Prius Battery Replacement Kit (GenII/GenIII) with NEW custom cells

I really feel for you. It appears you have made a very good (boring) product that functions as designed.
Because this board has not lit up with reviews, people are denigrating your product. Nobody posts reviews for boring products.

 

@jeff652 has similar issues.

That’s why I try to share my experience (and encourage others) whenever I can. And help if people have issues or questions as best I can.

Hopefully @2k1Toaster ’s will begin to share their experience .

 

This $1600 product has been for sale for a couple of months. Two priuschat users have reported their initial success--three if you include the vendor! Vendor reports that two dozen have been sold in the US, 8-10 of whom are priuschat contributors. We don't know how many have successfully finished the three-day process of assembly and installation. Let's hope it tests well in the long run, so that volume pricing can kick in and lower it to half the price of the genuine Toyota pack at $2000.

 

Fredsimm,
I appreciate your honesty about not reading through things.

Feel free to call me if you have any specific user experience questions. My contact info is in my signature.

I was the first to install the kit in October.
No issues at all. This thread has some of my screenshots from Torque Pro app if you want to take a look at those.

 

Previous post amended to reflect the additional info the vendor just added. Vendor counts himself as a reviewer, so that makes a whopping 3 people who have reported something. Make your own conclusions, but with a hair-trigger temper like that, I would not count on his warranty. Links have been provided for genuine Toyota pack is available at least three genuine Toyota dealers for $2000, YRMV.

 

Dude, grow a pair! Fear Uncertainty and Doubt are entirely logical for a brand new, untested, $1600 critical Prius component. I am rooting for your set up to work, but you are implying too much perfection at this point in time. Just keep it real.

 

He is. You are not. Welcome to my Ignore list

 

Finally got around to installing the pack. After rain, we had the traditional every 8th year snowing.

Pics and results to come

 

I feel that my post caused a slightly heated debate. Nothing 2k1toaster has said deserves such negativity. He appears to be an honest businessman offering a plausible alternative. In good ol America we are innocent until proven guilty. If he's a scammer, this very forum will ruin his reputation.Time will tell, and trust me I'm watching the clock.

 

People need to be reminded of the well-intentioned, initially perfect, Engineer's Kit that ended in failure.That kit did NOT hold up to the demands of real-world Prius drivers. It took a year or more for those systems to fail. No one is suggesting this system is intended to be any kind of a scam, but this vendor does tend to stretch and obfuscate the whole truth: 1) He made some improvements to an existing design, but implied it was is his original, unique design. More importantly: 2) The price for his unproven product is a hefty $1600 (only 20% less than the time proven, fully tested, genuine Toyota equipment). Many thanks should be given to the early adopters/testers of this setup, but the majority of consumers will remain highly skeptical until this new design has been fully tested under varied weather conditions, hundreds of thousands of miles, and a MUCH longer period of time.

 

I've read this whole thread. I don't feel like the OP's misrepresented his product at all. He's not saying it's perfect, he's not saying it's going to last for 10 years. He's simply saying, he doesn't know of any problems yet.

Give it a rest.

 

Hear, hear.

@kenoarto, you are continually negative, and come across to me as a bit inept. You may well be sceptical and are free to do so, but please don't talk for all of us. I don't share your viewpoint. Please post fair-mindedly and rationally or you will be added to my ignore list too.

 

My installation is now about 6 weeks old and everything is working fine.

Before I bought 2k1toaster's new cells, I was playing wack-a-mole identifying and replacing modules as they failed. The $33 replacement modules that I got off eBay worked fine - it was the not-yet-failed ones that gave me problems. I learned the hard way a bit about how to identify the weaker modules, but the unchanging starting point was that they were all 11 years old and near failure if not failed yet.

At one point I found a salvage yard that had Lexus CT200h modules for about $1100. Even the oldest Lexus CT200h would be a 2011, so they would be at least 5 years younger than the ones in my 2006. Oh, but there was a $350 core charge when I tried to actually purchase them. So I bargained about that, and it went down to $150. Oh, and then there's shipping, which seems to vary from free to $500. And then you have to ship the exact same model battery back to them for another shipping charge (but I have a Prius, not a Lexus). I never did wrangle a shipped price out of them, but it was probably about $1500. I decided that I was too much of an amateur to come out even trading with slippery professionals.

