Replaced 12v battery with Optima

[F8L]

I know many of your have already done this but I thought I would post about my experience.

After nearly 4yrs of driving on the stock 12v battery and thoroughly abusing it with my rather large stereo system (high wattage) I figured it was time for an upgrade. I've had it go dead on me a total of 6 times throughout its lifetime and after the last event I felt it was time. Considering it almost made me late for a doctors appointment helped seal the deal.

I ordered the battery from eLearnAid.com for a reasonable price. I realize I could have pieced the install kit together myself but I just wasn't in the mood to spend a day tinkering around with cables and walking back and forth to the parts store. I got it delivered to my door for $169.34 and it only took 2 days to ship and came well packaged.



Installation was a breeze! I performed the install at school while waiting for a classmate to arrive to start our stream survey. It took approx. 20min and that is only because I had a hard time shifting the black plastic cargo box, that covers the spare tire, out of the way due to multiple amplifiers and wiring. The instructions supplied with the kit were very thorough but I found that I was just doing the battery swap 3 steps ahead of my friend who was trying to read them to me.

After tighening all of the nuts and bolts, I fired up the car and got the standard warning triangle. I powered the car down then powered it back up again and the triangle was gone and everything worked great. As a bonus I have a sneaking suspicion my MPG may have gone up as well but since I currently have a bottle of injector cleaner in the tank AND I installed a new air filter I cannot be certain what caused the jump in MPH.

Sorry if this was not real informative but when I was searching for battery replacements I was a bit wary of purchasing from eLearnAid.com but after their prompt service I would definately recommend this kit for anyone who needs to replace their battery and doesn't have the time or inclination to piece together their own kit.

[PRIUS007]

Keep us posted on how it goes long term...

[F8L]

Originally Posted by PRIUS007

Keep us posted on how it goes long term...

Sure thing.

Since the 12v doesn't actually start the Prius, the Optima yellow top was an obvious choice. My stereo is just too hard on a standard tiny battery so I'm hoping this one will take the abuse in stride.

[jayman]

Just curious, did the battery arrive fully charged? I've always had to properly charge a new battery before installing, as they barely had 30-40% charge

[richard schumacher]

Mine did. They say that they charge them immediately before shipping.

[F8L]

Originally Posted by jayman

Just curious, did the battery arrive fully charged? I've always had to properly charge a new battery before installing, as they barely had 30-40% charge

I didn't have the time to run a diagnostic on the battery because I had people waiting on me.

[kohnen]

Originally Posted by PRIUS007

Keep us posted on how it goes long term...

I did that same replacement in my '07 touring in Feb(?) 2008, so it's been about 14 months.

I live in So. Cal, so no really cold temps to talk about.

I've not had a single problem whatsoever with that Optima battery. I've been able to sit (upto an hour at times) listening to the radio with the car in ACC mode.

I've been quite happy with that improvement over the stock battery.

[Sandy]

so is there anything else needed to make it fit?

[F8L]

Originally Posted by Sandy

so is there anything else needed to make it fit?

Nope. What few parts you need are included in the kit.

[richard schumacher]

The one possible problem is dis-assembling the Toyota positive terminal assembly. If you don't have a bench vise it may take a lot of hand strength.