Hybrid Battery Replacement?

i would put down some cardboard where you park and see if there's any drips. or cimb under and look around.
it's probably nothing, but worth a check.

 

I agree, Bisco, I think it is something they just figured they could charge me for at the dealership.

Latest updated -- It is now September, the car sailed beautifully through the Summer and has gone about 3,450 miles since my son and I did our repair job!

I do not plan to ever go back to the dealership where they told me I needed $4,000 worth of repairs on my '05.

Someone I know with a similar vintage Prius had asked me what I noticed about the car before the hybrid battery failed. I made the observations that in the year prior, I needed 3 jumps, after the car wouldn't start after parking briefly with the headlights on (waiting to pick someone up.) (I asked my dealership to test the 12 volt at one point, and they said it was fine.) Another thing I noticed was that at about 5,500 miles after an oild change, my oil light sometimes went on, I'd check and add a little oil to get me to my next change. Several years back, probably when the car was about 5 years old, it threw a triangle warning. I called the dealership and it went away on its own... but that had popped up. In the year before it failed, I saw that symbol once and I assumed it was the oil sensor that I had been having problems with. Checked oil, it was ok, and the triangle was gone... but looking back I wonder if that was my warning, because other than that, it gave no other signs of impending death. .

Since I have been running on the fixed battery, with the new 12 volt battery too, I notice that on my monitor, I get a lot more regeneration car pictures than I EVER had. In the year before it died, I rarely saw one little car, now every time I go anywhere I have what used to be my maximum as my minimum and it goes up to 2 or 3 regularly. (I drive in a hilly suburban area with most roads posted for 40 mph or higher. It is interesting, my Prius never got top mpg, except for one or two occasions when I filled up outside the NY metropolitan area (my regular was around 40 or 41 MPG... with it dipping lower if I was using my heater a lot. Someone told me there were additives in our gasoline that lowered the mileage, which I accepted to be true, because when I filled up Upstate, i would get 4 or 5 more mpg. Since my repairs I am getting more like 44 mpg with a good increase if I tank up outside of my area. I should note that I put tires on last winter that do not have the best roll efficiency (or whatever you call that thing) rating, beause my greatest concern was traction, to keep from crashing in the snowy winters we've been having.

I do want to thank everyone who has posted about taking on the battery repairs themselves because without the confidence and information those posts brought, I don't think we would have attempted this ourselves and I just didn't have the money to replace the car or pay what the dealership wanted. So many thanks!

 

I had my battery go out in my 05 Prius and went through what everyone else went through. I googled it and then called the local dealership and after the sticker shock I called the local parts store and was right about to pull the trigger on that when I found a company that will do everything for you. The company I called was a legitimate one and I talked to one of the service guys. He directed me to someone who does it on the side for less. I know what some people might be thinking that was the place I messed up and they would be right.
I screened the guy on the phone and asked him a bunch of questions and especially about his warranty vs the others. He seemed nice on the phone and he did provide me with a warranty ( even if it was a generic sales receipt slip with very basic warranty info hand written in the description or parts area)
This was a huge mistake and horrible experience. below is one of the Better business complaints filed about him. Since he works for one company during the day, buys or at least deals with another company to get refurbished batteries and also runs his side business, it is hard to nail him down exactly and not tie in his associates even though they might be innocent of any of Alex Tishin's wrongdoings.

Summary. Alex Tishin a 1 man operation out of small private garage selling refurbished batteries on the side AKA HybridOnly/HybridPlus supplied me with two Bad prius Hybrid batteries, horrible customer service, and left me without a car for almost a month!. The 1st battery purchased 3/25/2015 failed completely in June. After 2 weeks of daily attempts to get service from him I had to call anybody that knew him and anyone I could find explaining my frustration and desire to get a hold of him and/or escalate my complaint and only then did that get his attention. I do not have a second car and being without one was very disruptive to my work and life. I asked Alex on the phone about what he was going to do about the battery and leaving me stranded. He said tough luck. Not only that but the replacement battery would not come with another warranty! I told him that this was wrong on multiple levels and I would report him. He became combative and said that he has great lawyers and to bring it on. I was finally able to get him to agree to honor what little warranty remained. This involved me driving 3 hours to pick up a questionable battery on 6/25/2016 and I SPECIFICALLY asked him if he was going to give me a good battery replacement or poor one, or pull some type of stunt which he replied he would not give me a bad one or turn me away. That was a lie. I had a feeling that he would try and pull some stunt, luckily I showed up with my wife and a video camera and he changed he tune slightly. He still refused to be on camera but after giving me the run around and making me jump through hoops I was finally able to get another (poor) battery that I had to pay someone else to install after a 3 hour return drive. Horrible experience. I should have bought the battery somewhere else and not went the cheap route. This could have all been avoided with better customer service and product. AVOID ALEX TISHIN at all costs!!

 

[QUOTE="LadyB, post: Latest updated -- It is now September, the car sailed beautifully through the Summer and has gone about 3,450 miles since my son and I did our repair job!

I do not plan to ever go back to the dealership where they told me I needed $4,000 worth of repairs on my '05.[/QUOTE]


It is July 19, 2016 -- One year and a couple of months after my Hybrid Battery Cell swap on the driveway!

