Toyota Motor Corp study finds Prius batteries still working after ten years, 400K miles.

The lithium ion battery holds no promise for me. Personally, I am waiting for a Prius powered by a di-lithium crystal battery. Then we will REALLY be driving in warp stealth, Mr. Scott.

 

Your profile shows "Tehachapi, Ca" and "2005 Prius"

What is the California traction battery warranty?

The Toyota web site claims it is:

• 10 years
• 150,000 miles

Print out the page, go back to the dealer and ask if they are going to fix the traction battery under warranty. If not, ask who is their boss. Continue until someone says 'yes.' But be OK if they want to do some 'research' and let them send you a formal letter denying the warranty and reason why.

LATE THOUGHT:
Write a letter to the head of the dealership and attach the printed web page. Your cover letter explains what happened when warranty service was refused. At the bottom, cc:

Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc.
19001 S. Western Ave.
Torrance, CA 90501

Send the letters with guaranteed delivery notice to the dealership. Include your phone number and give them a couple of days to 'see reason.' Call them on Monday and ask to speak to the general manager and ask if he has read your letter. Give him (or her) every opportunity to 'do the right thing.' Your next steps:

1. Call Toyota USA and open a case
2. Visit an attorney

Good luck!
Bob Wilson

 

You can get a brand new pack online for under $2k. As Bob said, you should get a free replacement under warranty.

 

Ebay, any day, you can find salvage batteries for $400.

 

Your avatar show CA ... and in CA the traction battery warranty runs for 150,000 miles. So ... what do YOU care, even if the battery costs a million dollars ... it won't cost YOU a dime, other than the $95 you already paid.

EDIT:
Whoops - I see Bob already caught this at post #22
.

 

wouldnt matter if it was available. there is too much weight penalty which would reduce range and increase production costs. combine that with auto manufacturers INABILITY to see beyond the hand that holds their profit margins, and you have a company only interested in providing short term solutions to satisfy engineered statistics.

 

NB: It is possible that RodThorp did not purchase in CA and is not covered by the AT-PZEV warranty.

 

Doesn't the CA 10 year/150,000 mile apply to cars purchased in CA?

If so,

1) Are you the original owner of this car?

2) Do you know which state the car was originally purchased?

 

If it is under warranty - you should be able to get your $95 back since the reason that you took your car in would be a covered expense.

 

Good luck getting it warranteed. My experience with them has me of the opinion that that Toyota dealers like to refuse their warranty coverage any time they can ("doing the right thing" does not appear to be in their list of options when you have a problem).

 

Nawh - the dealers often make a few extra bucks on the "diagnosis" aspect. Examples
1) if your alignment is out due to premature parts failure, the parts & labor are free under warranty ... but the re-alignment? ... they stick you there.
2) if a rear window fails to go up, the new switch/relay(s) and labor are under warranty, but determining whether it's the rear window control, or driver's control is "diagnostic" & again, they stick you.
Both are actual examples we got charged, and corporate confirmed these goodies are not chargable against warranties. So yea, diagnostics of the traction pack being the culprit (tracing symptoms that also may be a causation) ... they'll stick you.

.

 

Is it true that a dealership would prefer not to handle warranty work ? Or perhaps this is just a case of avoiding a "difficult" customer or non-usual repair that seems to carry a risk of fixed labor reimbursement but high actual labor requirements.

 

I talked to one of the mechanics at the Toyota Dealership where we bought both our Prius's about batteries. He said they had just replaced their first one on a car that had almost 300,000 miles on it.

He also said that the battery itself was less than $2,000. He said that many people thought it would be more because most of the prices running around out there in the "media" are for the battery AND the DC-DC converter. Obviously both together would be a lot more money, but the mechanic said the converters are turning out to be very reliable and you should only replace the parts that are broken.

Was he blowing smoke up my @$$, or is this true?

 

True. You can get the HV battery for less than $2,000 online. MSRP is $2,588.67.

 

All these people had to fight Toyota for warranty work:

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...ies-warranty-due-electric-vehicle-button.html

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...yota-dealers-not-understanding-warrantly.html

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...yota-prius-platinum-warranty-work-denied.html

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-main-forum/48921-denied-warranty-your-inverter-battery.html

There are more examples (in particular the HV battery of the car failing on Gen1s) that I've posted before, but you can find those searching this forum on your own.

 

Good to know. If mine dies and it is out of warranty I'll probably do the install myself anyway.