Newbie 06 Pruis Hybrid Battery Replacement

Hello all!
I've been on PC since before we bought a Prius to get some info and this is my first post!
We purchased a 06 Prius back in April of 2015! We bought it with 203kmi, when purchased the seller had replaced the spark plugs, all filters and fluids with Toyota branded fluids and he also replaced 1 module in the HV pack. The Prius gave us 40-50mpg depending on who was driving. I usually get better mileage since I'm obsessed with mpg efficiency and as my wife would say obsessed with EVs. This is our intermediate car between tradition ICE and BEV. Hopefully this Prius and our Civic will make it another 5-10years!
Anyway the red triangle popped up a few weeks back and Toyota said the HV battery needs replaced for almost as much as we paid for the car! When my wife was driving the 5mins back from the dealer it entered into from what she described must have been limp mode. So when I got home from work we had what will be know as the "Hybrid Talk". Whether to repair the pack, replace the pack or dump the car... We decided to replace the pack with a rebuilt Dorman Pack!

2015-12-27 005 by Jonan posted Jan 3, 2016 at 3:35 PM

We decided to go this route because she had an upcoming 500mile trip to see her dad who is going through cancer treatment. So rebuilding a pack, which I would have loved to do would have taken too long.
It only took me a couple hours by myself and was very plug and play! And the Advanced Auto had one in-stock!
I also replaced the 12v with a yellow top Optima at the same time since it was exposed.

Now the speedo/combo meter is intermittently working... We are able to turn the car off WITHOUT having to hold the power button down, which seems to go hand in hand with the combo meter being dead or dying. I've searched here on PC and the web and haven't found a reason as to why it stops working. Are the solder joints failing or actual components in the combo meter failing? I had an 87 Nissan 300ZX back in high school and it had an all digital dash with all the gauges being digital and alot of the solder joints had cracks, so about 2 hours of checking and resoldering a bunch of connections and it worked perfectly! Has anyone tried to repair their own unit? Is the car driveable if the unit is removed? There are a few companies that will repair your unit for about $150, but you have to ship it to them and they return it once repaired... Any input would be cool!

Thanks,
John

 

Just wanted to follow up on the Domorman rebuilt pack.
It has been almost a year now and the pack is doing just fine.
The wife drives it and get 43-47mpg consistently!

I also recently purchased a 2004 Prius in really good shape for cheap and got 59.3mpg on my trip into work this mornining in 34degree weather!