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To keep or not to keep?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by LindaMarie814, Aug 8, 2019.

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  1. LindaMarie814

    LindaMarie814 New Member

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    I bought a 2005 Prius a month and a half ago. It has 62k miles. After I bought it (from an individual, not a dealer) I made it 68 miles before it broke down. Got the triangle of death and the Poaa6 (526 614) code saying inverter was bad. Replaced it with a salvaged one but was still getting the same poaa6, this time without a detail code. After lots of debate I had the hybrid battery replaced and the car is now up and running. Debating if I should keep the car since so much work has recently been done- brand new hybrid battery, newer inverter converter, recalls up to date, new auxiliary battery, dashboard components replaced, or if I should sell it while it's still working and get out of a potentially bad future situation. Curious to hear the thoughts of other Prius owners.
     
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    I'm wondering how much money you paid for the car and how much money has gone into the repairs. My guess is that the proceeds you would receive from a sale would be substantially below your acquisition cost + repair bills. So it might be good to get some use out of the car to get some return on that out of pocket cost.

    If you are depending upon Toyota dealer service then I would guess your repair bills have been very large. If you can DIY or have a friend/relative to help you then your repair costs would be more moderate and it might be reasonable to plan to keep the car over an extended period, now that you've done so much to it already.
     
  3. LindaMarie814

    LindaMarie814 New Member

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    It cost half the value of the car to get it repaired. However, I do plan to take the sellers to small claims court because they falsely advertised the car as having a brand new hybrid battery. I guess my concern is more how likely something else is to break, especially considering the car was rarely driven from 2005-2018. Only 46k miles put on and garaged for months at a time.
     
  4. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Since the car has relatively low miles, the major concern would be failure of the high voltage traction battery. If you have a good battery now, then you should see a long service life from the car.
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    welcome!
    agreed, you have a brand new car now, i would hang on to it for a long time.
     
  6. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    I'd be the happiest Prius Camper ever to have a low mileage Prius like yours with most of the expensive stuff already replaced... Enjoy it for a long time!
     
  7. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    Did you replace the hybrid battery with a factory new one or a rebuilt one?
     
  8. LindaMarie814

    LindaMarie814 New Member

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    Thank you everyone for your feedback!
     
  9. LindaMarie814

    LindaMarie814 New Member

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    Factory new. The one the car already had was partially refurbished so I'm not messing around with rebuilt ones anymore.
     
  10. cthindi

    cthindi Member

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    Agree with Bisco. I would keep the car with my experience of using 2005 Gen 2 for 360 K miles and still going OK.

    Although it appears that Inverter replacement was not really needed. How much did that cost you?
     
  11. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    I'm just going to chime in late to also vote...keep it.
    As you have found out, there is no way to actually predict or know the future. A "potentially bad future situation" could manifest. BUT...
    You've already invested quite a bit into the vehicle, and hopefully have some of the bigger things in good shape.

    At this point? Well why not keep it? Two of the more costly things that can fail...have been replaced. That doesn't guarantee you a trouble free future, but looking at the situation on paper? That is " Brand new hybrid battery, newer inverter converter, recalls up to date, new auxiliary battery, dashboard components replaced "-Well in for a penny in for pound.

    I think odds...and it is a gamble..but odds are you could be on the verge of many reliable years and miles.

    I can't offer a guarantee...but my opinion is..I'd keep it.
     
  12. chelvis

    chelvis Member

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    Welcome LindaMarie. I have a 2005 Prius with 310K miles on it and drive it daily. I would DEFINITELY keep that car, it is almost "new".
    New battery is the biggest nut to crack, everything else is manageable.

    Cheers, Tom
     
  13. LindaMarie814

    LindaMarie814 New Member

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    Wow, 360k miles is amazing! I only spent $175 on the inverter because I got it salvaged. I also question whether it was really needed, but they said the 526/614 code came up.
     
  14. MilkyWay

    MilkyWay Active Member

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    You're either the unluckiest prius buyer ever or maybe he deleted code and conned you? The red light can sometimes stay off for months maybe even years. What kicks the code on is when the computer detects a small fraction of a difference in voltage from one of the cells (don't quote me on the lingo I am not a mechanic)...So, each of the 8 (?) blocks have a reading...13.4, 14.1...14.0, etc (again don't quote on numbers!). When one of them is like .07 (can't remember exact reading but it is a fraction) off it will kick the light on.

    So what happens? Absolutely nothing. Drives exact same way. You could take it from Florida to California.

    Eventually, when it gets real bad, you will go into limp mode and car will not perform well. All you do if you really wanted to is delete the code from the dash and it will drive perfectly fine just like normal zero difference until light comes back...which might be couple miles or might be 10,000 miles.

    90% of the ones I have driven with 1 bad block drive to perfection on the way to mechanic 45 minutes away.

    There was one that was constantly going into limp mode and I had to keep deleting code.

    I'd probably go on a 10 hour trip with one that bad with a scanner. I'd go on a 1000 mile trip on your standard prius with a bad hybrid light.

    Unfortunately this is the perfect example of how condition is everything and miles are nothing. All the ones I see have less than 120k when they go bad (what I consider low miles) for a gen 2. The ones with high mileage that are actually driven don't go bad nearly as much from what I have seen.

    I'm still driving around a 2010 with a "bad hybrid battery". Delete code it takes months to come back...And when it says "check hybrid system" it still drives the same (which is like-new).

    The bad thing about the gen 3s is the scanner doesn't tell you precisely which block is bad. You have to look at live data.

    For a gen 2 the scanner tells you right away: " block 2 is bad!"

    Not sure why they made that change on the gen 3s.
     
  15. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    The one the car already had was partially refurbished

    To me, that means the previous owner probably paid one of the "craigslist" repair people to come over and replace the battery. So, in his eyes, the car had a new battery. There very easily could have been no ill-will involved. The inverter replacement is questionable as to whether it was needed. Odds are very good it wasn't.

    @MilkyWay The advice you are providing in post 14, in regard to the HV Battery, is poor. It may be how you roll, but it is 100% ill-advised for 99.9% of the Prius owner population to do what you're discussing. It's clear from your post that you DON'T understand the workings of the battery. It's all fun and games until you blow the tops off a few modules (of which there are 28 modules that make up 14 blocks) and someone ends up stranded. And every toyota HV Battery ever built will see a 0.07 volt difference between highest and lowest blocks during every drive from the time it's driven new off the dealers lot until it's tossed in the scrapyard..
     
    Skibob and dolj like this.
  16. MilkyWay

    MilkyWay Active Member

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    I'm not saying to keep it and drive it that way. Just saying I have bought about 8 of them with bad hybrid batteries in the last year or 2.

    And every single one drives normal except 2 you had to keep a scanner in the car and keep deleting the code. I immediately took them to the mechanic about 50 minutes away all freeway.

    The point I was trying to make (which I got side tracked and didn't make the point well) was that the seller could have just deleted the code. As the warning lights will stay off of the dash and the car will drive normal for a while.

    The thought had crossed my mind a number of times when I have gotten screwed and didn't feel like paying to replace the battery: "well, I could just scam the next person and delete the code...it'll stay off for a week maybe even a month if lucky".

    But, I've never done that. And 7 of the 8 are still in my fleet with only 1 sold but I replaced that battery with a used one before selling...The other 7 are rebuilt.

    If I was a scammer I would just delete the code and sell it and when the buyer calls a week or month later (or an hour later on the way home) just pretend like the buyer "got unlucky".... It is most likely that the OP is not the unluckiest Prius buyer ever and that she was dealing with a scammer.