Is there any way to figure out how many miles are on a Prius wreck in a junkyard? Keys and 12v battery missing so won’t power on. Other than looking for signs of corrosion (which can vary a lot depending on how/where vehicle stored and maintained). I have the vin, but no free data online about miles when I do a vin search.
Could run a carfax, or even run the VIN at : Track Your Service Records with Your Toyota Owners Account Make sure the module serials are sequential, and see if the resting voltages mostly match up. Does it come with a warranty? What's the asking?
Thanks for the reply. I already bought and installed the battery, it was from a wreck (a good sign for traction battery - it was able to move the car forward until stopped by an immovable object). It was cheap ($350), and just a 30 day warranty which is already up. When we bought our 2006 new I thought the Prius life would be over when the battery needed replacement, but with 210,000 miles on it and still running well, putting in a cheap traction replacement just made sense instead of sending it to the junkyard. I took it for its first extended trip away from home (500 miles) this weekend, and it performed admirably, even going through mountains. So now it’s just idle curiosity about how many miles were on the replacement battery from the junkyard, since it seemed better than I hoped. I don’t have any info beyond what is on the display screen, but that shows all green bars which seems a good sign. No drprius app, I just use an old Can Obd2 scanner to read and clear codes. I’m not a member of carfax so no mileage info there. Or is there some way to get info there. Do I need to register on the Toyota site? First attempt there didn’t go anywhere without registering. Do they allow gathering info using vin without owning the car?
Actually a slightly different question If one gets a junker battery to use as a spare, or for resale, what procedures should one use to recondition it?
Yeah, you can enter the junkyard VIN here and if you're lucky get a ball park idea: Track Your Service Records with Your Toyota Owners Account
Ok, so I add an account (which requires email and cell number) and complete registration through email link, sign on, and go to https://www.toyota.com/owners/my-vehicle/service-history-user and it doesn’t show anything. Shouldn’t there be a list of services performed, with dates and mileage info?
No guarantees. This could mean either no servicing has ever been done by a toyota dealer (it happens) or simply nothing was ever entered in, etc. You can try carfax or other similar type service too. Hook up a small power pack to donor vehicle (assuming working FOB).
So that screenshot shows no service at a dealer ever? Seems hard to believe it wouldn’t be taken back at least for recalls (I know there were at least a few on this model year). No key at the junkyard, that was the first thing I checked. Free carfax showed nothing either. If paid carfax would show more, does anyone here volunteer to do a lookup for others. I could post the vin here, I don’t see any downside since I know the car is in a junkyard being picked apart.
Since I have two Prii besides the one in the junkyard I got the battery from, I added both of them to the Toyota page and both show a complete lack of service history also, even though I know they were taken to dealers for at least the first several years. And both purchased in the US. So either that page is completely useless, and just used by Toyota to track and market to customers, or I am doing something wrong. Has anyone ever actually gotten useful data from that Toyota page?
I have in the past, though lately it does seem to be acting different when I tried using it as well. Just take the VIN(s) to the local dealership and they will give you the info, also ask if they can tell you why the "owners" site no longer works.
Ah, now you tell me Until it is fixed no one here should give advice to use that Toyota site. They now have my email and cellphone, and I’m sure I’ll get tons of useless unwanted marketing crap that will never end. I wonder if a dealer will give info out about a junkyard donor car. Seems unlikely, but maybe worth a try.
Never had to give up a phone #, and the only marketing I've received was when I looked up a Lexus and entered a local dealer preference. Would be nice to know if toyota will fix the owner's site or not, kind of sucks that it doesn't work anymore. See if the free carfax works with the other VINs you have, there should be ownership change, accidents, oil change, etc. Maybe not for free?
FWIW, I logged in on my windows desktop instead of iPad. Firefox on desktop DID show service info. Whereas Firefox and safari browser on iPad both failed to show any info. So could be an iPad or browser issue, not worth trying to debug. But I guess the advice to new users would be to try different browsers and platforms until something works. Toyota required cell phone on registration, maybe I could have given them an unusable dummy since they didn’t text me, but email does need to be active to complete registration.
Interesting, as I had issues with FF on winblows, then fired up a newer Opera and it still wasn't acting right, then wrote it off as a VIN issue.
Miles is kind of irrelevant.. you'd probably rather see high miles than low miles.. low miles might mean it sat unused for a long time and ruined the battery..
VIN = Vehicle Identification Number - often found in the lower corner of the windscreen, and or the doorjamb.
