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2008 Prius EV Battery Replacement.

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by John Staufenger, Feb 5, 2024.

  1. John Staufenger

    John Staufenger New Member

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    I have a 2008 Prius with the original EV Battery. It has 112,000 miles and is throwing a P0A1D code. I have not accessed any sub codes from this, but I believe it very well is probably the EV Battery. I have considered replacing it on my own, but am cautious to make sure I have done all my homework. No, I am nowhere near sold on doing it myself in any way. I am trying to consider every option. I am trying to make a detailed, and educated decision regarding this. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Great to be onboard with with Prius chat. Thank you.

    John Staufenger
     
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  2. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    There are something like 57 sub-codes for that DTC, but for the most part, it doesn't seem it will help as most of the sub-codes indicate internal errors within the hybrid vehicle (HV) control ECU. The fix in almost all cases is to replace the HV control ECU.

    I wouldn't be jumping into replacing the hybrid vehicle (HV) battery just yet. You may just need to replace the HV control ECU and these can be picked up relatively cheaply from a wrecker or pick and pull.
     
    #2 dolj, Feb 6, 2024
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2024
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  3. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    I have four or five of them here red and black label You should be able to go to a battery repair station in your area and view as many of these as you would like and buy probably quite a few if you'd like to do that there's certainly not in short supply generally speaking buying a new one may be cost prohibitive Heck opening your old one and cleaning it may render everything working again 112,000 on your battery is not any kind of mileage record but you are sitting at what they're 18 years 17 whatever it is generally 10 is kind of getting up there in the max life of this kind of battery chemistry and the fact that the bus bars and nuts are probably quite corroded and looking like pure nothingness just straightening that out a lot of times will render an okay working battery believe it or not then a few cycles of charging and discharging can make a world of difference but that takes time equipment what have you but certainly the first thing to do is take the orange plug out it seems like even with all the subcodes available and just have a look at your HV battery ECU which is staring you in the face when the forward covers off etc You could even have a one ready to go on standby and stick it in there put everything back together temporarily take it for a spin and see what you got if that's straightens you out for the most part at least you know where you are and you have a whopping hour and 10 minutes into your adventure.
     
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  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    if you can gear yourself up, open the battery cover and look for corrosion
     
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  5. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    You are talking about the battery ECU. We're talking about the hybrid vehicle (HV) control ECU. They are not the same thing.
     
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  6. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Have four or five of those here too never seen a bad one yet at least that we know of.
     
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  7. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    That is true, but a very small number do fail.
     
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  8. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    In my vehicle so far I have seen no ECU failures at all that's in four generation twos and two generation 3s none not even a thought that one was failing I do know that ECU's ECMs and all that go bad believe me I've been replacing them since the early '80s but I am shocked that me personally I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I don't believe in any of the vehicles we've owned since I've been driving and certainly since the '80s when ECU started to become popular in cars I've never had one replaced messed with other than having the codes red and forgetting about it and then replacing whatever parts or whatever the codes let us to but we have never replaced an ECU from a junkyard had to buy a new one any of it so I guess we've been very lucky and we'll take it