Lifespan of 2007 Prius

It depends on the kind of driving you have done in the car. If you are hard on it, it may be ready about 150000. If you drive it nicely, they can go 2,3,4,500,000 miles. But there can be variances in manufacturing the batteries that cause early failure, most often that is not the case.

XT1585 ?

 

welcome! if you have maintained it well, i would keep it for him. it's not worth much in the marketplace. but it should be driven in the meantime. texas can be hard on batteries, so, you may have to make an investment at some point. compare that cost to something else you might buy. all the best!

 

The battery will probably die soon and require the investment for another battery. If you buy a new battery from Toyota for about $3000, that will be good for another 10 years. At that time, it would be a VERY GOOD car to pass on to a new driver. Nothing will be comparable for that money.

Do not spend money on a rebuilt battery as that will fail again shortly and you'll keep doing that over and over again. Invest 1 time in a new battery and you'll be good for about 10 years.

 

If the 2007 Prius will continue to be regularly driven over the next 1-1/2 years then it would be reasonable to keep it. However if your plan is to have it just sit around, then the traction battery and 12V battery will not do well.

My 2004 has 219K miles and is my daily commute vehicle. No major repairs needed and the traction battery is original equipment.
My 2007 (which now is my daughter's car) has 90K miles, again no major repairs needed. My project this weekend is replacing the front struts and rear shocks on that vehicle.

Good luck with your decision.

 

JC. The trouble is, very few people know how to properly assemble and commission a repaired battery. It is not done at the dealer, so unless one has some experience with diagnosing large groupings of battery cells in series, or has the proper equipment, I would say that 95+% of independent rebuilders don't have a clue as to what they are doing. I have 60,000 miles and 5 years on my gen 1 (which has 60 more cells than a gen 2 car) after repairing the hybrid battery. This vehicle suffers from a lack of technicians that really understand them, which is a sad state of affairs. More and more models and brands are hybridizing. I hope we get them trained properly. But other than knowing (which is relatively impossible for the layman) if a garage is capable of a hybrid repair. Most folks are stuck paying outlandish costs for repairing these cars because most places throw parts at them, often incorrectly which leads to aggravation and a bad name for the car, and hybrid technology in general. I know Dorman is now producing reman hybrid batteries, but I just diagnosed a bad one, it was not even a performance issue, it was ground faulted right out of the box, I had to tow the car from the dealer because they didn't know what the problem was. THAT is not acceptable that a tech at a Toyota dealer was not able to understand such a simple failure. One thing that is a step toward knowing if a tech is capable, is the ASE L3 exam and certification, other than showing you their Toyota certs ON HYBRID Training. Toyota was supposed to restrict repairs in hybrids only to techs that are fully certified, and in some warranty cases, they have to be or the dealer won't get paid. I KNOW that most dealers around here (new England) will let anyone at them. I know because I would teach my students that just because we were covering basic hybrid service, they were not certified to work on hybrids. One student after a 600 hour internship came back to class that fall telling me he had personally changed 3 Prius batteries. At a TOYOTA dealer. The hours were flagged on a flat rate Tech's ticket who was certified. I was appalled, especially since Toyota made such a big deal during my training about techs not being able to work on hybrids unless they were properly trained. For one, it is extremely dangerous! The dealers out here are "Family" businesses if you know what I mean. One dealer owner here was put in jail for hiring a hit on two of his mechanics. Shady stuff. I hate the complete lack of honesty of dealers here.
Anyhow, sorry about the rant.
I say keep it. I have two customer that have over 300,000 miles on their gen 2 cars. One had just hit 450,000 on the original battery. All they did was scheduled maintenance. One thing that can give some life back is an equalization charge. You'll get the same effect from having the car in B down a long mountain road on the brakes. I do it occasionally on the gen 2 cars and it helps them get more life. The problem is that is it extremely rare that more than one cell or a six cell module goes down. It is usually only one cell in one module that got out of equalization or is maybe defective. Because the cells/modules, blocks, and the whole battery is connected in a series configuration, every cell depends on every other cell to have the same specific energy and power. One cell that becomes discharged to the knee in the charge curve will reverse polarity during acceleration, then become a load to the rest of the battery limiting the current and power the battery can provide. One thing an owner can do is keep a sense for how many bars drop on the MFD/hybrid monitor during an acceleration or heavy regen. The more bars that drop during that event, the weaker the battery. Same goes for regen. The more drastic the change in displays an increased state of charge (bars) the more wear on the battery. NiMh batteries are good for about 1500 full charge/discharge cycles (100%-0).
I have a car that I bought last year that had 180,000 of hard driving, and it is just starting to get weak. I won't touch it until it sets a code (.3 volts variance between battery blocks or roughly 14-18 volts)
These cars do not really "manage" the hybrid battery, they monitor it. No careful charging of individual cells at all (like the ones I put in electric cars). It would be a great advantage to longevity if this were possible. It is relatively impossible though. There are no taps on individual cells, just at every six 1.2 volt cells. Lithium is much easier.

