Just had a rebuilt HV Battery Installed... Fingers Crossed

I got the Red Triangle, the VSC, and Check Engine Light last week on my 2005 Gen 2. I took it to the dealer to have the codes checked out and it came back as needing a new HV Battery.

WHAT I WANTED TO DO:
Well, money is tight, so I went online to check out my options and I found Green Bean Battery. I booked an appointment for the next day and was expecting to get a rebuilt battery, installed, with a 5 year warranty, for just under $1550. However, I got an email later that night saying that the appointment I booked online wasn't actually available. Then I got another email the next morning that said I was too far away from the nearest installer, so they canceled the appointment. Tim, who I believe is the owner, called me personally and apologized about the double mix-ups. They seem to be having some growing pains in their California service area. I was bummed, but I appreciated the personal call and follow up. Nice guys and a good price.

WHAT I ENDED UP DOING:
I went to my local franchisee of the Hybrid Shop. The rebuilt battery was $1900 out the door and the owner took a ton of time explaining their cell balancing process, and answering all my questions and detailing the pros and cons of a rebuild. I felt really well taken care of, not rushed, and I got a free loaner for two days while my car was in the shop. The rebuilt HV battery comes with a 3-year transferable warranty, but there is a stipulation in the warranty that I have to have the car inspected every 120 days by them. Luckily they are 3 minutes away from me or that could have been a real hassle. They have had a brick-and-mortar shop open for quite some time, which offers some reassurance as well, versus a guy coming to my driveway to install it and then driving away. As part of the install, they also put in reconditioned bus bars, and they cleaned out the fan system for the battery pack.

WHAT I MAYBE SHOULD HAVE DONE:
The dealer wanted about $2600 to install a new battery. Again, money is tight. I called and asked if there was any wiggle room in the price and I was told that they were already undercutting themselves too much. I was told labor for the battery replacement was about 6 hours and that they were going to be losing money on the labor at the price quoted (by the way... why does the mobile installer need 1 hour, and Toyota, with all of the perfect equipment, need 6 hours of labor!). They also didn't have a loaner, and they wanted more money to clean the fan. But, it would have been a new, dealer-installed battery. After reading a bunch of other comments here, I should have asked for some goodwill from Toyota. I am the original owner, and even though I am outside the battery warranty time period (12y3m), I am inside the mileage range (I am at about 130,000 miles). I take my car to the dealer for everything. Majors. Minors. Even tires. I think there are been 5 times in 12 years where I had the oil changed at a local shop. Every other service was at the dealer. My problem was that I always felt the dealer charged me the max. I got a break on tires once since my car chews through tires (I had 18 tires replaced in 12 years). I also felt like they wanted me in and out very quickly and that I never got all of the answers. I now see from reading a lot of posts on here that Toyota can be very fair with goodwill on batteries, especially when the car has been serviced at the dealership for 90% of the services over 12 years. I was desperate to get my car back and wish I had done more Prius Chat research and then pursued the goodwill, because if I could have gotten Toyota to comp $700, then it would have been a match to the rebuilt battery cost.

So, car is running. Hybrid Shop owner is super cool and helpful. Car will need to go in 3 times a year for an inspection (likely because there are a slew of other issues that might cause an HV battery problem), and I've hopefully got more then three years of life left in my Prius.

 

I just discovered the 120-day clause in the contract. I have an email in to the owner to get more info on this. I’m hoping it’s just a 5 minute drop in to see if any codes have been thrown. I’ll know more by Monday.

I’m having a bit of rebuilder’s remorse and wish I would have asked the dealership about the goodwill. I’ll probably be fine, especially since the dealership always seemed to sell me something whenever I went in. And... they wanted 6 hours to put the battery in, so that gave me pause as well.

 

Heard back from the shop owner today. He said that they need to check the car 3x per year to make sure it isn't throwing any codes. He said that the battery could die if other parts of the car are malfunctioning and they don't want to have to replace a battery if something else caused the issue.

He said it's a 5 min visit only to hook up the OBD-II Scanner and then off I go.