Has anyone had to replace thier 12 volt battery? My 2006 w/ only 45K on it seems to need replacing. On Saturday I had to have my car jumped and then today (only 3 days later and first time I tried to drive since sat.) the car was completely dead. I am curious if anyone has had to replace theirs and was it a pain. Any help would be great.....thanks.
Cheap answer: replace it yourself with another Toyota battery. Easy answer: have a dealer replace it. There is no 3rd party direct substitute for the Toyota battery. Optima yellow top with the eLearnaid installation kit may well be a better battery (and I have one) but it will not cost any less.
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/prius-12V/ There are multiple threads on this, but Hobbit's write up is excellent for how to get access to the battery. Many like the optima option, I think the OEM is just fine.
I replaced my 12v battery 3 weeks ago after experiencing a big warning triangle twice in less than a week. With 98k miles and 5 years, I wasn't going to risk getting stranded with winter coming. The battery price wasn't outrageous, but labor to install was almost as much as the battery.
I was afraid of that.....what was the price paid for the battery and how much did the dealer charge to put in? Did you think about doing the work yourself?
