Used 2005 Prius 100k miles, worth $9,888?

((waves hand)) Im "one" of the receivers of a bad Optima, right off the shelf from Advance Auto Parts. And to be honest, im not too sure about the "new" warranty exchange Optima they gave me either

 

I found this on the Optima site that supports your storing suggestion to turn off the SKS. Good suggestion.

"The 2004-2009 Prius has a drain of approximately 12 milliamps with smart key turned off (Thanks hobbit). After two weeks the battery would still be at 95% soc and the battery good for 10,000 cycles. "

 

Did they check either battery before you left with it? How is it doing now?

 

Yeah and the kid behind the counter sold me some BS line about how 12.0v is excellent resting volts "because its a 12 volt battery and if its over 12.0 volts its fried"

After I couldnt get the brand new Optima (build date sticker was 3/2012 and I bought it 9/2012) to hold a charge greater than 12.0v, I emailed PriusChat's in-house Optima representative from the company and he advised me to bring it back for a warranty exchange, that 12.0v was too low and it was defective.

I did. The manager at Advance Auto just about blew a wad, pretty much telling me I was crazy. I even showed him the email from the guy at Optima saying that 12.0v at rest was something like 50% discharged. Oh lord...now I know where the kid that works there gets his attitude from, haha. He said he'd special order me a new one. Sure enough, 3 days later he calls me, he orders the wrong one. Wont even come close to fitting in the Prius. What a bonehead.

Anyway, they had to pick up an Optima from a different store. It was alittle better (date code 6/2012) and the resting volts are 12.3v.

Im going to accept it for now, but the thing has a 3 year warranty I think. So, near the end of the 3 year warranty, Ill bring it back for a warranty exchange and get a new one.

 

I think you should fully-charge the battery now, if 12.3V is still the IG-OFF voltage.

 

And does it take it a full charge? Or like the first one it doesn't charge more than when it was purchased?

 

Here is my suggested procedure: disconnect the 12V battery from the Prius, then fully-charge it to the point where the charger turns off. Wait 24 hours to dissipate the surface charge, then measure battery voltage using a decent DMM. The voltage should be 12.9V. If much less, then I would say the battery has a problem.

 

So might this be more of a retailer issue than a Optima issue? Sounds like Optima was trying to help you get their best product while the retailer was simply frustrated by their own ignorance of the product. A condition that seems to be growing in regularity. I'm afraid I might not have been as obliging knowing what the Optima rep stated. But you have a solid plan of action with the warranty.

In this situation with the retailer I wonder if it might be a good idea to call ahead or just drop by and ask them to top off the charge to make certain it accepts the full charge? Of course a newer manufacturing date might be the answer. Perhaps if a newer build date is not available locally it's just better to buy from Optima with a request for the newest build date since this is going in a Prius?

 

Yeah, I have been. Thats also another reason I bought a 1.25amp maintainer.

All in all though, Ive got the warranty so if it makes me start to lose sleep at night, Ill go return it again.

 

Definitely a store issue. They put the battery up on a shelf and it sits until somebody buys it.

 

Just bought a Optima DS46B24R battery from Advance Auto Parts. Exact fit as it says on their website is total garbage. The connection posts are on the wrong side of the battery. When you install the battery with the positive post toward the front of the car it should be toward the drivers side, well it is not. Had a time and a half getting it in and I still have not modified the cover to fit over the top.

 

Thats weird - my posts were the same as the OEM battery! Are you sure you have installed it correctly?

 

FBear may have gotten a mislabeled battery with the terminals reversed. The R model number suffix is supposed to indicate the ground terminal is on the right, when the battery is positioned so that the terminals are closest to you.