Prius battery life and replacement cost?

[seilerts]

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.

[F8L]

I am in agreement with seilerts.

[mailprs]

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

[F8L]

Originally Posted by mailprs

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!

[mailprs]

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?

[jdenenberg]

Originally Posted by mailprs

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?

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.

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

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

JeffD

[ralexj]

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.

[ralexj]

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

[uart]

How many miles have you put on it ralexj?

[jdenenberg]

Originally Posted by ralexj

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

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