Have you replaced your hybrid battery?

2004 102,000 miles.
na
na

 

It seems that this poll was intended primarily for 2G so I voted "no".

2004 currently at 62K miles
n/a
n/a

2001
61K miles: DTC P3006 Uneven Battery SOC
repair covered under 8 year/100K mile hybrid system warranty

 

2006 (with 79k miles still running like a brand new)
N/A
N/A

 

2001
55600
$3300 (quoted as dealer warranty cost, free to me under warranty)

Just got back from the dealer. New battery and cable on order for next week install. Hit brakes semi-hard to avoid a collision. Got a coughing sound and hesitation and ! triangle, battery and check engine lights came on instantly.

Drove to dealer. Took them 2 hrs off and on the phone with Factory. They finally said the factory told them to replace both based upon codes. They reset code, could not reproduce, so driving fine so far in meantime. They speculated that perhaps the sudden stop may have wiggled a coroded cable or some such, so battery itself, may not necessarily be the issue.

Anyone know if you bought a 2001 model from the original dealer as a "new" demo model, in 2003, which year is used for the warranty start date - 01 or 03?

 

2005
Just went out & 70K
Covered under warranty - Dealer stated battery cost was $3000.00 plus $147.00 labor.

Our mileage is about 70K on our 2005 Prius. Tuesday when I was going home from work I noticed the charge indicator display dropped a lot lower than I normally see when I drive home. As I continued home the battery went to a full charge but a lot quicker then I have ever seen. After the incident it seemed to go back to normal operation.

Wednesday when I started the car to go home from work the master caution, break generation failure, check engine light, and Hybrid system failure lights came on. It happened as soon as I started the car. I made it home with no problem but the hybrid system was discharging and charging at an accelerated rate. The monitor showed 3 complete cycle charges occurring within a five minute period of time. So there was a lot of charging and discharging of the battery on the way home. My drive home is about 36 miles and takes 45 minutes.

I left the car at home on Thursday and took it in to the dealer on Friday.

The diagnosis was a failed #3 cell in the hybrid battery pack (2 to 3 volts lower than the other cells). Luckily the hybrid batteries are under warranty for 100k miles. The Dealer gave me a 2008 Camry to drive until the Prius was repaired. The dealer put in a complete new battery pack in today and sent us on our way.

The Dealer here in Conway stated that it was the first battery they ever saw fail. They service cars with up to 150K miles on them.

 

2005
n/a
n/a

(Have you been drinking any Koolaid?)

 

2008 with 24,898 miles
N/A
N/A

 

2004
n/a more options anyone? say over 100k fail or no fail?
n/a i'm glad my mileage is in my signature... +4k though...

 

The car is a stock 2005 Prius (No modifications)

The majority of the 70K miles are freeway miles (I-40) usually at 65mph. Very few stops and starts.

I drive from Conway, AR to Little Rock, AR approx 32 miles one way 5 days per week. I do not consider any of the terrain I travel to be considered steep grades.

The car has never been driven out of gas and has never had any damage / accidents.
Other than the battery failure the car has never had any problems.
I have always taken the car to my dealer for regular maintenance (every 5K miles).
The car is kept in a home garage so it has not been subjected to extreme cold in the winter. Winters here seldom get below 20F.
It does get hot & humid here in the summer. We can see several weeks of 100 degrees F and 98% humidity.

 

06
n/a
n/a

Car currently has 35k+ miles.

 

2004
NA
NA
Stupid poll

 

I can't help but wonder about a few things.....
1) The dealer must have the elusive diagnostic tool that tells them the battery is bad, or they just read the codes that say the battery was bad.
2) Can a bad cell or two be replaced by a dealer, or is the WHOLE new battery an actual WHOLE new battery?
3) If they replaced a bad cell, they would not be lying if they said, "we installed a (ahem) new battery".
4) Maybe I'm just cynical that way, but if Toyota really replaced the WHOLE battery because of one or two weak cells, then that's the kind of company that should buy out Ford, GM, or Chrysler. Maybe they can teach us a thing or two about how to run a car company. I don't want to see the big three go belly up, but I am pissed at those executives for showing up in private jets with hat in hand.

My two cents.....

 

1. The Toyota diagnostic laptop or hand held tester can read DTC, specialized Toyota info codes, and also perform additional tests on the traction battery.
2. The entire traction battery assembly is replaced; whether the newly installed unit is new or "refurb" is up to Toyota.
3. This is not done by dealer staff AFAIK. I had two traction batteries replaced on my 2001 and 2006 HiHy; in both cases the entire assembly was replaced (I saw the new before it was installed.)
4. This is done for customer satisfaction reasons; Toyota repair philosophy is that a single battery module replacement will not be effective long-term. Toyota mgmt is probably too smart to buy one of the big 2-1/2 - why do they need the headaches associated with such a purchase?

 

I'm having my 2002 Prius's battery replaced right now for linking cells. I'm a little angry with Toyota because when we purchased it, we were told that the individual cellss could be replaced rather than the whole battery. Our local service rep confirmed that this was true of the Gen1 batteries, but Toyota no longer carry's those parts nor does that repair. I'm now stuck with purchasing $3000+ battery that will only have a 1 year warranty (yes...only a one year warranty).

 

go and find a secondhand one on ebay,

50 dollars or so and lett the dealer install that if you dont want to yourselfs.