Big Battery Go Blooey? Advice? References?

how many miles on her?

 

Yes you do have to wade through this forum to find your answer. If you get any assistance from Patrick Wong, Chapman Flack, or Bob Wilson you have struck gold.




iPhone ?

 

Use the search box at the top RHS of this page to narrow things down a bit. Try HV Battery or Traction Battery as search words.

hope this helps

 

I have to disagree with C Clay on ONE thing: I'll save you the trouble of digging through all the threads. Buy the mini VCI and check your own codes. Then post them. But it does sound like the traction battery is bad. Depending on your mechanical abilities, it is possible to repair or recondition at home. Or have someone like a repair shop replace it with a Dorman battery, which is way cheaper than Toyota and comes with a 3 year warranty.

 

If every new poster followed this example we'd have a stream of solved problems flying out of this forum like who laid the rails. You've made my morning.

-Chap

 

Yes. Agreed. I was trying to provide humor without rendering any assistance. Get the miniVCI & Techstream!


iPhone ?

 

So... You also read the post AFTER buying the car eh? Well, I have to remind myself I did research this car, just not this forum. I actually went to the library yesterday to validate that I wasn't crazy and that consumer reports STILL recommends Gen 1 base on their consumer surveys.

Isn't there a database someone on here has compiled of GEN 1 reliability that is surely much larger than consumer reports members with a GEN 1?






iPhone ?

 

but you have to keep in mind, you're buying a 12-14 year old car.

 

Agreed, but my limited research indicates that is one of the most reliable 13 year old vehicles on the road. This report is from 2014


iPhone ?

 

I just wanted to give the OP some kudos for the phrase "Big Battery Go Blooey"...

Because over the years I've heard the failure of the hybrid battery described in many ways. But perhaps never one so honestly straight forward and without unnecessary sophisticated pretension.

Best of luck getting everything Un-Blooey.

 

For P3000, there should be one (or more) of four 3-digit subcodes: 123, 125, 388, or 389, all of which refer to different issues with the battery or battery ECU. These codes are stored in the Hybrid Vehicle ECU (probably based on information communicated to it from the battery ECU). If you got your own code readout, can you post those codes, or if you had someone else read the DTCs for you, can you ask to have the subcodes too?

P3006 indicates too much variation in the states of charge of the different modules in your battery. There's no subcode to read, that's just what it means. The two-page workup section in the manual describes a load test you can do confirm the problem; it can be done in the car and only requires a scantool that can monitor the MAX V and MIN V parameters over time. Techstream will certainly do that, if you have it.

-Chap

 

I'm going to cast my vote against adopting the phrase 'go blooey' for this sort of battery problem. My only reason is that there is a different, fortunately rarer, but much more potentially damaging thing for 'battery go blooey' to mean.

A battery that uneventfully grows old and tired and pines for the fjords has not gone blooey in that sense—and that's a good thing.

-Chap

 

In my shop we install 2-3 Hybrid batteries a week. Things have changed over the last couple of years due to age, supply, and demand of used NiMH modules. In my opinion you are "rolling the dice" with any rebuilt or reconditioned gen1 battery. Even if they are rebuilt with gen2 modules, there's a good chance the modules the rebuilder used are already old and tired.

Even Dorman has a high failure rate. Luckily they are big enough to be around to honor their warranty, but it's a hassle to remove the battery, ship it, then try and get reimbursed for labor. (BTDT!)

Some of the smaller firms won't even be around if/when you need to USE their warranty, and a warranty is only as good as the company behind it.

For the last year or so we don't bother with used/reconditioned packs for Gen1s, -- too many failures. The only sure way to make the Gen1 battery "happy a long time" is to buy a NEW ZERO MILE battery from a Toyota dealer. Yes it's more expensive but you get what you pay for in this situation. Even with the short one year warranty, the Toyota battery will still outlast the rebuilt ones.