A $10 vs $4000 Battery Repair Camry Hybrid

I'd love to see an expose of the stealership's service center that makes that kind of diagnosis.
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i hope he lets us know how long his fix lasts.

 

I don't like that article.
As a Hybrid Owner.

It's tone smacks of Anti-Hybrid propaganda, even if every word is true.

As in...see how expensive owning a Hybrid can be? This guy almost paid $4,400 when all it was, was a dirty connector!

Phht...

If it happened, it happened. But I don't blame the dealership. They ran the codes, which gives them the diagnosis. Is there a outside shot that it's something different causing the codes? Sure. And evidently this guy was trained enough and bold enough to discover it on his own.

But his story isn't typical, or I think very representative of the vast majority of hybrid owners and hybrid owners battery situations. Most of the time, when the battery fails it really fails.

Good for this particular owner that he caught the mistake.

If this type of mistake becomes more and more common? Then perhaps Toyota needs to release an update or bulletin changing their diagnosis process to include checking for this very type of scenario.

But as it is? There was no fraud involved, just an owner willing to pull his own battery and discover that what was "honestly" thought to be a bigger problem wasn't as big a problem as everyone thought. So why the sarcastic commentary such as "So Much For Saving Money on Gas?".

All you have here is an honest misdiagnosis, followed by a rather unique owner who was willing to pull the battery himself. Something even this article admits is something the majority of people can't, won't and shouldn't do.

 

i don't read many people with p080 codes saying their bars were corroded vs saying they have bad cells.

 

Unfortunately, I think most owners aren't trained or able, or willing to get to the point this person was able to get to. Most of us, won't pull the battery and start checking individual cells nor start any process of battery disassembly.

And really? I think for safety reasons, for most of us, it's good that we don't embark on such endeavors. Or somebody looking for that $10 connector to clean is going to end up zapping themselves into the next world.

Any service department can make a mistake in diagnosis, and YES...todays modern techs rely heavily on computer diagnosis and codes. Which can be wrong. But I still think a happening like this is more an anomaly than representative of what actually is needed or happens when most of us do eventually get the dreaded battery failure codes.

To this articles credit this is admitted towards the end.

 

This only shows that the established technical community, trained by traditional methods, are tracked into the "official" method of solving problems and repairing cars and much of anything else.

A well trained technician with a good eye and experience can effectively find and resolve the problem at little cost.

Overt the years, I've picked up many appliances that have been thrown away only to find that it was a bad cheap component. In this "throw away" society, the dealer's estimate and cost is standard. That is expected by the customer. I've fixed cars for next to nothing in the past. The customer seemed sometimes disappointed.

 

the chute on m snowblower wouldn't turn in the last storm. turned out to be a stripped cable hold down screw. toro for some reason, decided a screw into plastic would be strong enough. imagine what it would have cost if i had brought it in for repair? or better yet, they had to pick it up and drop it off?

 

I recalled that my dad had a flat tire on his riding lawn mower. That was 1987. They guy charged him $75 to take it to the shop, replace the inner tube and to bring back the entire lawnmower.

When I went to visit him, I saw that the wheel was attached with an "E" clip.

My dad was one who had to be "always right" and "never made a mistake." He would NEVER admit that he was taken.

 

i believe your describing the whole human race.

 

I think it is a good story because it take the FUD factor down a bit. Granted this was a lucky 'crap in the gap' but we need folks to realize our hybrids are just another machine. It isn't magic and if we're really dangerous, they'd be using them in Huntsville, TX.

Bob Wilson

 

Having been trained as an engineer, I've believed that learning and the path to success is a series of mistakes.

Unfortunately, most of the human race are insecure of not knowing or being labeled as ignorant.

Mistakes are steps to learning the solution and to achieving success.

 

Best "taken" for us, was when "she-who-must-be-obeyed" brought the hybrid Lexus into the shop (rather than wait for me to clear the red maintenance triangle). $90 parts/labor for the $8 (on amazon) cabin air filter that takes 90 seconds to remove/install. That was 9 years ago ... last time we've been in to the Lexus service center. I'm still stewed thinking that $$$ was 3 or 4 cases of beer I'll never get back.
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These are car dealer mechanics. If they were properly trained and equiped they would work at least do what pep boys or sears would do on your 12V battery. That is test if it takes a charge, and test the terminals if it doesn't. I have no idea if toyota dealerships even equipment to test charge the traction battery, but I know my dealership has only one guy that works on the prius, I can see some with no guys understanding the prius. Remember the car mat fiasco? It was toyota and Lexus dealers doubling up car mats inspite of all the unintended acceleration complaints. Most complaints were simply ignored and never even reported into a system. The dealership model for maintenance is horible for controlling costs, but great for the dealers making a profit.

Yes people expect dealerships to be stealerships for repairs. That is why I have never used them for repairs if there was a choice, but ... when it comes to hybrid problems most of us only have the toyota dealership. Toyota needs to do a better job of training ... I don't single them out, there is a virtually universal rip of at dealership repairs.

Hill let it go. Life is too short. That was a very cheap $80 mistake, and the lesson has probably saved you over the years.

 

but the beer...

 

it would have been nice if the geek had told us the year and mileage. if it's under warranty, toyota probably doesn't want them fiddling with it, might be a recipe for disaster. if it's not under warranty, they probably follow the same guidelines.

 

My guess is out of warranty because of miles. No one is going to check battery cells if the dealer is going to replace the battery for free.

 

good point. and it makes me wonder, how does everything get so corroded, and yet the cells are fine. seems like a highly unusual circumstance, unless moisture is building up inside the battery case?

 

If the vent fan is working, there should only be moisture build in a high humidity climate. Though, if the circumstances arise that condensation can form inside a parked car, it could form in the battery compartment. It isn't required for the corrosion though.

The cells are sealed, and the bus bars are just bits of copper exposed to the air. That's enough for the corrosion to start, and the high currents flowing through them can speed it up. The connections on a starter battery corrode over time. I think it is just a matter of luck whether or not the corrosion ends up interfering with the current, and it would likely only require one or two of the bars to get bad enough to cause trouble.

The bolts holding the bus bars on were also corroded. The cell terminals themselves may have have had an anti-corrosion treatment, or simply have been a different enough alloy that the bars and bolts acted like an anode in a hot water tank or on a boat, so they were spared.

Here's the original source for those not clicking through the article.
Toyota Hybrid cheap fix - the dealer wanted $4400... - Album on Imgur

We don't know how unique this problem is. Batteries replaced under warranty likely just get pulled and sent back to Toyota without a thought, and I don't think many dealerships give their techs time to diagnose a bad pack in other cases.