Another Walmart oil overfill, Toyota is hinting at new ICE

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So what about headroom for regenerative braking? I had read that the systems were designed with battery usage range from 20-80% Leaving room at the top for Regen Braking and leaving the btm 20% to save the pk form damage of having a load while the charge was too low.

 

UPDATE: 8/25/14

So a lot has happened since my last update. On Wed I spoke to the service mgr, he stated they had a Factory service rep there that morning and he helped them figure it out. Cleaned the throttle body, cleaned the MAF sensor and now he believed the only thing that needed to be done was replace the traction battery! I told them they better get that approved from Walmart cause I was not paying any of this.

Dealer called me back and said I would need to go to Walmart and file a claim, so I did and had the store fax it in. Called the Walmart store the next morinig to get the claim number, they still had not faxed it in so I had to remind them to do so, finally Thur afternoon it got faxed to Claims Mgt Inc.

Friday I received a call from the Adjuster at Claims Mgt Inc. He seemed to handle himself intelligently on the phone, business like and seemed interested in hearing the facts as I laid them out for him. He ask that I have the dealership fax him a diagnoisis and the cost to repair the vehicle. Then stated that if I could get the dealer to fax that to him today (Fri) he could be back to me Monday. I called the dealer ask the service writer to do this but he said that the service manager was off (He had made me aware of this before he took off) and he wanted to get his input first. I agreed and we also agreed that it would be done Monday morning. Over the weekend I googled "Claims Mgt Inc" and got back nothing but bad reviews about how they just are there to take the heat off the local Walmart help and never follow thru with what customers are told by store managers. This ofcource made me a little apprehensive but I also know that it was unlikely that folks would take the time to praise Claims Mgt Inc on the www then they would to flame em. So I sat tight.

Monday morning I emailed the service mgr and the service writer reminding them of what needed to be done. Shortly after I had a reply that it had been faxed along with a attached copy for me. Soon after reading the attachment the adjuster from Claims Mgt called me and we went over the fax, he stated that he had also called and spoke with the service mgr after receiving the fax. He said while there is something to be said that the car traction battery has over 185k on it and is well used that the Service Manager had stated that had it not been for the Oil Overfill he was quite sure the Prius would be running today and the adjuster said he had to agree with that. Then the adjuster said that being the case they were willing to settle with me and send me a check for the invoice as presented for the entire repair including the NEW OEM battery pack and 10 days of car rental. I agreed, a check is to be sent out and he said I should expect it in 7-10 days, from the efficient way they have handled my claim I think I'll see it by the end of the week.

I called the service mgr, brought him up to speed, approved the repair and ask if I could keep the old battery. He stated their was a core charge on it and he'd let me know what it is. Last time I checked its a little over $1,000.00, Toyota seems to really want these back. So I doubt I'll be getting that back.

ETA for getting my Prius back, Wed. So maybe just one more update.

 

So I'm wondering if GEN III Prius have this same susceptibility to fouling the throttle body. I just checked my 2011 Prius and it has a different throttle body set up, oddly enough it looks even lower.

 

[QUOTE="JC91006,

Or if you wanted to keep the core, buy a RECENTLY salvage part from LQK or LKQ? It should be around $1000 and you can keep the core for about $400.[/QUOTE]

Yea I could do that and had Walmart not stepped up to the plate I would have gone that route if I was unsuccessful rebuilding the existing battery, but I'm not in this to line my pockets, and frankly would not do anything to make that appear that way to anyone.

 

Actually as I have some confidence in my own abilities to diagnose the problem I'm not too worried about that. The very fact that the HV battery was run down so much before any warning from the cars systems is the reason I decided to pursue any recourse at all, otherwise I would have done the service myself.