XT1585 ?

 

the issue is always about money. if a new battery is 3k or less, installed, what can a properly rebuilt battery be done for?

 

I charged less than $1000 for towing, diagnosing and removing the bad dorman battery, diagnosing his original battery, repairing and servicing his battery, then reinstalling it, clear codes, test drive to test for a fault in the OEM battery.

XT1585 ?

 

if you can do that with a 10 year parts and labor guarantee, you can make a living at it.

 

You are correct.

The engine and inverter/transaxle coolants need to have the original coolant drained and replaced at 100K miles; then 50K mile intervals beyond that.

The transaxle ATF should be replaced at 60K mile intervals.

The brake fluid should be replaced at 100K mile intervals. The maintenance schedule does not list periodic replacement of that fluid and it has light duty since most of the braking effort is via regen.

The throttle body interior and throttle plate should be cleaned at 60K - 90K mile intervals. Classic Prius in particular was subject to engine no-start issues due to gunk accumulating there; 2G Prius less so. This is due to the Atkinson cycle of the engine where the intake valves remain open during a portion of the engine compression stroke; hence hydrocarbon vapors will rise up from the combustion chambers and deposit in the intake manifold and throttle body.

 

follow your maintenance manual. for questions, go to the forums page and select 'gen 2 prius care, maintenance and troubleshooting'.

 

What car repair can you spend $1000 dollars on and guarantee it won't fail for 10 years? Prius owners are spoiled. I don't think some remember what it is like to drive and maintain a gas car. You can spend $1000 on tires! Brakes! No one breaks a sweat when a transmission job costing $3,4,5,6000 on a POS Dodge with 60,000 miles. But God forbid a Prius with 100k on it needs $1000 for a repair. Honestly.

XT1585 ?

 

it's just a matter of comparison. once you've convinced the marketplace that your method works, you won't need the warranty to convince people. for now, most don't trust rebuilt.

 

This is such a false statement.......I can't remember anything more false. Honestly

 

Nor should they. I won't buy one. The marketplace has only one choice about who is repairing their car; whether they are qualified or not. Verifying that their mechanic has current master level certification with Toyota or the ASE L3 Hybrid/EV master level certification. Period. Luckily, there are many shops like Lucius who have a good long reputation. Most of these shops are run by former Toyota techs.

XT1585 ?

 

pretty sure luscious is recommending new batteries only.

 

Wow, so just picking fights then?
You know. I signed on here hoping that I would be able to help Prius owners understand their vehicles. I have no interest in making regular repairs on hybrids. I enjoy the technology. Toyota did a great job. I stopped working on cars regularly so I could focus on my continued education so I was good at what I was teaching. These cars are antiques, and there is little money to be made. I don't know what your problem is with my last statement. If you don't believe that things are this way, You don't know the industry and you don't know what people spend on poorly made cars. I am here telling you that most people are getting screwed and how I have a problem with it, and what owners can do to limit their costs and enjoy their cars, and somehow that is a problem? I make wayyy more teaching than I ever did turning wrenches or running my own businesses. I'm not here trying to sell you something. I am trying to help people find someone who can properly diagnose Prius cars, what to look for. What questions to ask, what information should they be asking their mechanic about their vehicles. There is a very good reason that I enjoy working on these cars. And there is a very good reason it is unfortunate that I find myslef not taking work because there are only so many I care to take on. I teach full time and have a family, I also have MS, so I could not do more than I do even if I wanted to. I don't have to deal with crap like internet trolls though.

XT1585 ?

 

It is unrealistic for people to spend that kind of money I feel. The cars aren't worth that on the market. If people want to spend money on a car they love, that's great. I'm a mechanic and have spent way more on parts for car projects than I ever care to admit because I loved a car.

XT1585 ?

 

The problem with rebuilt batteries....most people don't rebuild them, they do a battery swap and the batteries fail soon after. And there's very little one can do to guarantee the rebuilder does it right, the first time. People don't always do what they are suppose to do (this includes Toyota). It's an industry of mobile service and shady warranty. Best to go NEW from the dealer with a national warranty and reputation.