Think twice before buying used Prius used in Rocky Mtns....

Yep mountain duty is very hard on the Prius. Hyper use of the battery both ways. Many reports of weight over loaded cars trying to pass big mountains at speed with under charged hybrid battery. Owners not in the know just flooring it up the hill. Engine screaming. Couple that with a possibly blocked hybrid battery fan (one in the back) poor Inverter coolant maintenance of or I pump and its a disaster. Overheats the modules.

Its very hard on the Inverter coolant and the trans fluid too. I would change those asap too and pull the hybrid battery fan and check it for hair clogs.

If I was going to buy a used Prius I would try to get one that spent its life in Florida. I have owned my Prius since new and have only heard the battery fan come on once in 6+ years. When I left the shade off the front window and cabin heat was extreme. Car has never seen a mountain.

Good Luck!

 

thanks for sharing. i don't doubt the mountains are tough on the battery, but batteries do go bad at 110,000 miles every now and then in all types of driving. the 12 volt is a separate issue of course and is to be expected. that was really a pretty decent offer by toyota who didn't have to do anything at all, but your always better off price wise with a used or rebuilt. you're fortunate to be near boulder hybrid, i'm sure they do great work. all the best going forward!

 

I think the issue is both time and heat/load and not so much miles. This is a 10 year old car that lived a hard life. I have 33,000 miles on mine and can count how many times battery was fully charged or discharged. I had the battery fan going full blast only once (after my wife drove it hard and parked in full sun!). So, I hope not to have battery issues anytime soon.

 

In Toyota's defense?
My understanding of application of the CARB states extended hybrid battery warranty does entirely depend on where the car is currently registered. I was told it doesn't travel with the vehicle. Oregon is a CARB state, as long as I bought, and registered and own the vehicle in Oregon, I've got the additional 2 years. If I move and register the vehicle in a non-carb state, I lose the additional years.

 

Where did this 'supposedly' idea come from? It was always been clear to me, even before purchase, that the longer hybrid battery warranty in full-CARB states does not transfer with registrations to states that are not full-CARB. (My state is only partial-CARB.)

And why is the 12V battery included in this complaint? It most certainly does not have any long warranty, and at ten years is long past its expected life.

 

Too bad you're going through this. I don't think they were in the wrong by the way they handled the warranty, though. They're just going by the terms.

I'm really surprised the 12v and the HV batteries went bad at the same time. I assume they were properly diagnosed? That's very strange. Was the 12v battery original? What were the symptoms? Did you try just replacing the 12v battery and re-diagnosing? I like the Optima Yellow Top for the 12v replacement--they seems to hang on a lot longer than the little lead-acids they come with. ***edit...I guess most of them are AGMs--we just have some of the few flooded lead-acid ones***

My favorite Toyota dealership around here is Mountain States, for both their sales and service departments, if you need anything else from a dealership.

I wonder if that was one of the Prii I see screaming up to the Eisenhower tunnel at 75. That Georgetown hill's a bummer too. I usually let the speed drift down to ~45 for parts of those.

Hope things go alright going forward.

 

The only real stress the hybrid may see down here is consistent high cabin heat. That's meaningful because it did cause the hybrid battery fan to come on once. The PC Shop here sells the custom fit insulated window shade that is excellent. Mine is 6 years old is still pretty good. Does a very good job of keeping the cabin cool. That and a real good $$$ tint job.

I also extend the pull out fabric cargo cover that came with the car and cut down a foil covered insulated piece of 4 x 8 sheet of insulation board to fit over that pull out fabric cover. All to keep direct sunlight off the back cargo/battery area. Works really well.

 

I heard my battery fan running a few times during the recent heat waves we had just summer past. It usually happened if I had the Pruis stuck in a colossal traffic jam on the A40 coming out of London - and I didn't have the A/C on.

Standing still over sun baked asphalt for ages and shuffling along at a snails pace seems to invoke the battery cooling fan - but only on the hottest days of the year. Driving out of Central London every working day was a right <bleeeeep!>, but on the plus side, I did manage 66mpg and 605 miles out of a tank in those conditions.

More particularly, despite several cycles of charging and discharging every week under those rare piping hot UK summer conditions, the HV battery appeared to be operating just fine - both then and now (7 months driving, done 6,000 miles since I bought it. That's the most enjoyable 6,000 miles I've ever done in any vehicle I've owned).


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