Toyota battery of 2018

12.38v on a 2018, really nothing wrong with it. Just keep it for another couple years.

 

It's still young - mine is almost 7½ yrs old and just got through winter fine.

It "only" has to unlock the door and start the computers etc etc.

 

Get it tested with one of the new gen electronic load tester. You can get relatively cheap tester of that ilk, Solar is one brand, what I have. A lot of automotive retailers have such testers, and will usually test for free.

that said, if it’s the original 2018 battery, it’s getting on.

what’s your usage like, how often, how far?

 

If that voltage is after sitting for a day or so then you opening the driver’s door to pop the hood open it is definitely not bad at all. Just for peace of mind you could have it tested or buy a tester and test it yourself. Based on what you said, I wouldn’t be replacing it.

 

Yep I'm keeping an eye on my wife's 2017 Prius 12-volt as it's coming on 5-years. A week ago, my battery tester said it was a good battery but needed to be charged so I got it back up with an automatic 2-6 amp charger (took about an hour). My battery in my Tundra is from 2018 so I'm betting she'll go bad before my wifes....Tundra has to sit out in the bad Colorado weather (-20 to 100) while the Prius sits in the garage. From my experience, borderline batteries will almost always die with the first cold spell of winter.
BTW, an excellent battery tester, which can also check alternator, is the TopDon BT100 which can found on Amazon for $59.

 

call the dealer for a price, and double check that it's a prius battery after they tell you.

camry price likely won't apply, and many have gotton to the dealer only to have them say, 'oh, that price isn't for prius'.
or, 'we don't have any in stock'.

 

My 2013 Prius 12v died around the 5 year mark.
My 2016 Prius 12v died around the 5 year mark.
My 2017 Tundra 12v died just before the 5 year mark (it also had a quick connect for a winch hard wired to the battery terminals and they were quite corroded. I finally disconnected the winch wires after corrosion drained my not even 1 year old battery this summer. The winch was on a bale buggy I don't have anymore)

You can expect your battery to last about 5 years but it does suck almost being late for work because you needed a jump first thing in the morning. I haven't kept my previous priuses long enough to know how long the aftermarket batteries last. I just went with who had that size in stock and not too expensive.

 

get a jump pack if you want to ride it out

 

I wouldn't get a battery that has a long warranty because all batteries are pro-rated.

Let's say that 84-month warranty battery dies at 83 months. You take it back, they're gonna pro-rate it and give you credit for the last remaining month. They're not gonna give you a new battery at 83 months.

Instead get a brand battery that has high reserve capacity and high amp hour capacity. These two numbers determine how long you can run electronics off the battery without the car charging the battery. Cold cranking amps don't matter for the Prius because the motor gets started by the electric motors.

If you want to see some car battery tests:

Amazingly enough there's only a handful of battery manufacturers who provide batteries to brand resellers.

 

FWIW (and it probably ain’t much ) I’ve been checking mine (a 2022 bought in February) after reading all the Prius Chat “the sky is falling” stories and with short trips around town every day or so it sits between 12.25 and 12.35 vdc in the morning (with a cheap multimeter with an error margin of plus or minus .7 %). After a decent run of 10 to 20 miles its at 12.65 the next morning.

 

Looking over my vehicle maintenance records, it seems the new Toyota Batteries are quite impressive....the 2008 Corolla went 6 1/2 yrs and the 2014 Tundra went 5 1/2 years on the OEMs. I think I'll be seeing if the dealer has one when needed, next time.

 

Mine is 5 1/2 years old now and does mostly 2x4 mile urban trips to work and back with longer local running around most weekends and it’s performing fine.

I bought a jump pack on advice a couple of years ago when I was told my battery was a dead duck and would fail any minute, but it’s still soldiering on. I keep the pack in the car and make sure it’s charged regularly.

If I go away for a couple of weeks I put it on a smart charger and so far this seems to be working out for me.

Not going to get a new one until I need to.

 

I put an Optima Yellow Top in, in September of 2015. Around this time I was just retiring, and my wife had retired a few years earlier. She'd been the primary driver, using it for work, and between the two of us we had been driving 10~12 thousand kms yearly. This now dropped to around 4~5 thousand kms (around 3000 miles at most).

For a while I made sure we drive regularly, but started thinking this is for the birds, looking for excuses to drive, to keep the 12 volt happy. I had a CTEK 4.3 smart charger, started using it steady. The alligator clips started getting to me, so I wired in the quick-connect harness at the front fuse box.

That's how it's been to date: if the car is used (it was yesterday) I'll let it be. But the next morning, if it's not going to be used, I connect the CTEK, and it sits thus, 'till next use.

I've got a Solar BA5 tester, but it's a production using it; the hatch floor and underfloor tray need to come out, to connect it directly to the battery posts. More often I'll just test the voltage at the front. First thing this morning, managed to one-hand the probes:



It may have a residual "surface charge"; the car was only driven 4~5 kms yesterday. The lowest I see is maybe 12.75. Bottom line, it seems to really like that charging regimen. When I test with the Solar, the CCA is still way above spec, and the voltage is like a brand-new battery. Maybe it is...

All that said, I don't think the Optima Yellow Top is the best bet these days, and I've heard management has changed, quality control has slipped? Also, I've heard here that it's impressive CCA is less important than amp hours.

For Canadian readers: I bought the battery from SaskBattery, and talking with them recently, they have (or can readily get) the OEM Yuasa for ours, for $229 CDN, will ship to me for free. Plus they manage to only charge you GST, no provincial sales tax, unless you're in Saskatchewan I think.

 

A friend stopped by with a very good multimeter and we put that on it. After a short trip to the store on Thursday morning (1.5 mile one way) it has just been sitting there. Reads 12.34 vdc. He left the meter with me and I’ll check it each morning just out of curiosity. I don’t plan on moving it until Tuesday so it should be informative at least for me.

 

Well, FWIW the voltage reading stayed the same (12.34) for 5 days and the specific gravity readings actually showed 70 to 75% charge over the same period (indicating a better situation than the voltage reading (no surprise there)). So for me I won’t be believing the stories of horror I read here on the chat, and I will believe what the OM tells me.

 

I'd be interested to know when you first find any issues. If it's during your 5th year of ownership like others' or if there it starts sooner but we didn't notice because it wasn't enough to keep the car from starting. The newer years use a more traditional battery, right? Could you add water to bring it back if you catch it degrading any?

 

Yes you can add water to the one in mine which, of course, makes it easy to check specific gravity. I plan on testing it every 6 months too. I just returned from a 60 mile highway trip and it showed full charge after letting it sit awhile and then bleeding off the surface charge.

 

Still OEM (2016) here and still tests fine. The voltage goes up and down and this battery is not a starting battery anyway. Unless it completely dies, it should be fine for computer usage to READY the system.