I have 20+ years daily work experience with NiMH batteries. This made me weary of the damage that could and apparently was done to these 8 year old batteries with 185,xxx miles after such an event. I never understood or went along with significant ICE damage due to a 1/2 qt overfill, nobody could or has convinced me of a scenario of that happening with the exception of a hydro lock but that was not the case, I've dealt with them before and this was not one of those and just off my cuff I would expect it would take more than 1/2 qt gradually spread over 4 cylinders while the engine was running to cause a hydro lock, I've never seen it happen to an engine that was running well then just shut down to a hydro lock,..

I have a bit more confidence in the dealer to do the work of replacing parts.....they are all pretty well schooled on that, where I find they lack is the ability to recognize when a vehicle owner has some logical input into the cause and remediation of the incident the disabled the vehicle and to use that info to plan a diagnosis to determine the problem. A wrench changes parts, a mechanic diagnoses the problem. We have a lot more wrenches then mechanics out there today.

 

Once I get the check cleared and my car is back in at least the condition it was when all this happened I'll be sure to spread the praise.

One thing I have found that helps me in these types of multi party actions that take some time is I set up a google calendar and I make detailed daily entries in the calendar with all parties names and contacts included, factual details of each conversation, outcomes, promises and what's expected next are entered immediately after each correspondence, invoices or other doc's are attached, then I invite them to that entry by entering everyone's email in the invite field. Everyone gets a copy of what's posted to the calendar right after each entry.

They all know that I'm serious and take what they say seriously. If they think I've miss stated them, or written that I said something I didn't or did not understand them correctly they tend to contact me back quickly and I note that. Funny how people pay more attention to what they say after introduced to this way of chronicling the project. They usually come to like it as they can use it for their reference too as time goes on. I never tell them I'm going to do this, they just get the first invite and by the third they pretty well understand what's going on. I do however let each party know right from the start how I expect to interact with them, and I expect the same, fairly and truthfully.

 

UPDATE 8/28/14
Dealership called and said Prius was ready yesterday round noon. I went and picked it up. Runs fine now just as did before the Oil Change. Hopefully the new HV battery will bring my MPG up a little. Have been avg just below 43 mpg with A.C. on all the time. Just waiting on check from Walmart ' s insurance company to come in, one more update when that happens.

 

UPDATE 08/30/2014

Ok I received my check in the mail today, took 4 days from the time Walmart received the invoice copy from the dealership. The Prius is running fine now and on the last 150 miles with A.C. on I'm getting an avg of 47.4 MPG according to the cars MPG display so that has increased.

To answer a couple of questions, yes I did pay the dealership before I received the check but not before Claims Mgt Inc had agreed to a settlement with me. The Settlement was just under $3700.00, the dealer bill was just over $3300.00 the difference was to cover a rental that I did not do but they paid it anyway and it will be donated to The American Red Cross.

The dealer cleaned the Throttle Body, MAF, installed a new HV battery and a new start button ( they could not tell me why this was needed but I believe it was the dealer just barking up the wrong tree with their diagnosis, it was $88 and I was not going to get sideways over it) and they lowered the oil level to half way on the dip stick.

All in all I think Walmart and their insurance company handled it well, although when I took our 2011 Prius in for an oil change just this past week and gave them implicit instructions to not use bulk oil, they did, I ask for a new air filter- they did not install one, but they did get the oil level right as I told them 3.25qt and that took it to the btm mark on the stick. I added oil the next day to get it to the 1/2 way mark. BTW when I spoke to the young lady that did the change on the 2011 I told her make sure only 3.25qt, she came back with but the book calls for 4.2qt. I told her I don't care just 3.2 but you better check your book because I bet it says 3.9 . Another female tech looked it up and their book dose say 3.9, that's just too much for the second gen anyway.

It was a difficult time mainly due to the dealer and not knowing if Walmart would do the right thing. Its done now, my Prius is doing fine and I'm satisfied with the end results.

I'm grateful for PriusChat, those who run it and all those whom contribute to make it such a great resource for Prius owners. For those that offered advice, thank you, for those who gained a little more insight to maintaining a Prius, great.