Battery failed 2009 Prius

Interesting. If you put 3 batteries in it and they all failed, maybe it's the electrical/control system. Lemon law?

 

I'm guessing he's talking about the 12 volt battery but I don't know for sure. My guess is that there is some problem with the electronics and it's not charging the 12v battery properly. Probably the first two times it happened the dealer just replaced the 12V battery and hoped that was the cause (because that's the easy thing to do). But now they've finally realized that it's a problem in the electronics and are trying to sort it out.

Hey that was all total guess work. How come new members always seem to post such scant details and keep us all guessing.

 

Hi All,

Wasn't there a thread about a guy who figured out his ECU's were not going into stand-bye, and that was pulling like an amp continuously?

That combined with a hurried or poor technician might result in the 12 V batteries being replaced three times...

 

Sorry to hear about your hassles. I bought a 2009 10 months ago with about 6,000 miles on it now. I have had no problems. Sadly it sounds like you might have a lemon.

 

It would promote discussion if you could ask your service writer what DTC (diagnostic trouble codes) were logged by your car, and post here.

 

Hi Red100,

Since the Prius just does not have that many failures, the technicians at dealarships are just inexperienced. They need to be talking to the regional Toyota tech, and like Patrick says please get the codes and post them here. There are several guys on here that can figure allot of stuff out from codes, including a few Toyota techs on here.

Most likely what has happened is that a battery failure has been the result of some other fault the dealarship service people have missed. Since they never replace the faulty whatever, the next battery suffered the same fate, and again.

Keep meticulous records. Including what tech said what codes, when, and what was done to fix it.

 

Duffy's Taxi will happily buy it, and put on 300,000 miles flogging it around Winnipeg in temps from -40 F to +95 F

Seriously, if the dealership is incompetent, let Toyota know. The warranty lasts a long time on the HV components, not the 3 years you stated

I had a POS 2000 GMC Sierra pickup that was so badly put together, I rented another vehicle if I had to go on a long vacation. A combination of incompetent GMC Truck dealership (Since closed when GM axed a huge number of dealerships) and crappy assembly, really soured me on that truck

 

The probability of getting two bad HV batteries back to back in this short of a time is likely considerably less than winning a million dollar lottery. Either something on the car itself is killing them (assuming they are actually dead) or the dealership doesn't have a competent troubleshooter.

jayman,

A buddy of mine long ago had so many problems with his GMC that he actually won his lemon law claim. Among the many continuing problems was random brakes that would pull one way or another, lock or not function at all. He was so tired of going in and not getting the problem resolved that the final time he drove something like 30 miles holding his foot on the brakes. They had to replace most of the brake components that time...and if I recall correctly it finally resolved that particular issue.

 

Well, it's a bad omen when you back your 1 week old new GMC truck out of your garage, and there is a puddle of gear oil on the garage floor from the rear pinion seal that was incorrectly put in at the factory

 

Unfortunately, we don't have any lemon laws in Canada. At least not where I live.

 

I understand your frustration. I suspect if anything, Toyota may not be making a lot of money off the Prius and plowing a lot of money into reliability. That's because it is a flagship product for the future Prius line and the showcase for their hybrid technology. Let's face it, when people think Toyota hybrid, they are not thinking about the Camry or Highlander. Prius is where the news and excitement is.

If the Prius starts to fail in large numbers, Toyota stock and the whole Toyota hybrid program may be in jeopardy. And Toyota has all the other manufacturers chasing after them who will no doubt welcome such news if it were to be true and help broadcast the bad news of the Prius all over the world for free. If Toyota is smart, they will try really hard to prevent lemons from happening.

So I suspect, if anything, Toyota is putting quality before profits on the Prius more than any other model.

Of course, it does not help in your particular case. Sometimes a bad one slips through.

 

Troll?

 

Sounds like more of a problem with the dealer. Most likely they haven't found the real problem.

 

Which seems to be more confirmation that the store where you're servicing it is incompetent. It's almost unheard of IMO for a store to tell Toyota and the rest of their competitors that 'We can't fix this, we're not good enough.' Maybe Toyota took it away from that store for screwing up the problem worse than what it was.

BTW, how do you know it will be 2 weeks? Typically this takes one day from the disribution center to the shop and one day at the shop.

 

I would ...1) definitely file a case with Toyota corporate at 1 (800) 331 4331
After this is over, you ought to be compensated for your troubles. Something like free or very low cost, maximum / platinum 'extended warranty' to cover your car. 2) Become familiar with the Lemon Law in your state and get ready to rock and roll.What you're experiencing is incredibly rare. If many Pri's had problems like this, they would not have sold well.