Newbie to this and to Hybrid. Battery ?’s

congrats and welcome!

how many miles on her?

you might want to consider a new after market battery for $1,600. a reman is iffy at best. you may get lucky for a few years, but you may not.

as far as what other expensive items might break, no one can tell you. gen 2 has a pretty good track record overall

 

Remans are only as good as the person doing the work... There's quite a wide range of skill levels too. Also it's possible that your existing battery pack is newer and healthier than the $800 pack you buy. If I were you I'd pull the pack and replace all the corroded stuff and test the modules to find the bad one, then recondition and save my $800 for something else the car needs. But there's also a learning curve to finding bad modules and cleaning and inspecting... Do you know what the error codes and subcodes are? You can't decide on replacing a battery pack till you do that. Sometimes a bad battery pack can be recovered via an inexpensive fix. I'll be in the East of Sacramento area in a little bit more than a dozen days or so if you need help?

PS: The advantage to a brand new OEM pack (price as low as $1650 at some dealers) is that you'll have a solid pack for a decade that you can use on the next Gen2 or Gen3 Prius you buy too.

 

I only would recommend new batteries for nearly anyone. Also, at $1700 for the car plus $1600 for a battery, you're still only at $3300 with a new battery. My 2008 was $3800 with existing battery and 216,000 miles, but in extremely good condition all around. How much would you feel it's worth? Is it good condition?

 

You don't even know if the battery has failed, yet... All you have are warning lights and no warning codes to know what's wrong...Yet another example of how to waste money before you even know what's going on. A perfect example of what's wrong with people these days! Facts and data still matter despite everyone thinking the opposite. Despite what people claim these days, knee-jerk reactions are almost never the best solution.

 

That's pretty harsh! Help the person if you can but no need for negative comments when they're asking for help.

 

Maybe sounded a little harsh, but true all the same. And weighed against:

I'd say he's definitely offering help.

I also do not advise replacing it till you know for sure what's wrong. It might be a cheap fix or need replacing. Probably somewhere between, but who knows without some investigating?

 

I agree that diagnosis is in order. However, the first post described it as "needs a new battery." I was simply saying that, on the assumption that this conclusion was already reached through diagnosis, a new, not refurbished, battery is the best choice for most people.

 

Auto Parts store can give primary codes, which won't tell you much... You can buy a Mini-VCI on Ebay fro $25 with Toyota Techstream that tells you the most, but have to install it on an old Windows machine. You can also use Dr. Prius App via an OBD2 code reader: Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus

 

The reason remanufactured batteries are usually a bad option is that the cells from Gen 2 batteries are getting quite old now and even the "good" ones only last so long before falling out of spec. Usually I wouldn't trust a refurb for more than 3 years, if that. If you have the time and inclination, you can play whack-a-mole and keep replacing and balancing yourself. That will take at least a charger and probably some other equipment. Expect a couple months of life each time you rebuild.

New batteries will give you a nearly guaranteed 10+ years of life for less than double the cost of a refurb. Dorman is relatively new to the new battery game, so they don't have a lot of track record. GreenTec, another commonly mentioned one, is no cheaper than some other options and I don't know as their track record is great from back when they were refurbishing. In general, you'll probably want to get either a new Toyota battery in the $16-$1800s range or a battery from 2K1Toaster, a member of PriusChat, for $1600 with free shipping and 2?-year warranty.

As for a code reader, most auto parts stores should have one, probably sub-$25, that can at least give you battery cell info. Hybrid Assistant is another good app to use with a Bluetooth code reader.

 

Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus and Dr. Prius app works well... You can also do Mini-VCI with Techstream on windows computers for the most thorough results. Lastly, the serial number on the modules will give you a good sense of which ones were replaced and what kind of pack the replacement modules were from.

 

@Cybersurgeon

You mentioned that you were able to drive it home. That's a good thing.
No where in your posts do you mention that you have the RTOD or even a CEL.
You also mention it will no longer turn over or run. Have you touched anything on the car since you got it home?
Does the dash turn on when you press the power button (with foot on the brake)? Does the "READY" indicator illuminate?

Being unable to read codes limits the troubleshooting that can be performed right now (assuming you have RTOD or CEL).

Does the driver window auto-up / auto-down function work? Was the fuel tank level indicator blinking one dot when you first saw the car?
If the answer to these questions is no and yes, that's a good indication that the battery was disconnected to reset codes.

If the car drove home semi-normally, but after being turned off, will not go to ready state again, that is a sure indicator that you have a HV isolation fault triggering. If you're driving a Gen 2 and this code triggers, the car will let you continue driving. Once you shut the car off, it will no longer allow the car to go to ready mode upon restarting. UNLESS, while the car is off, you disconnect the battery to kill the 12v system. This will return the ECUs to default state and allow the car to be started normally again. This is one thing you can try. If you cycle the 12v power and the car then starts normally and allows you to go to READY, then you know.

 

@2k1Toaster to your door for $1,600. or shop around for oem. some find them for under 2k, but it's rare

 

Code scanner at Harbor Freight won't read the subcodes... No need to waste money on that... Any auto parts store will do that same service for free.

 

I agree with @PriusCamper. Those scanners almost for sure will NOT read hybrid codes.

 

Ok. So much going on here.

A healthy battery is needed in order for the car to properly run.

You basically bought a non-running car with 196,000 on it for $1800.

You want to get it running. (But not spend a lot of money)

To have a shop put in a New battery is ~$2,500 minimum

If you are handy with tools and bought a New battery, it might be $500-$1,000 less than that.

For Used batteries, it's all a crapshoot. But as others have said you are at the mercy of the whoever threw it together.

You can do the work yourself but it can be a steep learning curve and you will need to buy parts and tools.

If you are out to learn something new, you will have to invest some money. Tools like a ratchet, voltmeter will help get you started.

For Diagnostic, an Android phone, a $20 OBDII ELM 327 Bluetooth adaptor and another $20-$30 in phone apps will help.

If you plan on messing with individual modules, buying or building a charger would be helpful. A lower voltage one for modules and a higher voltage one for the pack.

And for best health a while-pack discharger as well as a module load tester be nice.

And if you can get it working Toyotas diagnostic software running on a laptop and interfaced with your car is great. ($100?)

Taking on a non-running Prius with a failed battery is a big challenge.

The only way to eat this elephant is small bites at a time.

Using your ratchet and a voltmeter will get you a bunch of information, but will take time and a sense of adventure, but not much money.

Using some diagnostic hardware and software will get you there in less time, but will cost money.

Call if you want to discuss goals and strategy. 608-729-4082.