Hi it’s been many years since I’ve been on here. I have a 2008 Prius that bought new that year. Replaced the hybrid battery about a year ago and the 12v a few months ago. Over the holidays I went on a short drive and the triangle of death came on. The only previous time this happened it was because the hybrid battery required replacement, but the new hybrid battery can’t have more than 200 miles on it. The next time I got in the car a couple days later, everything turned on like normal but the engine wouldn’t turn over, so I had it towed to the shop. The mechanic told me both batteries were dead. He was able to revive them just enough by disconnecting them for a few days, and now he says everything is fine with the car they are fully charged. This car does not get driven a lot - I keep at my inlaws where I spend a lot of weekends and where we have use for an extra car, especially in the summer. The 12v battery has died before for lack of use but never the hybrid. Recently I have had someone turn the car on once a week and then either drive it or idle for some minutes. In the days right before this happened, I had a taken a few short drives of 10 / 15 miles. Any thoughts on what might be going on and how to prevent it? I’m still trying to keep this car going as it’s great second car especially for my kids now in the summer, but I’m also trying to figure out when it’s time to give up on it! any advice most appreciated.
If you don't have a 12 V battery charger that you can use permanently at your in-laws, purchase one (a fully automatic multi-stage charger with an AGM setting that can deliver 4 to 6 Amps) and use it whenever the car is laid up for 3 days or more. As far as the new hybrid vehicle (HV) battery goes, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you bought some kind of refurbished battery. If so, you will have problems with that due to it not being driven daily (if not every other day). Check the warranty on the battery and you will find a clause that invalidates the warranty if the car sits for extended periods. If it is a new Toyota HV battery, then you might have a warranty claim as sitting for a few weeks up to a month shouldn't be a problem for the battery. I think Toyota recommends running the car (just starting it to READY not driving it) for an hour or two every couple of weeks. Me, personally, I would be checking the battery level every three to four weeks and force-charging the battery to keep it at the top blue bar on the battery indicator (60% SoC) if it was down to three or four bars.
Thank you! The hybrid battery was supposed to be new according to the shop that installed it. Not OEM, but brand new rather than refurbished. I can't remember the brand, although I could ask obviously. Not sure about warranty. Thanks for the tip on the charger. I've only had chargers for jumpstarting, and didn't even know this was an option. Would that help with the hybrid battery too? Or is that an entirely separate issue?
That's an entirely separate issue an entirely separate charger A new battery would be a Panasonic EV battery from Toyota and a few months ago you wouldn't have forgot the cost Even the round cell conversions are pricey bike cost standards too so there's always that usually most of these green tech green bean type of things that's all refurbished nonsense but I've had good luck with my battery guy doing that here so I guess it can be done or it's luck of the draw or whatever I mean it's very few batteries you go around rebuilding and swapping and playing three-card monte with.
Thanks - yes I do remember the OEM would have been more expensive, but the one I got wasn't cheap either. Will have to check in with the shop re: warranty etc., but it has been over a year, so if it's just a 1-year warranty that won't cut it. I might not have it in me to throw more money into replacing it again!
Quick update. The battery is Dorman which internet tells me is junk. The mechanic, not the one who installed it, tells me all the cells are testing normal. Need to confirm, but dorman website indicates warranty should be 2 years since install. I am within that window if further problems arise. But is the warranty really helpful or does it just mean replacing junk with junk?
The only new complete hybrid battery packs are OEM. Only Toyota can buy those modules as new. Unfortunately, people here are reporting that the battery price appears to have doubled since 2024. Hopefully the Dirman 2 year warranty will be of some use. If they advertised the battery as new, you may have a false advertising claim against them. All of this is assuming they do not somehow claim it was improperly installed. Dorman claims to remanufacture the cells (I assume modules) but they have no way if getting the new cells to put in the modules. Hmmm.
Wow - just read about the Toyota price gouging. Something tells this Dorman battery will keep having problems. Then I’ll just have to ditch the car and never buy from Toyota again!
Just so you guys are aware, Green Bean Battery is Dorman now. LKQ bought Green Bean and then bought the Dorman Hybrid Division. Almost all Green Bean Batteries are coming from the Dorman Facility using the Dorman Production line. Why did they buy Dorman? Because Green Bean's fail/warranty rate was so astronomically high, yeah Higher than Dorman. If you replace the Hybrid Battery either shell out for OEM, buy modules from China, or find a smaller company that has something to lose.
Look on Facebook marketplace and look around you'll find a private guy that works on these batteries and likes doing it and is good at it and has bought the right equipment because he has a good job somewhere else and he's just done this for fun or whatever you want to call it That's my battery guy in a nutshell I need those very good work I wouldn't give up my car because of a battery failure that seems just silly but yeah if you're going to do that just grab a Yaris or a Corolla and you're good for $400,000 some odd miles pretty easily actually all of ours have done those miles without consequence with just general routine maintenance.
You could possibly claim the Dorman warranty and then sell the Prius & get something else. If you are DIY, NewPriusBatteries looks like they are still selling a kit of new cells for your car, but that is quite a bit if money. You basically put in new battery cells and improve airflow in the pack. New Prius Battery Kit (GEN2, 2004-2009) - New Prius Batteries LLC You are not generally going to beat the quality of Toyota.You will likely miss the mpg of the Prius. I recently moved to a hybrid Camry and am already missing my Prius mpg a little bit.