I just wanted to pop in to report that our "hybrid battery fix" is still going strong! I think I have another 12,000 miles on the car since our repair. God is good!

 

welcome!
you get 10 years, or 150,000 miles standard. whichever comes first. it's certainly worth calling toyota and asking, but 12 years maybe too much.
this is another case of time being more detrimental than miles. all the best!

 

I have a 2005 Prius with 156,000 miles when the hybrid battery died. I probably could not have sold the car for very much since the check engine light was on (along with many other warning lights). The car was still in very good shape so decided to get a new battery. The choices came down to the following:

1. Dorman re-manufactured, installed by independent garage: $2450 with 3 year parts and labor warranty that was not transferable.
2. Toyota factory battery installed by independent garage: $3200 with 1 year parts and labor warranty that was not transferable.
3. Toyota factory battery installed by Toyota dealership: $3600 with 3 year parts and labor warranty that was fully transferable.

I then looked at Prius Chat and followed a thread about contacting Toyota USA. My battery was out of the 10 year California warranty but decided to give them a call at 800-331-4331 and ask for "goodwill". I didn't need to wait for very long before a nice rep asked for my VIN number and then found my vehicle in the system. First thing he said was that he was pleased that I have been taking my car to Toyota for servicing all these years. He then noticed that another one of our cars is a Toyota and that he was really, really happy that we were a Toyota family. I explained the hybrid situation and he said I need to take the Prius to a Toyota dealer to confirm the hybrid battery was dead. Which is what I then did.

Toyota USA confirmed with the dealer re the dead battery and in a few days called me back. They had negotiated a $3200 replacement with a fresh Toyota hybrid battery with a 3 year parts and labor warranty that was transferable. Toyota USA offered to pay 35% of that cost, which was about $1148.00. After taxes, I paid a little over $2100 and am super happy. Toyota USA did not need to do this. I also want to add, that all I did was ask. I treated the rep with respect and never did more that simply ask for goodwill.

Good luck for others facing this similar situation.

 

I think with asking for goodwill, Toyota considers their likely return on investment. For people who do regular service and maintenance at Toyota dealers and have owned a couple or more Toyotas, there is a high likelihood from their standpoint that they will continue spending money with Toyota for cars and service. And as a result, Toyota corporate is more likely to offer them something since they are likely to see a return on their "investment"

 

they seem even more pleased with regular dealer servicing than how many toyota's one has owned. i wonder if they have to appease the dealers due to lower profit on the goodwill replacement.

 

If I use my own personal experience as an example, a synthetic oil change at the closest dealer to me (in the same town and 5 mins away) charges $85 for the oil change. Add a tire rotation and you're over $100.

For the wife's 98 4runner on conventional oil, it is still $60 before any tire changes.

Now if this is done every 5k miles, the costs racks up and should tip the scale toward the "goodwill" giving a feeling of some satisfaction.

If instead you are a DIY person, oil changes are the cost of parts and fluids (which just in the case of oil would be ~$30 all in), so immediate savings is gathered.

If not DIY and you "shop around" in your local area, deals can still be had. An example: the next town over (about a 20 minute drive) Toyota dealer has a Sunday special where they take $10 off any service over $30 (the labor on the oil change just happened to be $30). So $20 for an oil change where I supplied the oil and filter and could watch the oil change at from the comfort of a chair with coffee, not too bad.

It's a matter of perspective, IMO. If you have ~156 k miles and have changed the oil every 5k miles(using my price differences as the example):

• you've had 31 oil changes.
• 31 * ~$60 in price difference between dealers
• That's a little more than $1800 just for oil changes excluding other maintenance "suggestions"

So getting $1200 in "goodwill" still netted Toyota a nice $600 profit. And as @Moving Right Along mentions, they know 'cause they have visibility to it and they know something is better than nothing. But you feel good and Toyota Corporate added the antecedent that since you were so loyal, we're giving this to you.

I DIY most jobs and put the savings aside for preventative maintenance. If I did not DIY, I would shop around to reduce the spend. That way Toyota doesn't get you coming and going or make you feel good and that "Corporate cares" even though they just did a simple calc and offered less than they have obtained over the years.

Glad it worked for you though. Never hurts to ask.

 

when i called to complain about battery degradation on my pip, the first question the college intern on the phone asked me was, 'do you have your car serviced regularly at a dealership?'. when i said no, but we've purchased 7 new toyota's in the last 15 years, all i could hear were crickets on the other end of the line.

 

How dare you not support their profit quest and support the guy down the street instead......

Did they ever call you back? I know for awhile you had a countdown going .

 

nah, i knew they weren't gonna do anything. they told the guy who started the thread that it was 'within the acceptable range', like oil burning.

 

You still seeing shorter EV range?

Good to know just in case I feel "Prime" for an upgrade .

 

oh ya, it doesn't get better. i'm down about 15% from 16.5 to 14 on the same route. seems to be the case for most electrics. doesn't matter unless you were just making your commute when new, and after sometime, the engine comes on everyday for the last mile just to go through the warm up phase.

 

3% a year doesn't seem too bad (or was it nonlinear).

But good to know.

 

definitely more the first year, and less each year thereafter.