Prius dead, battery?

[solace2483]

I have a 2002 Prius. I have been reading through some old threads and got some good info.
Here is my problem. I went to drive my car a few days ago and when trying to turn it on nothing happened. No lights, no sounds, nothing. The guy in my parking garage hooked up the 12V battery and I was able to start it. The engine light and the triangle with ! were on. After a few seconds it went "clunk clunk clunk" and shut off.
Went back to it yesterday and it's completely dead again.
I'm guessing that I might need to replace the 12V battery. I have had the car for 3 years now and honestly didn't even know it was in the trunk until it wouldn't start.
I called a dealer and he said it would cost $410! That's the cost of the battery plus a fit kit to change out the brackets to fit the new size. Oh yeah, and of course $155 labor.
I will have to tow the car to the dealer first, which is difficult given the configuration of my parking garage.

I don't really know anything about cars and don't trust dealers.
I was just hoping for some additional guidance. Would it be best for me to get it to the dealer to make sure it's the battery that's bad? Is there anything that I can reasonably do by myself?

Thank you!

[bwilson4web]

The battery is not that hard to replace _IF_ you've done any car battery replacement in the past. If not, there are portable battery systems designed to 'get you going' far enough but they cost nearly as much as battery. Worse, they may not get you to the dealer. Regardless, let's talk a little about what it takes:

1) You'll need a new, 12 VDC battery that fits in the spot
2) An adapter for the battery posts (the Toyota battery has smaller terminals than USA batteries)
3) Some metric wrenches

Do you have a friend who is a 'car person?' Can you ask them to help? (offer to cover their parts and time ... ) They would need to pull the old battery, for size, and help find one that will fit in the space. Then they can either fabricate a replacement cable and shims to hold the new battery in place and you're back on the road.

I don't have the measurements handy but we can go over them later tonight. One other option is to put in a really high quality battery in that should last +5-10 years. Of course this assumes you have alternate transportation and help.

If this is your only transportation, let the tow truck company know the problems and negotiate a deal. Often they can also jump a car enough to get it where they can hook-up and tow. Still this is pretty expensive and there is the risk of jumper reversal.

Our Prius computers run off of the 12 VDC system. It is vital that the battery jumper be done with the right polarity.

Bob Wilson

[Sandy]

Had mine done today its a gen!! but was 138.00 for the batt. and 25.00 to install it....

[LeviSmith]

Originally Posted by solace2483

I called a dealer and he said it would cost $410! That's the cost of the battery plus a fit kit to change out the brackets to fit the new size. Oh yeah, and of course $155 labor.
I will have to tow the car to the dealer first, which is difficult given the configuration of my parking garage.

I don't really know anything about cars and don't trust dealers.
I was just hoping for some additional guidance. Would it be best for me to get it to the dealer to make sure it's the battery that's bad? Is there anything that I can reasonably do by myself?

Thank you!

I'd advise going with the elearnaid kit. Then you pay $130. It's easy enough to put in, but if you're not the sort of person to use a wrench, then take it to ANY half-competent mechanic, and they should be able to put it in in about half an hour...

There are other options for batteries. I've heard more like $300 for normal dealer replacement. Otherwise you have to rig up something yourself. Not necessarily difficult, but I figured for the $30 of the elearnaid kit, it would save myself probably a half day of monkeying around and still feeling like I didn't *quite* have it done right...

If you need something for "right now", you can pick up a booster pack for like $40. But you'll have to monkey around with the battery in the back pretty much every time you start the car (assuming your problem isn't a temporary dead battery from leaving a light on...)

Levi

[kenmce]

Originally Posted by solace2483

I don't really know anything about cars and don't trust dealers. I was just hoping for some additional guidance. Would it be best for me to get it to the dealer to make sure it's the battery that's bad? Is there anything that I can reasonably do by myself?

I'm betting you still have the little factory original 12 volt battery. They are a touch undersized for Chicago winters, and at seven years of age its time to replace it anyhow.

If your dealer wants $500 to replace the battery it probably means that he has a boat payment coming up soon. You could get a duplicate of the stock battery (they still make them) then there is no changing of terminals and not that much work. There is a Miata battery that fits in there, and the Elearnaid people have a kit that comes with what is probably the best battery available for the job. The Elearnaid is a little more work up front but then you are probably good 'till the year 2019 or so.

Replacing a car battery by yourself is not that bad of an operation. You need some wrenchs, maybe a socket set. You have to unbolt the black wire from the negative terminal, unbolt the red wire from the positive terminal, unfasten the hold down that keeps the battery fastened to the car, and unplug a little rubber tube. The tube is what it would use for outgassing if it ever needed to outgas, the tubes is so it would vent outside the car, not inside your trunk.

As our other posters have said, you do not hook up the wires to the battery backwards, not even for just a moment.

You undo those four connections, lift out the old battery, lift in a new one, put those four connections back together, put the trunk back together, and go start the car. The car will forget a few settings, like your radio stations. You put them back in again. That's about it.