My 2001 Hybrid Battery needs to be replaced

One last thought, if you decide to let some of us have a 'busman's holiday' with your car, it is best to let us know by Thursday evening at the latest. I usually have to plan my weekends and knowing there will be a trip to NC works best if we know in advance. Spartanburg NC is 7 hours from Huntsville and for a productive weekend, timing is everything.

As Hobbit said, the first thing to do is remove and inspect the battery. It could be as simple as 'crap in the gap', cleaning the corrosion. This also makes it possible to fault-isolate to specific battery modules and possibly put in some spares to get you rolling again. But this is not something one wants to do under a shade tree.

Bob Wilson

ps. Some of us would be interested in the old battery if you decide to go the 'dealer' route. Certainly putting it up on Ebay works but shipping an 80 pound battery pack it not trivial.

 

that's great... hope it goes well... keep us updated~

 

:angry: AWWW MANN!!!! I WANNA BE AT THE PARTY TOO!!! Doggone the drive time!! Palm Beach County is just a little too far south!! It would take me a days driving just to get to NC. Awww well...... I can at least wish you all good luck! And remember, DON"T TOUCH UNTIL YOU PULL THE SAFETY PLUG!!!! No bonfires in NC!!!

seriously Titus, the best way to contact the district rep is to simply go to the dealer service manager and ask them for the rep's name and number. Tell them your situation and just ask for some help. Since you have already got a case going you probably won't need this now, but someone might benefit.... Please keep posting as you get more info. I am very interested in hearing how this all works out!

 

bah. we drove to key west in a day, you're not THAT far south, bear. ok almost

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ Nov 28 2007, 01:47 AM) [snapback]545108[/snapback]</div>

Why hasn't Toyota figured this all out? The Prius will soon be ten years old.

 

Hey Bear, I'll be sorta down in your neck o' the woods in a couple
weeks anyways... we should hang out..
.
Toyota [well, Panasonic] figured out several things about battery
interconnects and longevity for the '04 MY, which hasn't needed any
of this reseal work and has improved cell structure. And there *are*
a lot of factors that they can't necessarily control or duplicate
even during months of testing; an owner base has plenty of chances
of trying something the Toyota folks would never have thought of.
.
_H*

 

shopping list

Now *that's* what I want for Christmas.

 

Awesome pics

Those are really great pics. Only 2 bad cells (I assume NG means no good) will take the whole battery down?

 

Titus37, thanks for taking the time to post about your experience and keeping us updated (and for those nifty pics of a hybrid battery)!

I have to say the price of the hybrid battery was an issue of concern for me when I was shopping around for a car and considering the Prius. I was told by a couple of dealerships (yes, salesmen, yes - I know - their lips were moving, I shouldn't have believed them) that even if the hybrid battery needed replacing outside of the warranty period it would only be around $1500 to $1700. It's rather disappointing to see from a couple of PriusChat members that the real price is closer to $3000 to $4000 (barring any hush money from Toyota). I would've still gotten the Prius even if I had been aware of that before but it is a rather rude awakening.

 

Good news! $200 seems to be a somewhat reasonable price to pay for a replacement battery, IMO.

Yes, I would also assume that as more used batteries become available, it will become effective to essentially refurbish the packs by replacing under performing cells and then reselling the pack.

 

Eek! Too little coffee when I read your post.

 

Hey!! Lookit all the Elmer's Glue on the positive terminals!! SSC 40G!!
This next comment may not make me any friends but.... I am so glad they didn't sell too many of the Gen 1 Prii.... I hated that campaign.

For those of you who might not be familiar with it, 40G was to correct for electrolyte leakage inside the battery case. The trail of corrosion would allow tiny amounts of voltage to "leak" to the case causing warning lights galore.

The Fix: replace the bus bars, add a little black (please pardon the term) "MaxiPad" under the positive terminals and squirt a white Elmer's Glue like substance into the tiny opening on top of each positive terminal and then dry it with a hairdryer. No kidding... I still have an old hairdryer in my tool box....

BTW I did have to replace an HV battery that had had the 40G done 18 months before. The positive terminals were all nicely sealed. The negative terminals were now leaking.

In my opinion it was simply a bandaid fix to keep the cars going until they were sufficiently out of warranty or had suffered some other incident that would put them in the junkyard....
Gen 2 batteries have seen no such issues to the best of my knowledge....

 

How heavy is that thing?

 

A little more than a bale of hay. I've got one in the car port and will measure it when I put it in the work shed.

Bob Wilson