Easy to understand help for supposedly bad traction battery

Battery failure may or may not allow it to be driven.

You should ask for the trouble codes.

$3,750 is akin to wallet rape.

It may or may not be safe to drive short distances. It's completely random. It could last you to the end of the block, it could last for months. One thing is for certain... when it goes out on you, you will wish you had dealt with it earlier.

Yes.

Higher than new, but not high.

They are going to low-ball the crap out of you. It's likely barely worth $1,500 as it sits with a bad battery.

Where are you?

 

Location being, where in the USA are you? This is helpful for others to provide better suggestions in terms of repair shops and where to get better parts pricing.

You can find "location," under "Personal Details," of your account.

If you are paranoid about privacy, you can be vague (West Coast), to less vague (California, So Cal) to specific (City, State).

 

is it at a toyota dealer? never heard of them wanting an 11 year old car. if the codes say it's the battery, that would make sense at your years and miles. but it could be the 12v if it's 4 years old.

rebuilt batteries can be iffy. i would call around toyota dealers for the best price. dorman rebuilt seems to be the best, with 3 years warranty, but they do seem to have problems which means you get stranded and have to have the battery changed again. a hassle, even if it's free.

if you can afford it, maybe time to move on to a newer lower mile vehicle. yours is probably worth about $2,000. in it's present condition. but if you invest $3,000. into a new battery, you still have a pretty nice car, that you know the history of. you just have to expect more problems to crop up as it ages. all the best!

 

Jaeco post the code(s) that were retrieved by the repair facility when your car was towed to them. Those codes will help the community to help you make your best decision. I are owed these codes for the $210 diagnostic fee. Don't let some slick talking service manager give you a song and a dance, ask for the codes if they have not already been provided to you.

 

Go to Kelley Blue Book - New and Used Car Price Values, Expert Car Reviews to figure out ballpark value of your car.
Notice that trading it in will net you less money than selling it yourself.

 

Dealer charge to replace a battery is typically 3000-3200. Get a quote and make the shop match it or tow it to the dealer.

 

if you're going to trade it in, look for the cheapest rebuilt battery you can find. i've read 7 or $800 installed.
it will probably be worth around 3-5k.

 

I am facing this exact problem now in my '05, very sudden apparent hybrid system malfunction with no accompanying change in the car's performance. Red triangle with Hybrid System Warning in the MFD + MIL + VSC + yellow ((!)) came on yesterday just moments after I started the car on my way to lunch (for what it's worth, I had just tested the 12V in Maintenance mode before turning it off and booting it up... the voltage was lower than optimal which may ultimately be the issue). In any event, I did not end up even leaving the parking lot, but I did chance the 3 mile drive home from the office, during which it acted totally fine (20 minute stop-and-go inner city trip). By that time, only the red triangle with HSW and MIL were on. I just turned it on about an hour ago, and it still had just those two lights on the dash, the HWL in the MFD, and a bar less charge than when I brought it home yesterday (one bar below green). The only potential warning may have been a slight dip in MPG, but we had a bizarre week or so of near-freezing temps around the time I last refueled a couple weeks ago. That short period of cold coupled with some short trips and no highway driving on this tank doesn't make 45MPG a worry in my opinion. Maybe it should.

I have an appointment to take it to the dealership here in Indy tomorrow, but am thinking I need to get the codes read first so I know what I'm dealing with before I start getting pushed towards purchasing a new battery. I was literally just looking at getting a newer Prius this weekend, but was hoping to use the 2005 as a trade-in. That option might now be out the window. The toss-up is whether or not it's safe or wise to drive it to NAPA to get it read, which is 1.5 miles away, or just wait till I take it in tomorrow.

 

Sounds like a failing battery. You should be ok to go 1.5 miles and have the codes read. After you get the codes (write them down), you can have the guy at NAPA erase all of them (this will reset the car). Then drive back home and post the codes here.

 

Looks like a bunch of stuff going on in there.

C0210 - right rear speed sensor. I guess that could explain the brief VSC.
C1241 - low battery positive voltage
P0031 - O2 sensor
P1121 - coolant control valve

And the one I didn't want to see, P0A80.

I'm wondering if this stuff is stored from the previous owner (I have had the car about 1 year, purchased from a friend who was its original owner), or if it really all decided to go out at one time.

 

I would think on top of the battery, the O2 sensor and coolant valve would need to be replaced.

So you have to decide if you want to invest in the new battery, if not, don't bother fixing anything else

SM-N900P ?

 

Yeah, at a combined cost that will likely exceed the trade in value, it's probably a better bet to see if they'll give me anything at all toward a newer model. This does motivate me to get a Gen 3 finally. Still, it's a shame that the old girl seems to be doing fine except for being lit up like a Christmas tree on the dash.

Thanks for your help. I've haunted this community for months and have finally decided to post. This is a great resource.

 

How many miles on the car? You won't get much on a trade, should sell it privately or fix it

SM-N900P ?

 

174k. It may be possible to find a local buyer willing to put in the cash and/or effort to replace the hybrid battery, but Indy isn't exactly a Prius hot spot. I'll assess the margin but the inconvenience of a potentially lengthy private sale, trying to explain the caveats to potentially under-informed buyers is going to factor in.

 

TBH I might ask the dealership to replace the 12V battery. I just looked through my friend's old service receipts, which he thankfully gave me when I bought it, and this 12V will be 4 years old in August. It's possible a wonky 12V would throw other codes, right? I suspected it was going bad after noticing some dimmer headlamps after jumping my boyfriend's truck last month, and the voltage was hovering just under 12 when I checked the vehicle signal check yesterday.

Or is P0A80 a death sentence?