Dorman Battery Experiences

Well Dorman is a nationwide auto parts distributor. They have been around and are a reputable company. They purchased the company formerly known as "ReInvolt" then started selling the batteries thru Auto Parts stores. I don't see them going out of business anytime soon so their warranty should be a good selling point for you.

 

Try searching for ReInvolt. That is where you will find a majority of the remanufactured battery threads.

 

If you use Northern Auto Parts make sure you search for and use a coupon code. You should be able to get 10% off your order. I did when I bought a hybrid battery from them.

 

I should be receiving mine later this week so I can't offer any other input. The warranty is great (3 years) and the price was right!

 

That's a bit worrying. Another member here recently had a bad reinvolt battery too. From memory his problem sounded similar to yours, SOC would drop to pink very readily at start up and then reach high SOC fairly rapidly too. His wasn't bad enough to throw a code for quite a while, but fortunately it eventually did and he got it replaced under warranty.

I'll try to search for the thread and post a link.

Edit: Here's a link to a reinvolt/doorman user who had similar problems. Watch my commute.. is this normal? | Page 3 | PriusChat

 

Yes this is very disturbing. Can you post the literature that says this won't be covered under warranty? I can't understand why if only a p0A80 pops up, the warranty doesn't cover it. Plus I want to know if they aren't backing up their product.

Uart,
I thought about the exact same post when I read this.

 

As the founder of Re-Involt Technologies and now Hybrid Product manager with Dorman Products, I will be happy to address any concerns with either product. My email is: [email protected].
Re-Involt, although a relatively small company, had a policy of taking care of our customers. Dorman has made numerous improvements in our product since taking over and doubled the warranty we offered.

I can say that Dorman's policy is and always has been to take care of the customer. Regarding how long our batteries sit on the shelf at a distributor location, we have an automatic 6 month return date in place and most are shipped out when ordered.

One of the exciting things about my position with Dorman is the ability to make improvements on failed OE designed parts and offer a strong warranty to back it up. The batteries hold true to this.

As will be true with any product, there will be defects along the way. These are sometimes caused by manufacturing defects, shipping damage, installer error or as we see quite often, there was a failed initial diagnostic and our battery was returned with no problems at all. In every case, the customer has gotten either a replacement or a full refund.

We have included both instructional videos and trouble shooting tips on our website to help anyone installing one of our batteries to be both safe and to do the job correctly. Dorman Hybrid Drive Batteries
Again, if anyone ever has any issues with Dorman batteries or any other hybrid specific part that we produce, they can email me at [email protected].

 

David,
In the situation detailed above by Surly, is it covered under waranty? Is it true that if a p0A80 is the only fault code, this does not merit waranty coverage? I'm just trying to figure it out. Is there anything else that could pop up a p0A80 besides the battery?

Btw, I appreciate all you have done both with ReInvolt and now.

 

The P0A80 is pretty generic in that we have seen it set by a low 12v as well as several other issues. We have had numerous customers get this code after the ICE failed to start due to a dirty throttle body and drained the HV battery almost dead. Our goal is to make it easier on the customer, no matter what and sometimes, replacing a battery without digging a little deeper only wastes everyone's time.
In the end, if we could not help the customer resolve the issue and they still felt it was the battery, we would replace it at no charge and just assume there could actually be something with the battery that we were missing.
Once that unit got back to our NC facility, it would go through rigorous testing both in and out of a car to make sure we are constantly improving the product. If we do not find any defects, the battery gets torn down and sent back through production to make sure nothing is missed.
To date, Dorman has not denied a warranty claim on any hybrid battery.

 

Just this year I lost my Traction Battery. I had a junk yard one for $900 or went back to the Dealer Online for $1900+ install, Each would only give 1 year written warranty. Not the 10 year Dealer in past. Though Service Writer said if it went over a year they might still replace, Bring it back an ask. One thing, I chose Dealer because it was all new cells.

What about shelf life Battery Storage, I bought a wreck that stopped charging in April, and it will take another month or two before I get it running?

 

a month or two is nothing. i leave mine for a month or two every winter for ten years, no problem.

 

A Reply from: hybriddriveguy - [email protected].
Dorman places a conservative 6 month shelf life on our batteries currently. Toyota has a 12 month shelf life.
I believe with all the data we have acquired, you should be safe going 12 months as long as the battery was charged prior to storage.
Purchasing a battery from salvage, makes it next to impossible to know the state of charge when received.
On the 2011, if the engine fails to start several times, the battery can easily get discharged to the point of failure.
If you plan to keep these batteries long term, store them in a climate controlled area and invest in a grid charger.
Thanks,
David

Thanks a great help to me. This is AZ hot sun country...We just Fryin Eggs on the sidewalk !

 

I'm glad to hear about the great customer care you are getting from Dorman. But this is one of the main reasons that people should be cautious about rebuilt batteries. They will have a longer warranty than original Toyota products but they will not last as long. If the money you're spending is going to be close to the same amount is a New battery, the smart money would be to purchase new with the 1 year warranty from Toyota. With a great company like Dorman, you should have no issues with warranty claims. However with smaller rebuilders, you may run into issues when the warranty claim is necessary (with a rebuilt, it will be necessary).

 

I can tell you guys one thing... Don't EVER buy an HV battery from Rockauto.com

Early this year, I bought a Dorman replacement HV battery for my 2006 from there since they had the lowest price I had seen, but I had trouble codes out of it within about 3 months: bad cells. It was an inconvenience, but I understand things happen and I have a great 3 year warranty that will take care of me, right? No. Dorman said to contact Rockauto, Rockauto said it was Dorman's issue, back and forth literally over and over waiting on hold each time for a CSR. After about 3 days of this BS I finally got pissed and started recording the conversations and advising the reps that they were being recorded because I was being given the runaround. Finally then the Rockauto people decide it was their problem, however they don't have any replacements in stock, and HAVE NO IDEA WHEN THEY WILL HAVE A REPLACEMENT. They said they would not special order one for my warranty exchange and it could be months for me without a car to drive. I had to call multiple times asking for managers (which they all said they "were the manager") and telling them this was about to be a legal issue of not honoring their warranty in a timely and reasonable fashion, finally I got a helpful person (out of probably 20 people there, ONE woman was nice and helpful) who told me I would have to purchase another one and then just return the first. I had to put up an additional $1800 but it was worth getting my vehicle fixed so I could go to work.

Here we are 6 months later, and new problems with the replacement. Now I am getting fault code P0AFA - Low Voltage, which the Toyota Service Bulletin 0166-09 indicates is likely a bad HV battery ECU.

Called Rockauto and they are playing the EXACT same game. "you need to contact Dorman, that's not a valid code." Yes it is, it is listed in the TSB, and it has returned 3 times to my fault codes almost immediately after being cleared each time.

Dorman may be a good company, but Rockauto is NOT. I have made many purchases there because their prices were the best, but their customer service on big ticket items is zilch, so stick to gaskets and oil filters if you order from them. I am really hoping Dorman will step in and make this right since Rockauto is so incompetent.

Sorry for the rant, but this is taking years off of my life and I hope to save others the trouble.

 

I have read of many failures in the Dorman batteries. I don't think they are as good as before. Actually many rebuilts have problems. Best to go new and not rebuilt