Failing HV battery after bodyshop

Hi everyone,

I have a 2005 Prius with 140,000 km (90,000 miles). The car was dented during hail and so it spent one month in the bodyshop. The damage was entirely cosmetic and the car ran perfectly when I dropped it off.

When it was returned to me, the red triangle light came on (among others). The bodyshop then cleared the codes and said they recharged the battery by driving it around the block a few times, but the same lights came on again the next day. I then replaced the 12 V battery because it was getting old and because many people on this forum said that could cause all kinds of weird behaviour. Disconnecting the battery cleared the codes, but they reappeared after a few minutes.

The bodyshop says this is a coincidence that happened because the battery was getting old and it was not their fault. However, they said that they would pay for the new battery if a dealer would state that the HV damage "is consistent" with the repair process. So I took it to the dealer, who confirmed that the traction battery needs replacing, but he is not prepared to say that it's the bodyshop's fault.

To me, it seems incredibly unlikely that age-related failure would just happen to occur during the few weeks the car was with the bodyshop. A number of threads on PriusChat warn about possible HV-battery damage during body work, either due to welding or due to baking the new paint. The bodyshop says that:
a) they did not do any welding,
b) they baked the car at 60 Celsius (150 F) for 40 minutes,
c) they never touched any electrical components (i.e., did not disconnect or remove HV battery)

My question is whether the baking could be responsible for the HV-battery failure, or at least whether it's much more likely than that it was a coincidence? Because I have to convince the dealer to sign off on this being "consistent" with the bodyshop's work, I would really appreciate links to authoritative documents. I've looked through the repair manual and Toyota's official position seems to be that baking is not a problem, even though Honda and Ford limit the temperature to 150 and 140 F, respectively.

Thank you!

 

Thanks, JC91006! When you say "for a while", do you mean days, weeks, or months? My understanding was that the HV battery spontaneously discharges after several months, but the longest this car went without being driven was maybe three weeks while we were on vacation. It did sit in the bodyshop parking lot for about 5 weeks---do you think that could have done it in? It seems unlikely to me...

 

Patrick and JC: Thanks for your opinion. You're probably right that this could have been the straw that broke the camel's back, although I think you'll understand it's frustrating and suspicious to get a car back in worse condition than you took it in.

sfv: Although the mileage would still be under warranty, the car is older than 8 years so I'm out of luck.

 

I suppose it would be if I lived in one of the "selected states".

 

What you mean to say is "Strewth, mate!"