2004 model. Bought the car used 4 years ago @220,000km, now 310,000km. HV battery likely original but not 100% sure. Symptom: Noticed decreased fuel mileage, from 49mpg when 4 years ago down to 42mpg recently. A few days ago I found the battery voltage lower than usual on start thus engine kicked in earlier. Today it throws error code and the triangle. Dr. Prius confirmed one module's voltage stayed consistently lower than others. Other bars move up and down but #12 is dead there. Hybrid Assistant battery test can't get SOC above 60% but #12 is lagging. Any suggestion on different options? Replace bad module: When a module is bad, does it usually happen to 1 block or 2 blocks? OEM pack: Will call the dealers to see what their quote is. Refurb pack: C$999+tax with 6 month warranty and C1300+tax with 1 year warranty from FB. Lithium: While Project Lithium is sold out while I'm up north in BC this doesn't seem to be an option.
Well it just depends on what you want to do play games with your battery you have lots of time and no money or you need the car back on the road getting the highest mileage possible because you just want that 7 miles per gallon that's not huge but it is what it is getting your battery back up to snuff is either you play whack a mole in the driveway because you have the time and no money or you replace the battery like you do in your flashlight when the beam becomes dull and lifeless you go to the store and you do what buy new duracelles or new batteries it's the same in your car you can play all the games or you can buy new and generally be back to where you were when all these discussions start. It's a choice only you can make for your situation.
Bought my Japanese Toyota battery from the dealer at 222k miles it was easy to replace on my own because it looked exactly the same as the original. Granted, it was a bit more money, but they had it in stock and I walked out the door with it in the back of the car to take home
Toyota OEM battery costs C$ 3200 +1000 labor 5yr unlimited mileage warranty. For that price I'm considering LFP too. What's it like in sub 0C days? There aren't many but a few months here in Vancouver area.
The cheapest option is just replacing that bad module; depending how mechanically inclined you are and if you want to do that. The refurb option isn't much better than just replacing your single bad module. IMHO, your just gambling since the modules are 20+ years old and you'll probably just be playing wack-a-mole. The reality is 310K km and 20+ years of wear. The safe bet and most reliable fix is a totally new traction battery pack. Those are your options and just my 2 cents....
I've just crossed out refurb option. They don't seem to last much, thus a local store stopped selling them. Replacing module itself is simple, the PIA is cycling/pairing process which takes quite some time even with $100 4-ch >=12S NiMh chargers. Or maybe I should just buy 4 of them to do the job in parallel?
