My Prius needs a battery, Toyota denies warranty due to EV button

JSH

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(naterprius @ Jul 19 2007, 10:24 PM) [snapback]481997[/snapback]</div>Nate, if you don't mind could you give us the break down of the $4500 dollars? How much was the batteries and how much was labor? I'm curious how much Toyota is paying for batteries. Retail cost to the consumer is usually 7X OEM part cost.

richard schumacher

Well, la-de-da. The party's over, EV modders. Betcha a quarter that Toyota henceforth instructs dealers to check for it in connection with all warranty work.

naterprius

The dealer billed Toyota $3500 in parts and labor, $3000 for the battery, $500 for labor. However, it was going to to $3800 retail for the part plus $700 for the labor, I believe.

I sincerely believe my case went all the way up to the highest levels at Toyota corporate, and set a precedent.

Basically, without previous repair orders indicating a potential problem, and nobody at the dealer noting the EV button on the repair order then, I wouldn't have had a leg to stand on.

It's really pathetic because Toyota KNOWS the EV button doesn't cause problems. (It's their button, after all!) Yet they felt the need to penalize me.

What I really think they want to discourage is not the button, but plugging in. That really can damage a battery. However, so can catastrophic shut down of the ICE, which happened to me at 3900 miles.

Nate

Rae Vynn

Perhaps the issue isn't actually the EV button, as in Europe one gets their Prius with a factory installed EV button.

Perhaps, it is the installation.

I can understand Toyota not wanting to be liable for damage that someone, that doesn't know what they are doing, can do to the electrical and HSD system attempting to install an EV button. I'm sure most of the people that are putting them in are competent, and aren't doing damage... but, is every single person that competent? There's always a rogercordia!

There is no way that they are going to use a case-by-case basis for determining if a faulty EV button installation led to a problem -- that isn't cost-effective.

Seriously, there are a lot of people that are doing mods on the electrical and HSD systems, and some of them may be doing more harm than good. If one of them should have, say, and engine fire from it, Toyota has to be able to cover their a$$ by declaring all such modifications as breaking the warranty.

That said, congrats on getting your issue resolved. I believe, as you do, that the issue stemmed from a faulty battery to begin with, and I'm glad that Toyota was willing to negotiate with you, and you aren't out the $4500. Oh, and you still have your darling Prius.

I'd put a Photon Torpedo button there, btw.

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Sarge

[quote=naterprius @ Jul 20 2007, 11:22 AM) [snapback]482216[/snapback]</div>Nate's story is quite interesting.

I believe Toyota knows full-well that the EV button was not the cause for this failure, but rather the engine problem early on] 3900 miles that damaged the battery. If Toyota truly believed the EV button to be the cause of the failure, they would not have offered to eat the $4500 cost in exchange for removing a cheap button. That just doesn't make financial sense for Toyota.

Rather, they realized it was a genuine battery failure (likely related to the engine failure) and no fault of Nate's, therefore they made the easy deal of removing the button.

It's all about setting precedents. Had they honoured the battery failure even with the user modified EV button, this could have been a dangerous precedent allowing others to modify their cars as they see fit.

Regardless of whether it is a factory option in other parts of the world, no manufacturer wants their customers making unauthorized modifications to their products, as you never know when someone will make a mistake and cut the wrong wire...

Glad to hear Nate reached a fairly comfortable settlement... I think sacrificing the EV button is a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.

__________________
Kevin

Freshening Toronto's air since April 28, 2006...

My Car
2006 Prius fully loaded with Canadian Package C
Seaside Pearl with Grey Interior

Accessories

• Toyota OEM Hood Deflector
• Disabled Reverse Beep in June 2007!
• Finally added home-grown EV mod July 19, 2009

JSH

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(naterprius @ Jul 20 2007, 10:22 AM) [snapback]482216[/snapback]</div>Thanks! So that puts Toyota's cost at about $550 for a battery pack. Not bad and definitely rules out cost as a reason for not pursuing EV's using NiMH batteries.

saechaka

well this case has me a little worried. i've finally hit 100,000 miles and for the first time, my battery went down to 1 bar and i heard my battery fan come on. i'm still hitting 50's mpg though with tires at 36psi. good thing is that plug in battery tech. is coming along very nice. thx for letting us know your story.

NoMoShocks

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusmaybe @ Jul 20 2007, 03:32 AM) [snapback]482137[/snapback]</div>I think I will connect my EV button as a "Breakaway Mod". So that I can pull it when I need to take the car in for any major fixes. I think I can run the extra wire up from the connector on the computer so that it desn't look like an add on. Then in some out of the way place that I can get to by just removing the lower glove box, I'll have a quick release connector.

David Beale

Seems to me the engine problem didn't damage the battery. The battery was faulty from the beginning. It just wasn't noticed at the dealer level. In fact, it may have -caused- the engine problem which prompted the software upgrade as the "fix".

I do hate to say "I told you so", but I told you so! All of you. A Toyota corporate executive was reported to have said last winter the EV button would void your battery warranty. Of course, whenever I warned anyone, the "experts" at law all chimed in that they would fight it in court and win! Sure hope they are all rich. I'm afraid in a court of law, the only "experts" on the THS II are employed by Toyota (the designers). Good luck getting one of them to admit in court the EV button doesn't affect the battery.

It was good of Toyota to cover you. For a while there, I was disliking their corporate policies more and more (last 10-15 years). They are back to their greatness it appears.

I wonder if this is a "shot across the bow" to the community. Remove the button or suffer the consequences. Toyota do monitor these forums, and do know what's happening "out there".

__________________
Edmonton Alberta
"Pearl" is a 2007 Driftwood Pearl Prius.

donee

Hi All,

I think the moral of this story is that if the Engine fails, do not do anything more than stealthing at speed from speed, and only down to three bars State of Charge. If you have to stop, that's it. Pull over, park it, and call for help. The Battery is not meant to be a tow-truck in a hybrid car.