Got my Dorman battery, Any tips?!

did you clean the cooling fan?

going thru 2 dormans is not that unusual, it's probably not your car. keep in mind, a rebuilt battery is not a new battery. you've still got most of the old cells, getting all grey, bald and wrinkly.

 

Yes, I cleaned the fan, every time. I was not sure it was running until the battery went. then it would not stop. I know the battery is going bad before the lights come on now after four failures. It's the way the car behaves for a couple of weeks before it goes, I can just sense it now. I also asked the toyota service manager about the reliability of rebuilding a high mileage battery before they did it for the same reason, the rest of the cells are old too. He assured me they have had great success with it. Maybe they did, but the customers did not perhaps. I still have almost two years left on the warranty of the dorman, but three installs is a pain. Next time I may just buy a new one for the 2500.00 that toyota is charging in Lancaster PA to avoid the constant changing. They only offer a three year warranty if they install it though, one year if someone else does it.

 

toyota does not rebuild batteries. at least not for re use in prius. although they only have a one or 3 year warranty, you're more likely to get 100-200k out of it without worries. $2,500. is a great price.

 

Well, the dealership service center replaced a few cells I should have said, I did discuss the matching and testing of the battery's remaining cells and was led to believe that is how they did it. The cell replacement was a bad choice, it was the about the same cost as a dorman battery but lasted less than 3000 miles. Amazingly enough the cells they installed were fine, which were the only thing warranted about the repair. They were more than willing to charge me to repair it again though. They have not touched the car since, but keep trying to get me to come in for more servicing. I do not trust them anymore, especially since they have built the new fancy service center. They were a lot better when they had fewer mechanics and just a simpler service center.

 

that's very interesting. i wonder if toyota knows that they are doing this. would you mind sharing the dealership name?

 

I did contact corporate, and they actually called me back about it and then they must have contacted Lancaster Toyota. Then the Lancaster Toyota service manager contacted me and they would have given me the cost of the repair off of a new battery. They did not get my business since. I did take my wife's 08 for a service and they over filled the oil in the crankcase which I believe caused the MAF sensor to go into fault. The kid at the service desk told me that would not have happened and wanted to know why I even thought that( I think I read it here) then claimed that carbon just came out of the air(read global warming) and caused it. Now we have four prii in the family and two have over 200k and it has never happened to them. My wife's has 80k. We all live in Lancaster county PA so I said BS to the service manager again. I now do everything my self that I can. Now the problems really started when they built the new building and hired a lot more mechanics, all probably making flat rate and trying to hurry to make more money rather than doing a good job.

 

Rogers, I'm sorry to hear that. Your experience is exactly why I trust this site and ones like it. Props to you for doing your own service work. More people should learn to work on their cars. I can't tell you how many times I've stopped for stranded drivers that didn't know how to change their own tire.

I'm on my 3rd dorman battery after I had the original battery rebuilt twice. The rebuild lasted 4 months and I broke down to get a dorman.

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