Prius 2006 battery failure. Early signs as I experienced them. Drop in MPGs, down 5 miles or more from 50-52MPG in town for the last six months until the red triangle and the code P0A80(replace battery) and P3014(cell# 14 bad?) appeared in the code scanner 3 days ago and the battery fan runs very high (low) all the them. Also, the MPG bars do not show any green car icons although the battery bars indicate that it is charging. The only good news is that this happened in town, not somewhere in the middle of the desert 200 miles from the nearest town (I live in AZ). But, the car took be home from work (10 miles) and was still drivable (for another 5 miles when I dropped it off for the battery replacement ($2700 with tax) ouch!! But can't complain too much car is is ~9.5 years old and has 99,000 miles. Does any one know of or keep any any real statistics (no anecdotes, please) out there on how long 2nd gen batteries last? Has anyone experienced complete sudden death where the car is completely un-drivable?
welcome! rarely, if ever, does the car die completely when the hybrid battery gets bad enough to throw the triangle and code. unfortunately, there are no good stats. we have a little poll here, you see cr above, a member named mkaresh does some reliability stuff. but if toyota has any info, we're not privy to it. and even they would never know about people who fix their own batteries, or have them replaced at private shoppes.
I'm surpriseed Toyota didn't try to help you out a bit with the price, in a CARB state it would have been under warranty
you generally have to ask, but for $2,700., they either did help her out, or she went to a non toyota repair shoppe.
Thanks for the post. I've been searching for info like this since I bought my 2007 Prius a few weeks ago. I was hoping battery failure was not a severely disabling experience. Glad to know I will most likely be able to get it somewhere safe. Mine has 126k miles and is on the original battery as far as I know. I drive about 90% highway so the battery tends to stay at the same level of charge and never move. I wonder how driving style effects battery life.
well it looks like OP is a ghost. Baber0015, believe it or not your car will like local stop and go's better than long freeway drives to charge the HV battery, Re-genative braking has the best recharging state for the HV battery.
you'd be better served to keep an eye on your 12 volt battery, than worrying about your hybrid battery, as far as getting stranded is concerned. Merged . srike one against the o/p is the arizona heat.
