2005 Prius 12 Volt Battery Failure Experience

bisco, I GREATLY respect your posts here and have learned much from you. Thanks for, sharing your knowledge. Here in Chicago (away from the relative warmth of an ocean) we sometimes get 5 years out of batteries. Six is rare. Seven is unheard of. If you were to forced to suggest preventative number of years, what would it be?

 

There is a reason why replacing the battery is not on the schedule. There are many variables on how long a battery will last, not the least being on how it is looked after. I, for one, am really annoyed by the idea that a Pb/Acid battery should just be junked after some notional time period, when there may, in fact, be nothing much wrong with it and a quick test will sort it out. I'm annoyed for two main reasons 1) It is financially wasteful to unnecessarily replace a good battery and 2) it is environmentally irresponsible.

Most people are caught unawares by a dead battery because they just do not pay it any attention at all.

I think Bisco's advice is sound, if you test your battery and it shows no signs of needing replacement, then do not replace it. There is nothing magical about 4 years.

My battery gets regular checks and service (by way of charging) and after being in service for 2+ years is still in a very healthy state.

I have found effort is rewarded.

You are free to do what you want, but don't preach to others that it is best practice.

 

I totally agree with your concerns about pollution and desire to save money.

There are also some PriusChatters who strongly suggest doubling the frequency of Prius fluid changes. Some have suggest changing the scheduled "lifetime" transaxle fluid every 30K miles (every 2 years for the average driver). That costs $150 at a dealer, the same as the cost of one self installed battery.

But are you really trying to brag about getting 2+ years on your battery?!? Did the last battery last 7 years? Why did you replace it? You have also suggested that we burden ourselves with an additional, annoying, off schedule, preventative service that requires hooking our battery up to a charger routinely. Most of us living in cold climates just want to enjoy our famously reliable Toyotas so that we don't have to worry about testing or hooking up chargers (many don't have $50 trickle chargers and/or a garage with power plug) with cold numb fingers and worse: not starting at night in sub zero weather. We are just looking for a reasonable suggestion that keeps it simple for mere mortals, who don't want to worry or do any extra work on their cars.

 

"Best Practice" depends upon the context. You know how to take care of your 12V battery so you don't require advice from anyone else about what to do.

Hence, for mere mortals who don't have the time or the skill to continuously monitor the health of their 12V battery, I suggest a battery change interval of 4 years if winter snow appears; and 6 years under moderate weather conditions.

I recall a former coworker who owned a Prius and had a 12V battery failure a few years ago. The Prius was parked in his driveway so he could not drive another vehicle. He missed a day of work since he did not have a vehicle available. He had to have the Prius towed to the dealer to have the battery changed. He ended up paying $400 for the battery to be replaced (premium price for the battery plus dealer tech labor at an East Coast city), paid for the vehicle tow, and lost a day of salary.

If that sounds like something that might happen to you, then you may want to consider proactive measures to reduce the likelihood of a common Prius no-start issue - unless you enjoy that sort of drama in your life.

 

I have to say I'm a little taken aback by the tenor of your reply to me.

1. No, not trying to brag. I was merely trying to give some positive feedback of my experience of investing a little time (approx 10 min per month) in preventive maintenance. Why are you surprised? I don't consider that a long time. The point I was trying to make was that given your metric of a 4 year life, I'm at half life, but my metrics show my battery is performing almost as good as new.

2. I never thought about it, but now that you mention it, yes, I must have had about 7 years out of the old one, as it was the original factory fitted Yuasa battery. It is a quite a testament as I never looked after it especially. Why are you surprised?

3. There was obviously a shorted cell and who know what else, it was continually on heavy charge in the car. It finally was not holding a charge and becoming unreliable.

Yes I am making a suggestion, but by no means is it mandatory. It takes 10 min a month (well, that is all it takes me) -- it is hardly a burden. If you find it a burden and annoying to hook up a battery charge up periodically, think it is off schedule, then quite simply don't do it. It's no skin off my nose.

I was offering my thoughts on battery maintenance to the wider PC audience, it isn't specifically directed at you - don't take it so personally.

Regardless of your climate, feel free to enjoy your car as you wish. Nobody, lest of all me, is dictating to anybody to do anything with their car. I am merely one beggar trying to show any other were to find some crumbs.

Personally, if my climate was as you describe I couldn't leave my car out in the weather - I'd always garage my car. As it is, my car is garaged as that is important to me so I make it happen, but I guess if that option is not available to others, it does make things harder.

As long as you make it clear it is a suggestion you follow and it is only your opinion, I have no problem, but it comes across as if it is industry best practice with the way it is phrased in your posts.

My impression of most who visit PC and especially those who frequent the Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting forum are not those who don't want to ... do any extra work on their cars, therefore, I offered them advice on how to care for their battery, if that is of interest to them. I do assume people are free to take it or leave it.

 

I'm sorry I don't know how to quote someone and put it in my post but this post is in response to Patrick Wong earlier in this thread about finding the date on my 12v battery. I finally looked in the right spot and saw how the date is obstructed, I think the first pic shows that. The second pic is numbers that probably don't mean anything. I looks like it has a white G on it. Could it be the original....after 8 years? I don't see any obvious signs of failure...would anyone like to offer some opinion on this...thank you

 

Here's PDF on battery dates:
http://www.firestonecompleteautocare.com/repair/reading_date_codes.pdf

To Quote, just highlight the part of the quote you want, hit the Quote button and then hit reply"

 

Regarding the second photo, it looks like the battery's date is November 13, 2007. Hence it is likely original equipment. If the battery voltage measures 12.6V or more after the car has been IG-OFF overnight, and the car does not have any symptoms then you are good to go.

 

thanks ken, maybe i'm wrong, and patrick certainly agrees with you. i've just never done it that way, and was never taught to. if someone doesn't have the skill to test their battery, (and i'm no expert) i would think asking the person that does their service to test it would be adequate.
but if one must be absolutely, positively sure that they will never have a no start condition due to a bad 12v, then 4 years is probably good, but some here have reported less than 4, so it's not perfect.
perhaps carrying a jump pack would be a better solution.

 

post deleted by kenoarto

 

Thanks for the Interesting posts.
I have a 2005 Pruis that I purchased new at that time.
I still have my original battery and I am looking to replace it. I also have 310,000 miles on my Pruis.
Just replaced the inverter water pump.

I need to look for the steps on setting up or resetting the system once I replace the battery. If anyone has any recommendations I would like to hear them.

Thanks again for the posts.
Bob

 

Not much is involved.

1. Reset your radio station presets.
2. Reset the driver's window auto-up function.
3. If you have nav, you might have to reset stored data.

 

Thanks for the feedback.