New ICE & traction battery for a 2005 with over 200K miles

Long story short version is that the ICE in the 2005 Prius that my son owns has seized up due to an oil-leak/consumption issue that resulted in no oil in the engine and the resulting seizing of the ICE. A local hybrid specialty shop is quoting $2400 to replace the ICE (replacement ICE has 88K miles on it). They're also concerned that the traction battery might need replacement because it was drained down pretty low when the ICE seized, but won't know until they replace the ICE. It's the original traction battery that came with the car, so it is a bit long in the tooth. The quoted price for the traction battery replacement is $3200 which is supposed to be a new battery direct from Toyota and not a rebuilt one. I asked the shop owner about using a rebuilt one and he said that the supply of low-mile high-quality traction batteries has gotten pretty slim as the Gen IIs have gotten longer in the tooth.

A used 2005 with about 187K miles on it is going for about 6 grand around here. And that's the cheapest I could find. Price goes up as mileage goes down, of course. Average price is about $7500 to $8000.

The car is in otherwise good shape. No major dents or dings, no paint peeling problems, interior is still in decent shape, never been in a major accident or flood. I'm the actual original owner, so I know the history of the car. My gut feeling says to go ahead and at least replace the gas engine. Even if we have to replace the traction battery, it still seems like it's worth doing since it'll still be at least a grand cheaper than buying an equivalent used car with an unknown history, and I'll have a 12 months/12,000 mile warranty on the new ICE and traction battery.

 

He's been made very painfully aware at how expensive a mistake this was on his part. He had been told repeatedly that he had to keep an eye on the oil level to the point of being told to check it every other fill-up. The fact that the low oil pressure light would come on when he went around corners should've been a big clue, but he ignored that and now has to pay the price.

 

It is indeed at Luscious right now.

I understand why a lot of people are advocating ditching the car and buying something with lower miles. And I agree with it to a certain degree. But I have no guarantee that if I buy a lower-mileage car I won't be facing the same problem down the line. I also won't know the complete history of the car. CarFax may not have all of the history. At least I know how well the car has been cared for and performed over the last 9.5 years. I know that some potentially expensive stuff, like the catalytic converter, were done at 140K miles under warranty. Or that the front brakes were finally touched at 140K. There's also the matter of whether I really could get $3000 for a Prius with a dead engine and a suspect traction battery.

It seems to me that the parts you are most likely to have to replace on a car this old is primarily going to be the traction battery and ICE. Which are the most expensive. Everything else should be easy to do and not nearly as much money. Once I've replaced the very expensive bits with much lower mileage versions (or 0 miles in the case of the traction battery), it would seem like I'm getting a huge extension on the life of the car. Personally I'm hoping that it's just the ICE that needs replacing and the traction battery is fine. Up until this point there's been no indication of traction battery problems. At least with the ICE we knew there was an issue that had to be kept an eye on (and clearly wasn't).

I've always been an advocate of keeping a car running as long as possible/practical. It's cheaper to repair a car that has been running well than to have to buy something new (or used). Obviously there's a point where the pain of fixing it is more than the pain of having to replace it. Figuring out what that pain point is the difficult part, but I don't think I'm quite there yet.

 

I'm not sure I agree witk you about not wanting to repair a car with 200K miles on it. Had I followed that advice last year, I'd be stuck paying for a new car for the next 5 years. Our minivan ended up needing about $4500 worth of work. Some of it was regular maintenance that needed to be done (new timing belt and water pump, regular oil & filter change, front brake service, transmission service, etc) and some of it was age-related stuff that finally needed fixing (new battery & cables, rear-brakes for the first time ever, fix leak in A/C including replacing various lines, O2 sensors). $4500 is about 6 to 8 month's worth of car payments (depending upon replacement car selected). The repairs have lasted for 16 months now. I'm ahead of the game. 200K is a lot of miles for a car, yes, but I no longer think it's towards the end of the life for a car. I think they can easily go another 100K miles with proper maintenance.

 

Prior to getting loaded on to the flatbed it was at 1 bar on the MFD. The tow-truck driver ended up driving it on to the flatbed, so he may have drained it further. I wasn't at home to supervise. Had I been there, I would've made him use the winch instead. In the past when I've run out of gas in the car, the car was really good at preventing me from fully draining the battery. In this case, the car may have been constantly trying to spin the engine and failing to start, so it may have really drained it.

 

Luscious has an off-board traction battery charger they can use. They were going to replace the ICE first and then see where things stand. Not much point in charging the traction battery up if the ICE is still dead.

When I ran out of gas and was just running on the battery, the car would go slower and slower as the battery bars counted down 1 by 1. By the time I hit 1 bar, I was barely crawling along, just enough power to pull off safely to the side and wait for triple-A to bring me some gas. It would not let me drain the battery any further. At least not actively. Leaving the car in IG-ON would try to make it periodically start the car which could further drain the battery, but I believe at that point the user is supposed to be smart enough to just turn the car off and wait for help. Kind of like in a regular car where when the car won't start, you have to be smart enough to stop trying otherwise you'll drain the 12V battery.

 

They're a pretty highly rated hybrid shop and know what they're doing, including engine replacements. I'm sure they'll take every precaution needed.

 

Those are all good points and something for us to keep in mind down the line. Right now I'm willing to risk a $2400 engine replacement, and possibly a replacement traction battery. If other things start failing after that, then we'll consider selling the car (with a brand-new traction battery and nearly new ICE!) and taking that money and putting it towards something else. If nothing else, it'll be a good lesson for my son as to why proper maintenance is important "See, you'd have an extra $2400 for these other repairs if you had remembered to check the oil!"