Where to buy a 12v battery

You need to improve your search skills.

A better (but not less expensive) battery is available. It is the Optima Yellow Top which can handle deep discharges better and has a little extra capacity than the Toyota supplied one.

You can get one with an adapter kit for the terminals (yours are Japanese and not the SAE standard ones used in the US) and the vent tube (a safety feature since the battery shares air space with the humans) from:

12 Volt (12v) Toyota Prius Auxilary Battery for 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 with installation kit

You can have it installed by any competent mechanic. Ask the mechanic to use an additional 12v battery to maintain all of your car's settings during the installation.

JeffD

 

Wow I missed this point in reading other threads. How is this done exactly? Do I just hook a small 12V battery to the jump start terminals? Thanks!

 

See Hobbit's writeup, with pics.

 

I have the ElearnAid Optima Yellowtop in my '04. I like it better than the stock battery, which I killed a few times. Oh and,

:welcome:

 

Hello Jeff, what settings would you lose if one didn't use a 12v additional battery during the swap out?

rocketman7

 

Radio station presets.
Trip odometer.
Clock.
Driver's side window auto-up function.
Engine ECU learnings.

I use a lab power supply set to 13.8V and hooked to the positive jump start terminal and a nut holding the top of the driver's side strut, as a way to maintain 12V power during the changeover.

On the other hand, there's something to be said for allowing all systems to power down during the battery swap. So if it is inconvenient for you to come up with an auxiliary source of 12V power, don't worry.

Many owners appear to think their Optima is an improvement over the original equipment battery. I'm not so sure that is true.

However, if you don't mind changing the positive battery terminal connector, then the Optima is a reasonable alternative.

To the extent that the Optima provides a longer life, that might be due to the owner having learned (at the expense of the original equipment battery) that cabin lighting cannot be left on overnight.

In the case of my 2004, the original equipment battery lasted six years. I recently replaced it with a similar battery purchased from the local Toyota dealer as a preventive measure, heading into winter. The original battery was still functioning, no problems.

 

Depends on the package I'd guess. For me it isn't much, radio station presets, clock time, trip computer stats on the MFD, driver's side power window auto up/down reset needed... I've disconnected my battery a few times now and that's all I can think of that jumps out at me.

- D

 

Thanks for the info Patrick! I looked at the Optima battery on Elearnaid, why do you think it isn't any better than the OEM battery? BTW, my local dealer here wants $248 replace it. Outrageous! I found an online place (Toyota Parts Barn) that will sell it for around $116 shipped.

rocketman7

 

Thanks, doesn't sound too bad,

rocketman7

 

Let us know if your order is fulfilled. Sometimes the dealers will not ship hazardous material such as batteries.

Optima and the Toyota battery are both AGM. The only diff I can perceive is that the Toyota has flat plates while Optima has circular plates. If you are aware of other differences that distinguish Optima please let me know.

 

Is this reset documented in the owners manual? Or is a dealer visit required?

 

Should be in the manual and also in this thread: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-main-forum/7912-dead-battery-auto-up-down-not-working.html

rocketman7

 

Well, it costs a lot more!

rocketman7

 

For anyone interested, I decided to go with the Optima D51 battery from the www.elearnaid.com site. It was shipped to my house in about two days (I live on the Central Coast, north of LA).

A friend at work had a spare 12v battery used in his airplane so I borrowed that and some leads so I wouldn't lose the aforementioned settings.

It took about 1.5 hours to complete the swap out. The instructions were fairly well written (I also used the http://www.techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/prius-12V/ela/ela.html instructions as well). The hardest part was trying to change the positive connector - they recommend you use a vise but I didn't have one so that slowed things down as I tried to see if my neighbors had one (but of course no one was home). I ended up using a workbench to hold the assembly and then broke the nut free - why does Toyota torque that in so tight??

Anyways, after that, and my wife telling me to hurry up because the kids were driving her crazy, I got it all put back together and its been working fine since.

rocketman7

 

My Prius 05 12V battery started acting up (car door wouldn't open, finally car wouldn't start). I had to get AAA to give me a jump start. When I got home, I hooked it up to a trickle charger for 48 hours, hoping that the battery would hold the charge. After 3 weeks, dead. I shopped around on the net and learned all the wholesale toyota parts site referred to above (and thru google) - i.e. toyotapartscheap, no longer ships batteries (something to do with UPS and FEDEX refusing because the parts store doesn't hold a hazmat permit. I was very lucky and bought a new OEM battery from Toyota Central (downtown LA) and they offered via their website a 20% coupon for parts purchases over $150. The retail on the battery was $163, so out the door after tax and coupon was $145.

Finally, as I don't have the right tools (not to mention I'm not the most handy guy in the garage...), I took my new 12V battery to Pep Boys in Burbank, close to my work, and they installed it for $15 (their normal battery install price). The whole installation took them about 15 minutes. The mechanic told me it was tricky reinstalling the plastic housing, otherwise, very straight forward. BTW - The Pep Boys in Pasadena closer to my home wanted $15 + $20 hybrid surcharge.

So moral of the story, this battery will cost your a lot, however, with some shopping prowess, you can save a little bit of money. In my case, all in, it cost me less than $160 installed, and I didn't have to get my hands dirty. This is definitely less expensive than going to the dealership and paying retail. It's also probably comparable (if not a bit less expensive) than buying those yellow-top aftermarket batteries that will set you back over $160 (+ sales tax if you live in CA) without labor.

I hope this helps all of you that are scratching your head trying to figure out the most economical way to have a new battery installed for you!

 

Another happy Optima Yellowtop kit installer here. I can't say if its better or worse, but it works fine. Optima's generally have a very good reputation. The yellow and blue tops are specifically meant for deeper cycling, and are used by lots of folks in off-road vehicles, RVs, trolling motors, large car audio systems, etc where you are likely to run the battery down frequently. Based on the feedback I've read, the OEM battery is fine as long as you don't run it down too low. It seems pretty intolerant of deeper discharge cycles, losing capacity and lifecycles after even a few such events. Given that the battery on the Prius is pretty small, and pretty easy to accidentally run down, it made sense to me to replace it with something that should be more forgiving of those events. If it had cost more than the Toyota battery I probably would not have bothered, but for the same or cheaper I decided to go for it. At the time there was even a $25 rebate from Optima, which really made it a no brainer.

 

If the battery is disconnected, how does one "reset" the driver window auto up function?

If the battery is disconnected, how does one "reset" the driver window auto up function? That is exactly what happened to my 06 Prius. I thought it was different than before, but wasn't sure until now.

 

Re: If the battery is disconnected, how does one "reset" the driver window auto up function?

Make the driver's window halfway open. Then, close the window and continue to hold the window button up for a few seconds after the window is closed.

Then, the auto function should work.

 

I don't see the 12 volt battery listed anymore at the Toyota Parts Barn. Do you have a link?