Had Hybrid battery rebuild and still getting code to replace battery

The cost differential between Asian cylindrical cells is very narrow from a shop standpoint.

I'm not sure how much less they would have to be than OEM to make them attractive enough to offer to customers. $500 less? $700 less? $900 less?

 

I have put more into repairs than what a car was worth but I knew what I had when it was done. It's a lot different if you have to pay someone to do the work, a different ball game. The car that comes to mind had three transmissions installed in it's lifetime and I put the last one in.

 

To be an option for me they would have to be half the price of the new packs. Probably $700 less than they are now. Toyota changed the whole game with the new battery prices.

 

Thx for the correction. Never noticed until now.

 

Wow. 4 years. Your customers love you. But, a failure in 4 years would be like lotto odds. Very unlikely to happen.

Yeah, when I heard $1600 for new OEM HV packs, decision is a no brainer.

Any idea why Toyota decided to dropmthe pricing? Last I remember the cheapest I saw was $1900-$2100. Now it is a consistent $1600 range.

Maybe sandblast the Orange (Dorman) and Green (FraudTech) Hv Battery cases, and sell them?

 

The hack is making shite up and can get away w/ it b/c you don't know enough about the Prius. He is scum and won't honor his hack.

If he had the some decency, a quick check w/ Techstream would tell him which module pair went bad: his replacement or a different pair.

Why don't you report him to the Michigan Automotive repair licensing board?

 

I would guess they dropped the price in order to sell more packs. This definitely will prevent many folks from choosing used packs.
Note that the price drop was only for Gen2 Prius packs. So Toyota may not have felt it important enough to compete aggressively with other models.

 

Sorry, not trying to hijack the OP's thread... My HV battery seems to act up and I'm looking at the various options in Michigan. My Google search brought up GreenBeenBattery. They offer 5 year warranty and charge $1549 for coming to your house and installing a reconditioned battery. Anyone heard of them? They got 10 positive reviews on Yelp from all over the country.

Thanks!

 

Makes sense. Had that price been available when I replaced my wife's I'd have gone with a new one rather than a 2-year old one. I wonder what that is doing to the prices of used packs.

 

Welcome!

I would avoid them and all battery rebuilders. Especially when you can get a new one from Toyota for almost the same price if you install it yourself, which isn't hard.

Here are a couple discussions about them and the rebuilt battery concept in general.

Green Bean Battery | PriusChat
Reconditioned Battery/5 year warranty/1500 dollars | PriusChat

 

Thanks! - I've been reading threads here for two days but hadn't encountered those two ...
The Toyota dealership told me it's $2500-2600 to replace the battery (with a new OEM, I assume).
I don't really want to do it myself - whenever I made minor repairs I ran into problems with screws/nuts/bolts that won't get loose, or broken push retainers etc., or I don't have the proper tools. Although, if I get the battery for $1600, I can buy the necessary tools and still save a significant amount of money.

 

Avoid Fraudtech! They are scum too; purposeful misleading claims.

Always look at reviews w/ suspicion. It is known business have paid people to write positive reviews on Yelp and other platforms.

If you are a glutton for punishment, enjoy inconvenient break downs, and like spending money unnecessarily, by all means get a "rebuilt" from FraudTech, Dorman, etc.

You would not buy a used cell phone battery expecting longevity and trouble free operation.

 

$2,600 for I'm battery installed at a dealership is a good price. Usually I hear them charging $3,000+.

Of course doing it yourself is cheaper dollar-wise.

 

I haven't heard of any fatalities about a DIY HV battery pack swap yet. But if stealerships start selling packs to every Tom, Dick, or Harriet who wants one, there might be one soon. It's not quite as simple as replacing a 12V. I wouldn't want newbies here to get the idea that the swap from old to new is harmless - far from it.

 

Getting a pack from a dealership is much more involved since it is not fully assembled.

Also most dealers have a protocol on how they want it returned as far as labeling, car information, etc.

Generally there is a $1,300+ core fee as well. So be sure to have extra money handy to float for a bit while you work on your pack.

It's less work than a complete diy kit from some sellers. But still more work than a fully assembled drop in replacement. Plenty of opportunities for making a mistake, like not properly torqueing nuts and bolts.

 

Hindsight is 20/20.
And it doesn't really do any good for someone dealing with a problem to say..."You shouldn't of done that".

But in about the decade since I first started looking at Prius and Hybrids to today?
The whole idea of rebuilt or refurbished batteries has kind of changed.

When I first started looking, much of the advice or common thinking was that reliable, refurbished or rebuilt batteries would become available, and that they would be cheaper great options when the Hybrid Battery failed.

Not to knock some of the very qualified people offering this service or product, but in about 10 years, I've seen the attitude really change. Unfortunately I think the whole segment got and is sullied with too many people, who really don't know what they are doing.

So you get independents trying to rebuild batteries with very mixed results, or playing whack-a-mole with failing modules. And then we read stories about Prius Owners disgruntled and struggling with trying to get warranty remedy, and sometimes eventually ANY remedy at all.

So with all due respect to those who can and do good work?
My blanket recommendation is now to just get a "new" OEM battery if your Hybrid Battery fails. Too often, any savings a rebuilt or refurbished battery might offer upfront, get's immediately negated by immediate or premature failure.
While I don't think I've really read a post or thread where someone was upset about a OEM new replacement.

 

It's that time frame that is so important in these observations. 10 years ago, those modules in the repair supply pool were, well, 10 years younger (relatively speaking). I've seen more than one hybrid repair shop get out of the battery game because the odds of finding decent modules to last another 5 years for warranty purposes was not worth the effort or financial risk.

The good/bad news is it's been found that gen4 modules will work but require a complete exchange of all 28 so it's not a super cheap fix like the wack-a-mole concept.

My belief is they have enough data to know the hammer drop is coming very soon on all the good gen 2 OE batteries still in use and understand the risk/reward pricing is constantly lowering for owners of cars approaching their limits on depreciation, mileage, years, etc.

I'm going to tag @austingreen as he might have some insights on the OE battery supply side of this discussion.

 

Why all 28? How is the exchange done?

 

Sorry, since I got a new Toyota replacement batt last summer, I'm not staying up with the latest intel. But IIRC, Todd at tampa hybrids was the first reported here to have done it. You should try searching those terms.