Is 12 Volt Gen 4 Battery Made of Gold?

I'm not sure if it's important, but TOYOTA install a NON-AGM battery - but a flooded/wet type battery.

 

you can never be sure that anyone at a dealership really knows anything

 

That's just, well, ludicrous!!! Mostly out of morbid curiosity, I've been looking a couple non-Toyota options. There's a 140R on the NAPA site for $150 dollars. Of course, that's uninstalled, but installation is not particularly difficult. Searching the part is difficult, because the parts databases are infected with error, indicating that the 140R is not a fit, when in fact, it is exactly what is installed.

I've seen about a half dozen different 140R batteries (a couple times with varying nomenclature) from different sources. Fully understanding that CCA is pretty unimportant for our cars, I still look, and all of them are 450-ish, give or take some.

No reason at all to get hosed by a dealer for this battery, especially since the Prius (and other HSD cars for that matter) impose very little "stress" upon their 12v batteries. The "worst" thing might be that the cars don't "exercise" them enough...

 

generally speaking, the prius battery has always had four issues:

1) you don't always get a good warning when it is weak, because it doesn't crank the engine. or people are not attuned to the nuances of a weak 12v prius battery.

2) there is no auto shut off of interior lights to keep the battery from draining.

3) constant drain on the battery due to skas and other makes it vulnerable to draining when not driven often enough.

4) due to the small size, once drained, they are never the same.

hopefully, gen 4 has remedied some/all of that.

 

That’s the manufacturing part number. I didn’t think those were even in the U.S. parts system, but perhaps at that price they deliver it from Japan by air freight or something. The spare part number in the U.S., from Toyota’s own application chart (see my previous posting), is 00544-H4052-470.

I looked through the Deka batteries shown on the Lowe’s website and didn’t see any in the 140R/H4/LN1 size, with the plastic feet at the bottom of the case that go under with the hold-down clamp on Prius cars. I saw several other batteries at about that price that would work electrically, though. The lower price, I assume, is because of the minimal warranty, compared to the multi-year warranties often found on car batteries.

East Penn Manufacturing Co., owner of the Deka brand, does offer a 140R battery, their part no. 5140RMF, listed on the second page of their specification sheet (PDF). It’s also shown in their brochure (PDF), which is more notable for the photo of their factory on the last page.

 

Actually:
2) - there IS auto shut off of interior lights - at least the hatch lamp

an 4) - I suspect that's why they don't put in an AGM battery. I could be wrong - but in the olden days of pre-AGM batteries, they tended to revitalise pretty well, and would recharge from a 10 minute drive enough to start next morning. Try that with a modern car - and you're probably out of luck unless you've got a really long drive ahead. AGM batteries? Not sure.

But if TOYOTA doesn't put an AGM in, I wouldn't be either. They put an AGM in just about every other vehicle.

 

My battery was replaced at the dealership recently. I'm sure that they did not take any steps to "save" any settings. All I lost was the correct time of day on the clock. No other settings were lost.

 

For that price, it will NOT be a sealed AGM and will require periodic maintenance.
AND will not tolerate long periods of non-use well either.

 

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NBP75140R That's the link to the NAPA parts site with the 140R. It's got the "foot" on the bottom to secure into the groove on the Prius battery tray. Other than the labeling, it appears identical to the one that's OEM in my car. I misspoke on the price, though, it's actually only $140.38, plus a refundable $18 core deposit.

 

that looks like a good one at a decent price

 

No sense in changing a battery IF the charging system is working, is it? good. Is the battery actually charging?

 

that's the 64,000 question with prime. not sure about lift back?

 

If your jump pack has a 12 volt outlet (the cigarette lighter style), you can use one of these:



It's not imperative to use the Clore connector; I have a couple (yeah, I know...) of these, different brands.

I lay the jump pack (Clore JNC660 in my case) in the passenger foot well, and run the cable from the pack to the obd port. It has only the 12 volt pins; just provides power. You can't connect to the car's 12 volt outlet, it's disconnected when the car's off.

These cables typically have an indicator light, so you can confirm you've got a good connection: connect one end, then the other, and see that the light goes on for each end. Some of the higher end cables have an indicator light for both ends, simplifies things.

Again, it's not the end of the world to lose the memories, maybe more so with fourth gen though? But yeah, if you've got a jump pack, addition of one of these cables makes it very useful for this.

 

Yeah I've got one of those with my JNC660, but have never figured out anything to do with it. Unfortunately, with the 12 plug-in on most cars (Prius included) being disconnected when the car's off, you can't use it. The power saver cords are $15~25.

Looking through the manual, I think the main use for the double-male 12 volt cord is to recharge the jump pack using a (running) vehicle. I guess if you were driving home after helping someone with a jump start, as an example you could lay the jump pack in the passenger foot well, and run that cable from the cig lighter outlet to the pack, charge as you drive.

That scenario is good for someone doing this as a job, say a tow truck driver: just leave the jump pack plugged in with that double male cord, pretty much all the time, as you're driving from job to job. For home use, the 120 volt connection is better I think.

 

When you need a new 12v and Toyota doesn’t know Gen 4 has its battery in the front plus their proprietary one is on back order, you got to Advantage Auto parts down the steet for their H4 and get it fitted for free. It was about $160, half what Toyota quoted me.

 

Not Toyota so much as a Toyota franchise. They are a mixed bunch.

 

good info, thank you