Toyota sale. Genuine HV battery $2250 tax and labor included!

An incredibly smart move to take the sale price now, assuming you want to keep your old Prius at least another five years. I would say it is highly likely the battery will fail within that period.

You may not be able to get that sale price or anything close to that if you have an out of town failure. As you like to visit the East Coast, if you have a failure there the dealer costs may be much higher. $3K or more.

 

Its been a life saver for me. Going on my 3rd year of propping up my battery. Going really well. But its no guarantee. if you can get to it when the battery is healthy its great.

Nothing better for a battery them to be able to give it its maximum charge..

 

It can be an excellent investment if the rest of the car has had the common wear items addressed. The ABS actuator is the other time bomb on these cars and can often cost as much as the HV battery.

 

Yes the ABS is always lurking there.

I do know the Toyota dealer system in in my town no longer does brake fluid flushes. I asked for one and they said nope too many ABS failures during the flush. WE do not do flushes. I would imagine they give you a warning for a brake job too if it fails its on you.

So I have not touched my brake system since I bought it new 13 years and 150K miles ago. Everything original stops very well.
Rotors look very nice.


tic toc..........lol.......

 

Truth is that brake fluid change was not on the official maintenance schedule at least back in 2006. However, Toyota added brake fluid change requirement every 30k on later hybrids. I think the reason was that they had high frequency of actuator failures.

Anyway, a brake fluid change is an important maintenance item for all cars but it’s even more important for a Prius protecting a very expensive labor and part replacement actuator. I have done the brake fluid change using Techstream and a mityvac about 8 times now between my 3 hybrids and never had an issue. I admit it’s one of the most complicated and scary procedures that some inexperienced automotive technician could mess up easily. Many dealerships and mechanics try to avoid brake fluid changes on the Prius because are labor intensive and they can not charge much money. Why as a dealership charge $150 and spend 2 hours on brake fluid change when you can charge $150 to replace air filter and cabin filter in 8 min?

 

Has Toyota USA added brake fluid? That'd be good. Their Canadian counterpart did maybe in 2014.

 

Well you got me wondering when Toyota USA added brake fluid changes to their hybrids maintenance schedule. I searched several USA model year Toyota manuals online and apparently there is no mention of replacing brake fluid even on late models.
On my 2013 Lexus ES300h maintenance manual, brake fluid replacement is required every 30k mi. Obviously my Lexus was manufactured by Toyota and shared the same hybrid and brake parts with the Avalon hybrid and the Camry hybrid. Why vehicles with a Lexus badge need brake fluid changes every 30k mi and vehicles with a Toyota badge do not need any is something beyond logical explanation.

 

Suppose the OP is ready to sell the Prius in 3 or 4 years. Being able to prove that a new traction battery was installed in 2020 with the Toyota dealer service receipt will allow him to recapture $1,500 of the battery cost when he lists the car on Craigslist and he will probably have 25 buyers or more trying to do a deal with him.