Rebuilt 2006 Prius Battery

I chatted with Dave recently. He is working for Dorman and still developing lithium options as hybrid replacement batteries.

Jeff

 

That is good to know. I saw the acquisition online and posted it here on PC recently. Lost David's # since the last time I talked to him. Also glad to hear he is still working on the lithium. Any ideas on who is honoring the warranties now since Dorman took over? Sorry for being off track of the OP's post.

 

Slow charging 12 volt battery is sign of sulphated battery. Its done. Forget it.

Hook the charger to the front jump points of the car and attempt to make the car READY. FIRST Make sure the pos connector with the fuse assy in the trunk that was hooked to the now absent battery is covered up first so it can't short out. You have bad luck lol......

 

But first clear all the codes. If a Prius has a fatal Hybrid battery assy code sometimes it will not start unless its cleared first. Safety issue.

 

Ed, no offense but he is limited to two amps so its going to be slow...

 

My ReInVolt is way past warranty (and it is still going ). Dorman puts a three year warranty on their rebuilt batteries.

JeffD

 

Got it, makes sense to me now. I googled David again and see the connection to Dorman now. Glad to see he is still involved. Smart move for everyone IMO. Sorry for being off topic, back to the topic...

 

Brian, have you tried clearing the codes? The car won't pull the contactor's down if it detected the short.

 

Clearing codes is usually done with a scanner. Some of the codes were cleared when you unhooked the battery, but there may still be some stored one's. I do agree with Ed and goldfinger, that the Prius may not go into ready mode if certain codes are set. Toyota's safety issues...

All the hold down of the ODO button does is "reset the maintenance light".

 

No, you need a scan tool that knows the proprietary Toyota codes. It sounds like your friend has one. Most here use cheap scanners with usbseawolf2000's pid codes for Torque.

 

None taken.

I'm not worried or care about the 12 battery it's just another question mark in his no start problem. Forget it. Eliminate that off the check list. Pump in 12 up front and try to ready it.

 

You can, but remember what I said about the polarity. Don't reverse it! Positive on the jump post, negative on the frame. If you get it backwards, 4K damage instantly! Read the owners manual for the correct technique and follow it when hooking up and unhooking.

 

Better off using the charger. Less current the better. You need just enough current to boot the relays. So many reports of Armageddon damage upon jump start. Pos to the red cap and usually everyone uses one of the nuts that holds that driver side strut on as the neg. One of the 3 nuts on the strut tower. You'll see it it's right above the that fuse box.

If you must use another vehicle do not run the donor car engine.

Under the red cap is a vertical metal attachment tab bolted down. A little L plate. You attach the jumper clip there not to the nut itself under the red cap. If it boots you can disconnect the charger while its in ready. Disconnect neg first. The Inverter will keep the 12 volt hot.

Btw, I maintenance charge my 12 at least once a month on the front jumpers. Alot of us here do this. I do it on all my cars. Its very good for the battery. Got 6 years out of my oem till one day out of the blue I noticed its throwing a red exclamation point on the dash upon start up. That means the 12 dipped to 11.2 or below on boot up. It only shows it on start up and does not log a DTC. It's the only warning you get. Yours threw it too you just never noticed.
I knew what it was and threw my charger on it and sure enough the current meter just sat there. Happened fast. Son of a b*tch.
Next day I bought a Yellow top. Still charge it once a month. I want to see what the current meter does. When the 12 fails it does it fast. I don't want to be stranded and holy god I don't want the wife to be stranded. And she never has. Don't dick around with a soft 12 in this car. Its really dangerous to your wallet. It will leave you and force you to get a jump.

 

Yes highly likely codes are stored. Fatal Hybrid codes should be cleared before boot attempt. Anything to do with Hi Volt may keep the car from booting until cleared by what Japan can only hope is the dealer. I think....

Plus repeated failed boot attempts will fail safe it too. It's like putting in the wrong password in a pc. More than 3 times it will lock you out.
Most of the time a disconnect of the 12 will clear it though.

I have an Optima. So far so good. The Prius charges it to 12.8 in its daily travels. Try to maintain it once a month to show it the good life.

if you buy an Optima make sure you fully charge it before bolting it in as many reports of very low charge Optima after install. Plus you get to check its health by charging it. If its a mutt back it goes.

The smallish Yellowtop is not a big seller apparently in certain areas of the country and may sit on the shelf a while.
There's alot of alternatives out there also including the Exide.