Tips on finding a new OEM battery?

For you it might be worth a drive to Olathe Toyota. They sell parts online at a good discount but will not ship batteries. I'm not sure if they will sell a battery over the counter.

 

Have you talked to your local dealer? See if they'll do price match with other dealers. Probably will be limited to dealers within a few hundred miles, but wouldn't hurt to ask.

These little cars tow really well on a dolly from Uhaul, btw. So if you need to tow it a ways, it can be done.

 

I don't think that Toyota wholesales new batteries to anybody BUT their own dealers.
SO.....if anybody but a Toyota Authorized Dealer says they can sell you a "brand new" Toyota battery........be very careful.

 

Just to confirm - you do know you can get rebuilt batteries for much less than the new OEMs?

 

I had a Dorman in my first Gen 1. Never had a problem, although I didn't put a lot of miles on it in the couple of years before I sold it.

 

It depends..........
All "rebuilds" are not created equal.
The cheap ones that just replace a few bad cells are a bandaid that doesn't stick good.

A complete rebuild that replaces ALL of the cells should be as good as new.........unless they use really cheap cells and it might be hard to find that out.

 

My Dorman came with a 3-year warranty. Not sure if they do now.

 

how much is that costing? I gotta do something with mine.

 

Dang, that's a good price. Are they new cells?

I'm not sure why, but the only shop I know of here in Houston won't mess with Gen 1 batteries.

 

A rebuilt battery is only as good as the cells used. New cells aren't available, they're all used. So any rebuilt battery is a crap shoot.

Ron, if you rebuild a battery, you're still going to need to balance them so that they work together. A grid charger will do that. Doing individual cells is hit or miss.

A HV battery built after about 2010 uses an updated design, a Gen 1.5 so to speak which are superior to the original cells. Probably your best money would be to find a good used post 2010 oem, unmolested battery. My 02 had a HV battery from late 2013. Perfect!

 

Is that a Gen3? The tech who put the Dorman in my original years ago told me today that in the Gen3s they went back to having 38 modules and he thought they would fit in the Gen1 case.

If you saw my other post, I've confirmed that the modules in my working battery are all good. It's just got bad corrosion on one nut on the buss bar that I expect is throwing off the 3030. My other battery is toast; only two modules had barely 7v. So, I was looking at buying one from Best Hybrid out of Chicago - they sell rebuilds with Gen2 modules and give a 3-year warranty for a little under $1500 including shipping both ways (core).

That's the same price/warranty they get for their batteries for 2010-15, so that's probably not a good choice - I'd have to swap those modules into my Gen1 case and lose my warranty. I guess it depends on whether I can find a good used pack for a much better price to offset the labor and warranty value. I'll look around over the weekend.

So, the Gen3s modules swapped into yours, no problem?

 

hmm, google didn't give me any articles on swapping in Gen3 cells. do you have any links?

 

I assume that applies only to Gen 1 batteries ?

And if new cells are really "not available" does that also mean that new batteries are not available ?
How would one build a "new" battery without new cells ??

 

Afaik, new individual modules are not available for any Prius batteries. Toyota doesn't want to open the can of worms that selling individual modules would entail. New OEM complete batteries are still available from Toyota, ~$2000 with a three year warranty if the battery is replaced at a Toyota dealership. I would not buy a rebuilt battery for upwards of $1200, the new battery from Toyota is a dead bang, sure thing. And backed up by a corporate guarantee. Can't say that about a battery that's an amalgam of used modules.