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

jstack

I've never heard of a way to check the battery capacity. That would be a good test so you could go to Toyota under normal use and show it doesn't work as it should.

I have a stealth EV mode button in the cruise control stalk, it's from costal technologies and works perfect. It won't let me put it in EV mode if it's too cold or too hot. It has to be just right.
It also beeps and goes out of EV mode if the battery is low or I accelerate to hard. I can't believe Toyota could refute that.

I also have a prius with a salvage title and saved 10K buying it. I want a plug-in hybrid battery pack as soon as they become available at 10K or so. Then I could sell the old battery pack and won't care about the warrenty since I never had one.

subarutoo

I don't really get the EV button thing. Isn't 50+ mpgs enough for you?I'm thrilled to see mpg in the 50's, and can't think why anyone would want to mess with a good thing. I guess its like the hot rodders who always try to improve things. I used to do all that stuff too. Now I just drive the car. If it ain't broke, I don't open the hood anymore. 38,000 miles, 50+ mpg average, totally stock except shark fin, and BT plate, not one problem, warranty or otherwise.

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dogfriend

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(subarutoo @ Jul 20 2007, 12:33 PM) [snapback]482382[/snapback]</div>
The only reason I want an EV button is to prevent the car from starting if I want to move it from the carport to the driveway (or from one parking spot to another) without the mandatory ICE start after 7 sec. I don't think that I would use it in any other situation. However, I don't need it bad enough to risk voiding (or even having to argue with Toyota over) the 10 year, 150K warranty.

Danny

For all the Diggers out there, I've posted Nate's thread on Digg. I think it's important that this gets some press.

http://digg.com/gadgets/Toyota_Prius_needs...ue_to_EV_button

Thank you for sharking your story, Nate.

In my opinion, the EV button is a Toyota part. It's exactly the same as installing the XM unit, or installing a Toyota oil filter. They all have Toyota part numbers. Toyota would have to prove that the reckless installation is what caused the battery to go bad. And we all know in Nate's case that it wasn't due to a bad installation.

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RonH

I haven't seen an answer to the question of whether there is a diagnostic test for a failing battery pack. Normally, I'd say measuring the internal resistance would be a good indicator, but as I understand this pack has a lot of load balancing electronics which may make that problematic.

naterprius

But Danny, Diggers HATE the Prius. This won't bode well for me if it gets dugg, probably just cause problems with Toyota if I need batteries for my RAV4.

Oh well, I guess it's the Internet, you can't stop the signal.

Nate

Sarge

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cheap! @ Jul 20 2007, 01:26 PM) [snapback]482305[/snapback]</div>Just thought I'd point out we Canadians don't get the EV button either. <_<

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NoMoShocks @ Jul 20 2007, 12:38 PM) [snapback]482272[/snapback]</div>Wouldn't the car's computer track usage of EV and blow your cover if Toyota really wanted to find out if you modded the car? I am sure that must be logged somewhere...

SureValla

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sarge @ Jul 20 2007, 04:49 PM) [snapback]482427[/snapback]</div>
any word on South America?

FL_Prius_Driver

Thanks for the update. You have a good dealer and in this case, wiser minds prevailed. The most interesting aspect is that your reporting of the actual facts made it clear that there was a misconception that the EV install had no warranty consequence in many people's mind me included. I was on the borderline but your reporting established the correct borderline.

The big mistake that Toyota USA made in this case is not making it clear (website or manual or mailing) that the EV mod would be a warranty risk. A whole lot of loyal customers were/are making what they thought was a valid modification in good faith without a risk of warranty revocation. Toyota USA keeping this a secret till the first unlucky customer arrives with a true warranty defect is going to turn Toyota good will into anger. BUT Toyota obviously has the wiser minds still in charge and will figure out a better way of informing the owners...if the EV mod is still a warranty issue.

Frank Hudon

Nate on the THHT it will tell which module is defective and if it's just one module then that could be construed to be a internal failure and not an over all degradation of the pack which would be the effect of over use of the EV button. Per chance you didn't get a print out of the Code that it thru that indicated that the battery was the actual cause. This could also be just a failure of a connector link between the modules. As for you saying that the first flash of the computer was when it started to show up, I noticed that the first flash, after the dealer replaced the computer because they blew it when they tried to flash it, had worse perfomance, all round, than the third flash which is when the car started to preform like it did with the origional computer and origional code. That first flash was just a waste of time and Toyota knew it. That whole thing was just a disaster. So has your mileage stayed in the 50's?

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