Toyota Highlander Hybrid battery issues.

It is possible it isn't actually the traction battery.

When the 12V battery gets near the end of its life, the low voltage can cause false codes to be thrown. Prii have had traction battery codes that went away with a new 12V. Another possibility is that the bus bars connecting the battery modules are corroded, and cleaning those has 'saved' a dying or dead battery. It is hard work, as would be swapping the pack for new, as it is heavy, and it would need to come out of the car.

If it is actually the battery, a ProLong charger might extend its life. These can run maintenance modes that will rebalance the modules in the pack.

Of course, if your friend is in a CARB state, the battery should be replaced under warranty.

 

Parts catalog Figure 82-01, Battery & Battery Cable, says that the HV supply battery assembly, part number G9510-48060, has a list price of $5,002.79. The part detail page mentions an additional core charge of $1,350, refunded when an old battery is returned.

Your friend should ask several Toyota dealers for their prices. Keep in mind that many dealers won’t ship hybrid batteries or do so only at a substantial charge. Some dealers also add a fee or deduct from the core refund for the service of preparing the old battery for return according to Toyota’s safety requirements (PDF).

One advantage to having a dealer install the replacement hybrid battery is a longer warranty. As the Toyota Warranty Policy and Procedures Manual (available by subscription to techinfo.toyota.com) states in Policy 4.11:

“Hybrid Batteries installed by a Toyota dealer on or after January 1, 2016 (excluding commercial, fleet or livery vehicles) will assume coverage under the Hybrid Battery Service Part Warranty, which is in effect for 36 months, regardless of mileage, from the date the part(s) was installed on the vehicle or the remainder of any applicable new vehicle warranty, whichever provides greater coverage. Hybrid Batteries purchased over the counter and/or installed on commercial, fleet or livery vehicles will assume coverage under 12-month Toyota Service Part Warranty. Proration is not applicable.”​

The Warranty & Maintenance Guide (PDF) says the Hybrid System Warranty, even in California, covers the hybrid battery for up to eight years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first, so it wouldn’t be covered on a vehicle with 132,000 miles, unless there’s a warranty extension program I don’t know about, or the battery has already been replaced at the owner’s expense and has the service part warranty described above.

 

Didn't know the Highlander hybrid had less of a warranty than the Prius, or at least what the Prius had.

 

Wow that is a shocker price, but we here are not too familiar with Highlander.
I am getting rusty, but our older posts show WA was CARB, but *not* full CARB covering battery.

A couple things to try:
(1) Ask Toyota USA for goodwill coverage....some threads on this...for a while there Toyota was pretty good about helping Prii owners with early battery deaths. This takes some negotiation time days or so
(2) Junkyard Highlander batt from a wreck...this works when there is more wrecks than bad batts, you can get a great price sometimes on a fairly new batt...Prius this worked in the early days until bad batt numbers exceeded wrecks

 

also the cost gets to the point where replacing a module might make more sense, of course you would need a handy dandy hybrid repairman.

I don't know about Highlander, but RAV4 has a website a little like PriusChat, where you can get tips for the problems of the vehicle. Some of us from here are over there now too.

 

I agree this can be a good option. LKQ is a national company with lots of junkyards. I have gotten parts from them. They list Prius batteries for less than $1000. I would call them to see if they can find a Highlander hybrid battery.

Where is your friend located? A good independent hybrid repair shop could help.

 

Forum member @PriusCamper is in your area and is very experienced with hybrid battery issues. He may not have seen this thread. I would send him a message. He may be able to help your friend out or point him in the right direction.

 

Thanks @royrose

Greetings @TinyTim I'm south of you in South Puget Sound Area and have been working on Prius battery packs for getting close to 3 years now as a hobby and because I like how happy people get when they only pay 10% of what the dealership wanted to charge.

If this were a regular Prius and the warning codes required it I'd throw in a loaner pack in and take your pack home to work on it. But with Highlander, it's a much larger pack and I don't have a spare highlander chassis to build out and do the swap. But I'll check and see if I can find one.

First step is getting the hybrid battery error codes and subcodes so we can confirm it's not something easier to fix than rebuilding the pack.

Dr. Prius app is an easy way to do that. First step is getting an inexpensive OBD2 reader. Here's a buyer's guide: Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus

 

It doesn't have to take a long time if you have enough money to throw at it. My primary work is tree pruning & gardening and with the amount of rain coming in, I'll have plenty of openings in schedule on rainy days and I pass my savings from not having all the expenses of keeping a shop and employees goign, so it's only $40 an hour. Texting is most efficient way to communicate with me: 360-789-7843

 

Toyota Stealerships don't diagnose or repair battery packs, they only replace them with new ones... Even if it's just a corroded cooling fan wire that takes 5 minutes to fix their recommendation will be to replace all the most expensive stuff with brand new and then tell you it will cost more than the car is worth in order to offer you upside down financing on something brand new that you can't really afford.

Whereas depending on how much work the car needs to be healthy and happy again my price including parts is usually in the $400-$800 range.

 

Well if I had @PriusCamper living in my region, I might still have a Prius.
Now we got a RAV4H

 

I just went through this with a 2007 Lexus RX400H with 130k miles - it's the same platform as the Highlander. Surprisingly, the Lexus dealer quoted $6k for the repair sans the 12-volt battery. From my research, traction battery replacement at 130k is not unusual in mountainous areas.

I purchased a used '15 battery from a wreck. It requiresd some work to reconfigure the battery packs. I did a write up on it here: RX400H - Pitfalls of buying a used battery? | PriusChat