Who to choose for Refurbished HV battery

If your car is just starting to have these symptoms, you should be able to drive 1 hour with it. I would drive it for an hour and swap the battery out, give him $250.

This again would be a band-aid replacement. I would refrain from using this guy once his warranty runs out.

I see many rebuilding ads on craigslist, now I know how they make their money. Warranty the battery, but charge $500 for every failure.....which happens 2 or 3 times a year.

 

Seems to me that the 2 replacement HV batteries were not properly tested & balanced. It is easy to just test individual module voltages & replace the ones with low voltage, but this is a recipe for another impending failure.

I'd suggest either buying a new battery from Toyota or finding a place that refurbishes batteries properly (although this is difficult to verify). If you have space, time, and some electrical knowledge/inclination, you might consider getting a new or refurbished battery, keeping you current battery, and refurbishing it yourself.

 

Find someone who handles these.

Dorman Hybrid Drive Batteries

 

I believe this company is legit. They have been around for quite some time and seem to be very professional. They sell lots of salvaged Prius on Ebay and I've heard nary a complaint about them. I would buy from them.

 

I was talking with these guys (GreenTec Auto) regarding a Honda hybrid battery replacement. Just about went with them, but Honda came through. Here's they're link, for second gen Toyota batteries. They have mobile install.

Toyota Prius Gen 2 Hybrid Battery | Hybrid Battery Replacement

 

This ain't your average "car battery".
It is ~300 volts, IIRC, and is dangerous to you and the battery and the car to have an amateur messing with it.

 

dorman has a very good video on swapping out a battery. Best one I've seen. On their site dormanhybrid.com

 

I can't believe the prices of salvage batteries now, looking in my area at car-parts.com, most salvage yards want $1000 plus core. Nuts.

 

These places are no longer selling salvaged batteries if they want your core, they are now rebuilders......and most likely they are not good at their job, switching out modules only. I would avoid the yards that want a core back.

 

There is always power present inside the battery assembly.
While they may have done a good job shielding it, it is IMPOSSIBLE to make it completely idiot proof.

Not implying anything about YOU when saying that, of course !!

 

I would avoid all YARDS.

But how would a legitimate refurbish'er stay in business very long without collecting "cores" ??

 

I can understand a refurbish'er collecting cores, however a salvage yard normally list information on where the part comes from. ex. 2008 prius with 90k miles blah blah. If they are collecting cores, there is no way in hell that information is true.

 

You are overlooking the very real possibility that they are selling BOTH salvaged (relatively new) and older rebuilt batteries.......properly labeled as to which is which, of course.

 

each car is different in some ways. each pack is also different in some ways.
sometimes a rebalanced pack will last for years and sometimes like in this case it does not.

there are other things in the car besides the cells in the pack that will turn on the dash lights.
have you scanned for the trouble codes yet?