Prius battery life and replacement cost?

Scenario: car is at the body shop long enough that the 12V runs down. They jump it in order to deliver the car to you. Battery is still >90% discharged by the time you get it home. Then you go to start it two days later and it is dead. I'll give you a 5% chance that trickle charging restores it.

Here's the problem. After 5 years on the original 12V, you are on borrowed time, and one little incident like what you describe is all that it takes to cause a fatality. Especially on the non SKS cars, the 12V is extremely fragile. I just lost one out of a 2007 on its last legs by having the car in Ig-On for just 30 seconds. Now it has a dead cell.

The body shop may have been the catalyst, but most likely it was on its last legs.

 

I am in agreement with seilerts.

 

Seilerts, F8L,
thanks for your replies. I will confirm after my visit to the dealer shortly.
-Prs.

 

This may be a good time for you to purchase a multimeter so you can keep track of your battery without having to rely on the dealer.

Keep us posted!

 

good point. I will do that shortly. however, reading this thread, I did the vehicle signal check and got the following readings:

IG OFF - 12.4V and with the headlight on, 12.1 V
IG ON - 11.6 V and with the headlight on, 11.3V.

somewhere I read that the nominal should be 13.9V with IG OFF. How do I know if the battery is good/ bad with this information?

Also, the service check revealed some codes - are those the OBDII codes? or what the dealer will be finding out?

 

13.9 v (or there about) is the reading you should get in "Ready" mode (when the battery is being slowly charged).

Your 12v battery is weak as it should hold its voltage better under load.

No, you need to use an OBDII reader that handles the CAN protocols to read codes on a Prius.

JeffD

 

My 2006 just lasted 6yrs and I am in the process of replacing the battery now with a quote of $4000 at the dealer I am going to a refrub battery for 1250, installed cost averager $400 to 700 from the dealers.

 

What I really would like to know is the average time it takes to replace the battery?

 

How many miles have you put on it ralexj?

 

3 to 4 hours for a refubished battery, but add one hour to swap the ECU if you get a new battery from Toyota.

JeffD

 

I just replaced the original 12V battery in my 2008 Prius, 106k miles. It had a date of April 2007 on it meaning it is 6 years old. Dealer had done a free test and indicated it tested "weak." Checking the voltage on the MFD confirmed this, and I noticed the ICE running more often around town, which is a symptom of a weak 12V battery. Went with the Optima from Advance Auto, found a $50 coupon code! It was pretty simple and took me 30 minutes. Be sure to have a 10mm socket and wrench handy.

 

We are being told by dealer both batteries on our 2006 Prius have failed and need replaced. 137k miles, and $4300.00. Reading these replies, we're confused as to whether replacing the 12 volt only, may give us a little time before having to replace the hybrid supply battery? Also, does the forum lean toward refurbishing rather than replacing the hybrid supply battery?

 

What state do you live in? Some states have Hybrid battery coverage to 10 years or 150,000 miles . I would certainly replace the 12 volt first, then see. If you have to replace the Hybrid battery call Reinvolt - I believe their rebuilts are $1200....

 

We are in Texas, and we'll look into Reinvolt too, thanks!

 

Unfortunately, TX isn't a CARB state so you've only go the 8 year/100K mile HV battery warranty.

Failed traction (HV) battery, what to do? - Prius Wiki are some of your choices.

 

Definitely replace the 12V battery first Cynda, then see what it drives like. The things you're looking for are driveablilty problems like low power and high engine revs, coupled with rapid swings in the state of charge (red-blue-green bars on the multifunction display).

 

it's doing all of that, exactly that. Bars changing status constantly, the engine sounding like it was rev'd/pedal to the floor, and the fan running full time.