Prius battery life and replacement cost?

maybe a stuppid question but was this the HV battery or the 12 volt one that you wanted a org. one back that was not instock in the us?

or a misdiagnose and it was the 12 volt that needed replacment
o will whe will never now i guess

 

Eh. It happens when people use the "Search" function. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, though often by different deities :_>

 

Pretty clearly the traction battery. It doesn't take four weeks to get a new 12V battery in North America.

This story reminds us of the importance of reading the fine print in extended warranties.

 

I think you missed FWD's point.
It is possible the dealer misdiagnosed the fault. Sometimes when the 12 volt battery fails the symptoms mimic those of a failed traction battery.
If the traction battery was replaced even though it was not faulty we will never know.

 

The Toyota hybrid warranty should have kicked in, no ? The story sounds fishy to me. BAck to the dustbin of history.

 

yes

 

If the 12V battery was faulty then replacing the traction battery would not clear the fault. longterm, what has happened since? Any problems?

 

good point but maybe also the 12volt was changed later on?

 

I was one of the original "believers." I bought an original 2001 Prius which I have had for over 8 years and it has 105,000 miles on it, so I was shocked to find out last week that I am going to have to replace the battery at a cost of $3,000!!!!

I protested to the dealer that when I bought they said it is guaranteed for 100,000 miles but that they expected it to last much longer and that it would be about $1,500 when that happened.

The dealer said they couldn't do anything but they would contact Toyota since I bought it there, had all the maintenance done at the dealer and had referred NUMEROUS people to buy them who actually had done so :cheer2:. I still haven't heard from Toyota.

I feel very betrayed after being so effusive with praise to so many people over the years about this car. If I had known I might need to spend $3,000 on the battery after $105,000 I would not have purchased the car and I doubt if many of you would have either.

I'm still hoping Toyota will make some compromise and I'll keep you posted.

 

Good luck, Terry.
Have you looked for a used battery ? I think you have a pretty good chance of cutting your total charges in half, and at that point you are in the ballpark of the unlucky couple percent of car owners who get to replace their transmissions after 8 years or so in conventional cars. I don't think you should feel betrayed. Bloody unlucky, yes.

These hybrids do differ from regular cars in being much more reliable on average, but when they break often a high repair bill comes along for the ride. This seems like a perfect place for an insurance company to spread the risk. For e.g., around 1 - 2% of G1 Prius have traction battery failures before the car's end of life. A pool of people could have paid $60 at time of purchase and covered all failures. Of course the failure rate was not known 8 years ago, but I'd like to see an insurance scheme for G2 and later hybrids, now that we know approximate failure rates. A $5 buy-in would be enough, not including administrator costs and profits.

Perhaps something for Danny to think about.

 

Well, with 2001 Prius, you are basically one of Prius pioneers. And there was always a risk of unproven technology. Only time tells the truth.

Even proven things sometimes fail in premature fashion. So, I would say that battery failure after 8 years and 105,000 miles of operation is not so bad. Seen modern non hybrid cars suffering total system failure in quarter of that lifespan.

Hope you will resolve the problem though.

 

I Have a 2008 whith 160,000 miles runs like new.
no problems at all.whith navigation system leather bluetooh,aux for the ipod.loaded...dont be afraid of the battery.

 

Yep, early adopters do face such risks. OTOH this is about what you'd pay for a replacement transmission on a conventional car of similar mileage, so you're not really out much.

 

As another datapoint, I have a 2001 with 131,000 miles. Just today, the main battery failed. Really had no warning that it was about to fail. Gas mileage has been pretty consistent over the years: around 50 mpg in summer and 43 mpg in winter.

My local toyota dealer quoted a replacement cost of $4400.

I've loved my Prius and would buy another one. My question now is should I pay to have the battery replaced or should I go for a nice new Gen III. I commute 70 miles round trip with a carpool. I know my carpool buddies would appreciate a new larger pruis. On the other hand, it might make more economic sense to replace the battery to give my car some more years of life.

Any insights would be appreciated.

 

This is the GenII forum (Terry hijacked several), but you can get a battery installed a lot cheaper than that. The battery is something like $2500 retail and it is likely the dealer doesn't pay anywhere near that much for it. Markup is likely about 40% judging from other Toyota parts. Try some Toyota parts wholesalers and get quotes from other shops on the installation cost. I would target less than $2500 installed.

Alternatively you could get a salvage battery installed for much less, THEN sell the car and buy what you want. I would not go the salvage battery route on a car I was keeping long term.

 

I agree that you should call the various Toyota dealers in your area to see if you can get a better price. A Classic salvage battery is a questionable investment if you wish to keep the car long-term as those batteries will also be 7-9 years old and near their end-of-life. (Recently one Classic owner did a reasonable DIY repair by buying two 2G salvage batteries and swapping 38 modules into the Classic battery case, but I am assuming that goes beyond what you wish to do...)

If you are faced with spending >$4K on this repair, I'd recommend that you consider scrapping the car. kbb.com indicates that the trade-in value of a 2001 Prius in good condition and 131K miles is only $4K. What if the transaxle, inverter, or electric steering gear fails and you are looking at another four-digit repair bill.

You could buy a new 2010, but there's also the possibility of buying a used 2G with low miles, for a lower price - so you have a range of options open to you. Good luck.

 

I am requested to pay $4,619 to replace the battery and ECU due to failure at John L. Sullivan's Roseville Toyota in Roseville CA. Toyota would not help with the costs in any way as of 12/10/2009. I have a 2002 Prius. In the end, especially if I pay them to fix the car, the Prius was a horrible choice. There are other issues such as poor tire wear on required tires and a severe breakdown on a San Fernando Valley Freeway due to another mal-functioning part that Toyota did help with some a few years ago, still costing over a thousand dollars.

 

How about weather conditions and temperature? What does -27F overnight fare on the hv battery? Being that it is inside the rear of the vehicle, but still overnight it gets coooold in there.
We have an 03' Gen 1 Prius still running great at 49.5mpg overall (around town mostly)
and an 06' Gen 2 Prius at 52.5mpg overall (more highway). The 03 just got new tires (Dunlops), new 12v battery, and needed the throttle body and MAS cleaned after a few error codes. Other than this normal stuff after 6 years, nothing else ever went wrong with either car...knock on wood

 

What does that mean specifically?

 

For what it's worth, I have a friend with a Gen I purchased in 2001 who had to replace his traction battery at 103,000 miles, at a cost of $3,000 in the San Diego area. He said his warranty ran out at 100,000 miles, but current Prii have 150,000 mile (10-year) warranties in California. I wonder when the warranties were bumped up?

I have a feeling that your battery usage will affect how many miles you can get out of them. Time has to be in the mix somewhere too. I bet that, on average, you could get 200,000 miles and 4 years out of one battery, but only 100,000 and 8 years out of another.