Is my dealership full of crap?

From your description before you went to the dealer, it sounds like you have a battery failure. Since you are not too far off on the warranty coverage, you can contact Toyota corporate for a goodwill warranty. They often give a nice discount to loyal Toyota customers. Sometimes they even cover the entire cost, you just pay labor

All it takes is a phone call or you can even request the dealership make this goodwill request for you

 

No.

Unless you car is showing symptoms that point to any of those things being faulty, you will just be tipping money down a pit.

Indicative of a battery wearing out. Remember, even the HV battery is a consumable. Mountain driving is also harder on the battery, so you have had a good run out of it.

$3,400 is not a bad price although maybe you could push them to do better, and if you had another dealer close-ish by you could try getting a second quote. Dealer new battery is your best option, any other options are just second-hand batteries dressed up as new and will give you no end of trouble in your geography – definitely a case of penny wise, pound (£) foolish if you go the second-hand/refurbished route.

They are correct, unless they are clued up (which they won't get from their dealership training), they won't be able to diagnose the battery health and certainly wouldn't want to give an opinion a customer might rely on. Today they only knew the battery was bad because the car's computer told them so.

 

Most likely your dealership is correct and you need a new battery. You can confirm by having the OBD codes read at any local auto parts store or having the dealership tell you the codes. Google them and they'll point you to the failure.

There are threads on here about how to replace bad cells and recondition the battery. This is a multi-day adventure using RC Car battery chargers, but can be done if you're willing to educate yourself thoroughly on batteries and have some basic electrical knowledge.

Besides the dealer, your other option is a 3rd party reconditioned battery pack for ~$750-1500 installed. These reconditioned packs won't last nearly as long as a new one - there's only so much you can do to extend the life of 8+ year old batteries. Get one with a good warranty - even then there are stories on here of people needing to get them replaced multiple times. Better option generally is a new pack.

Avoid cheap local guys with little experience and any thoughts of just replacing the bad cells (without a proper reconditioning of each and every module). These fixes fail very quickly in most cases.

 

Since you're not trusting of your local dealer, what are the possibilities that you could get the car to a larger town and a larger dealer? Or a decent hybrid shop in a bigger town? Denver, Colorado Springs or out of state if need be?

 

Don't know what city you live in, but Boulder Hybrids has a good reputation. I haven't needed them yet, but will likely take my car to them upon the first problem I can't fix myself.

 

The dealer *should have* checked individual cell voltages with TechStream and provided that information to you, since you specifically asked previously. Would it have condemned or assured the pack condition? Not likely.