laptop that won't be used for any login/password entries. The software is hacked and may contain malware. Despite this many here use it w/o any worries or issues.

Yoir car has a lot of life ledt. Why would you even consider buying a rebuilt/used Battery? $1k/12mo warranty? Even worse $2k/2year warranty? A new HV Battery from a Toyota dealer who sells online can be purchased for $2100-$2400 in California. A new battery will most likely give you better reliability and more moles that a rebuolt/used battery. You just have to verify that they will sell to you, as some PC members have reported issues w/ some dealers not wanting to sell.

Reviews on yelp should be taken w/ a heavy grain of salt. Many instances of business paying people to write positive reviews, or having friends write positive reviews.

So the yelp business is "licensed." Pays an annual fee to the State and met minimum requirements for that license.

Hopefully you will have won the HV Battery lotto.

 

of course, it wasn't made in massachusetts. but don't tell them that.

 

Tentative congratulations on your lottery, NickJNeild! Looking forward to your report on the actual outcome.

 

In CARB states (I believe reading NY was one of them) would warranty kick in if Battery dies before 10 years but at 180,000 miles? (I'm wishing here!)

 

sorry, no. whichever comes first.

 

Its REMOTELY possible. Most of the warranty cases I am aware of here, involved owners being slightly over the duration (days, weeks, a month or two) or mileage (tens, hundreds, a few thousand). If Toyota covers yours, you would be the most generous case to date (tens of thousands; 30,000miles as you stated). In many of these "Customer Loyalty" cases, the owners had a lot of the maintenance performed at a Toyota dealership as well.

You would also need to know when New York adopted the CARB standard, and if they required the longer warranty (which I think they did). It could have been signed into law in say 2004, but takes effect beginning with model years 2006 and later. The Warranty manual that came with the car would have this information. Washington State adopted the CARB standard, but not the longer warranty.

To even attempt this, you would need to have a dealer diagnose the HV Battery failure ($100+). Then have them call Toyota, and you call Toyota. If Toyota says NO, you are out the diagnosis fee.

If I were in the market for a NEW Toyota and had a HV Battery failure, I would negotiate a purchase price of a Toyota. Before signing anything, pull out my contingency requirement: purchases is dependent on a new HV Battery being installed w/ costs to be split 3-ways (Toyota, dealer, buyer). Cost to dealer and corporate is insignificant, esp since it is a write off for them; maybe $400-$600 each entity. They say no, walk out; but I bet they would chase you down.

 

It's safe to say it's covered if they started on the car.

 

YUP! Current and future vehicles you own, it will be helpful to read through the owners AND warranty manual.

You don't want to be like these people, as ignorance cost them dearly.
Toyota Prius Battery | PriusChat

 

Oh, I already had it in for the diagnostic at $109... they gave me an estimate of $4,144.01....

$3079.17 for the HV Battery replacement.
$140.00 Transmission Drain and Fill (found transmission fluid leak)
$63.53 Replace cabin air filter
$27.77 Replace air filter
$137.92 Replace serpentine belt
$311.22 Sales Tax
for the whopping $4,144.01 on my 10 year old car with 178,000 miles on it. (They have done 90% of oil changes/other services at this dealership where we have bought 3 cars, including a 2014 prius...)

Interestingly, the report also listed another failed task (and a cautioned task) which do not seem to be included in the estimate: "Inspect for wheel bearing free play: Found wheel bearings excessively noisy/worn/loose: Recommendation: Replace left front wheel bearing/hub assembly.... no cost provided for this "need"

It also says my rear brakes need to be cleaned and adjusted - no cost provided for this task.

The car threw codes: P0A80 and P3011 and I've purchased 2 gen 2 cells off ebay and will try to bring them all to same voltage and swap one in this weekend... (figure I will hold off on the major rebalancing, as I don't have the time/equipment right now to do the balance charging of all the modules.

 

I would hold off on all the services the dealer is "recommending" until you resolve the hv battery issue.

The $137.92 quote for the belt is just crazy, it's a $15 belt and 10 minutes of labor.
and $63 for a cabin filter?? this dealer is nuts
I would also question where the transaxle is leaking. This seems very strange.

 

Call Toyota Customer Care immediately. You have a very compelling case. Lots of highway robbery service and a recent 2014 Prius. I would ask for a very generous goodwill gesture of full coverage of HV Battery. If no, will they do 1/2, or a 3 way split between Toyota, dealer where you did most of service and 2014 purchase, and yourself. If still NO, how about $1000,, $750, or $500 towards new HV Battery, and dealer charges you discounted warranty labor rate?

There are many stories of the Prius going well into 200K miles, and even a few into 300K miles.

 

Thank you for that information. I will use it if we can't fix it on my own. Quite frankly, I am not inclined to ever bring a car to that toyota dealership for service again. When I had the diagnostics done, I also had them do one of many "routine oil changes" that they have been doing. When I got home, I popped the hood and found that the dipstick was not fully inserted into it's tube... Small detail, but not inspiring my confidence here at all...

Here is where I stand. Yesterday we opened up the Hybrid battery pack. (I thank all those who have gone before in posting instructions and videos and all the info.)

The code reader had indicated the first cell was bad. When we checked voltage on all the cells they were all from 7.4 to 7.6 EXCEPT for the second one from the "easy" side to get to (it read 6.4). (they were all very close when load tested too.) So all we had to do to reinsert the new one was to pop the top bars off, the white panel off the end and swap the new cell in for the old one and put it all back together.

We did not do the balancing routine... so i am fully expecting that this will be a very short term fix. I am prepared to do the balancing act in the future when I can get enough balance chargers to make the process faster. In the mean time, we put the hybrid back together and the car wouldn't start up... the 12 volt battery was dead. We tried a jump... no good... hooked it to a charger... it said "bat bad". This was not a real surprise, now in 2014 my 2005 Prius (178K miles) which was still on it's original 12 volt battery wouldn't start 3 times... needing jumps. I had this same service department check my battery (not mentioning I needed jumps) in a fall 2014 oil change visit. They said it was fine... which surprised me, but I just accepted it. Today, when we went to change the 12 volt battery ourselves, (got a yellow top) we found that the old battery was sitting in about 3 inches of liquid. We think it is water, but we aren't sure. We sucked it out (an old baby shampoo bottle with the top on it was great to stick down in and squeeze/unsqueeze-suck up the liquid. So I am wondering how long this battery has been bad and what the impact on the hybrid battery was. I searched online to see how long they are good for, and it seemed most went after 5 or 6 years... I do believe it was the original one... unless a change was included in one of the scheduled services that we got a package for when we bought this car in 2005.

Anyway, my son just got home and we are going to finish inserting the 12 volt... Say a prayer for me that this works!

 

Update: Put in the new 12-volt battery. At first it didn't start. We cleared all the codes. We wound up jumping the car and then it worked. Drove it up and down the block a whole bunch of times (neighbors must think I am nuts), and it was running great. (The rotors got very rusty in the month the car has been immobilized.) Took a few minutes of driving back and forth before the hybrid battery started showing that it was charging. Charged all the way up nicely.

I will do some more test driving tomorrow and pray that it goes as well!

Ber

 

you put in a new 12 volt, and had to jump it?

 

Just a quick update... yup... it needed a jump. But now, almost four weeks and 607 miles later it is still running like a charm! I think it is safe to reassemble the back end.

The "transaxle leak" is nagging in my mind... is this something I should find someone to fix? Is this easy to do?