If you don't mind a hassle, the best deal on new Toyota modules seems to be a Gen1 replacement. You buy a dead Gen1 battery for the core, and find a Toyota parts department that will sell you a new battery. Good luck, as most dealers won't even sell it to you. So anyway you've now got 36 new modules for about $2200 after returning the dead battery that you maybe bought for $200. So you put in 28 of them, and figure out how to sell the remaining 8. Seems like a viable business model, but pure hassle for an individual trying to fix one car.

Or you could get the car to your local Toyota dealer and they'll install a new battery for $4000 or so. Or $2500 if you know the secret wink. Or free if you succeed in pleading special treatment. I'm sure anyone could beat $4000 with enough effort, but that's the barefoot price.

The new batteries from 2k1toaster were a refreshing offer. One price, shipping included, for new modules that will certainly outlast the "refurbs" from Dorman and the like. It will be 10 years before we know if they last 10 years, but that's a risk I'm willing to take to save several thousand dollars. Hey, if price is no object, what are you doing driving a 10 year old car?

As for being a DIY project, it's bigger than changing brake pads, but less than repairing a blown head gasket. The biggest problem is managing the weight. I'm 73, and hefting 70 pound large objects is not something I care to take on. Getting the 70 pound package from the front porch into the living room was basically rolling and/or sliding the box down a hallway. I'd recommend opening the big box wherever the delivery person puts it. There are then several smaller boxes inside that are easier to move. Then figure at least an hour long TV program undoing the bubble wrap from the 3 stick modules.

In all the YouTube videos I found that show servicing the battery, they never showed actually transferring the battery from the car to a service bench. Sucker's heavy, it's cramped stradling it, and there's no way you could handle both the battery and a camera. And if there's a separate person running the camera, they get inducted into helping move it.

If you look at page 4, post #80 you'll see some of how I managed moving the old battery. Disconnecting it and moving it toward the trunk opening is a one person job. Two people would be useful getting it from the trunk to the service bench. I did it all myself, lifting one end at a time and blocking the new position with a piece of wood. Then I walked it to a board to slide it up to the trunk opening. Then I shifted one end to the portable bench right next to the car, and then the other end. There are screws that have to be accessed from below the battery. If you tip the battery on edge, the case will be bent unless you protect it somehow. So I put the battery up about 6 inches on some leveling blocks. The module mounting screws are then accessible without tipping the battery. Oh, there are sharp edges on the battery. I used welding gloves after it got me several times.

I don't have any metrics about how the new modules are performing. About all I can say is that the battery display on the MFD tends to run much higher now, typically running into the green on cold mornings. I guess it used to do that when it was younger, but it's something I haven't seen in quite a while.

The car still has problems - the headlight plastic is really clouded and the TPMS light just came on with the colder mornings. It's actually refreshing to even worry about those things after wondering when the triangle of death was going to strike again. The battery just works, and I can pay attention to other things now.

 

Thanks for the update. Keep us informed.

 

2k1toaster, New question. Let's assume that one day a module within your pack fails. Can we buy a single module and what would be the estimated cost?

 

Thank you very much for your experience.

I find the TPMS light comes on in cold weather when the tires need more air. The pressure is lower when the outside temperature is lower.

 

Been there... And am about to go there again. "Battery block 4" this time. Have ordered 2 modules off eBay, they are getting cheaper now (2/50).

Am seriously considering 2k1toaster's product, but I'm concerned over dumping $1600 into a car with 214,000+ miles. But.... I've just replaced the combo meter (car sat for a week thus leading to the issue with the HV battery) and had the dealer fix the brake booster under the service recall, so the HV battery is the last "big 3" item left. Except maybe the Transaxle....

edit: add clarification to most recent cause of failure, and fix spelling of 2k1toaster's id.