12V Battery alternate to OEM

yup, but there are always people there when we drive by

 

i haven't purchased gas since april, but electrons are 24 cents here. so with gas around $2.75, it's pretty much a wash.

 

trust me, if i can figure out how to do it, anyone can

 

I searched high and low and could not locate a better deal than OEM at Toyota. (San Diego, CA). Amazon had an AC Delco with sketchy reviews for $170ish and 1 or 3 years warranty, Pep Boys didn't carry anything except Optima Yellow for $250. Walked out Toyota's door with a Yuasa w/ 7 yrs warranty for $200+tax+core charge. Will try to post pics later. @Britprius @Patrick Wong

 

List price is $270. Maybe they gave me a discount due its manufacture date of Jan '19? Measuring in at 12.19 volts (on this chilly day during Dec '19). That's not too concerning right?

Uploaded pics (need to be logged in)
https://priuschat.com/media/albums/123.2425/

If you're interested in serial numbers PM me.

Thanks @Britprius @Patrick Wong for your fine posts - I've learned a lot. I really liked the idea DIY'ing the mobility battery - thanks Brit! But wasn't sure how to modify the posts, and the time and effort and prices were prohibitive compared to OEM. (I even saw people using $40 tractor batteries!).

 

I have purchased a Bosch battery from Pep Boys a few years ago when my old one died. I paid $145 out the door and they installed it. So far I have had no 12V issues at all. The regular price at Pep Boys is $180, I believe and they do run specials regularly. I got mine on one of those specials. I've only had it for about 2 years, but I am not sure what possibly can go wrong with an AGM 12V battery in this car. It is one of the lightest duty car battery applications one can think of. Just don't leave the lights on and make sure you don't have a parasitic current draw anywhere in the system and that 12V battery should last for a good long time. If you like Toyota and feel better about paying for it, great! Get that one. But I am not at all convinced that it's worth it in this case. Just walking into a Toyota dealership makes me feel screwed over. I have a big aversion to dealer parts counters of late. Especially Toyota ones local to me. They are really useless.

 

he said pep boys didnt have any except the $250. optima. how does your purchase in the past help?

 

Sorry, I assumed Pep Boys were out of it, but it looks like they no longer carry it or Bosch no longer makes it. Too bad. Seemed like a good deal.

Now I am beginning to recall someone using wheel chair battery with great success in their Prius. Cheaper, larger capacity, but does require some adaptation of the terminals. I would look into that before having to go to a Toyota dealership (I have that much bad taste in my mouth from visiting them a few times). But at the end of the day, if Toyota is the best, easiest and fairly price-competitive, then sure, go with Toyota.

 

Put a battery charger on the 12V battery overnight; 12.2V is quite low. A new fully charged AGM battery should measure 13V.

 

Someone mentioned that the price of lead is going up in the US, perhaps due to the trade war. Possible that the Japan-manufactured battery is unaffected.

 

You can get a discount at Toyota parts counters, just have to be nice to the guy behind the register -- and make sure to cover all disfiguring scars.

 

New Battery
Measured about 12.7V after charging up with a newly-purchased Battery Tender Jr - thanks @Patrick Wong for the recommendation. Took about 30 minutes to charge, 15 minutes in "bulk charge" mode, and 15 minutes in the "above 80%" mode. Observed a sawtooth charge pattern with my voltmeter. "DELTRAN BATTERY CHARGER SOFTWARE: Algorithms & Graphs" was interesting.

Priuschat Post 73400 helped enter the engineering screen which measured
ACC mode: 12.6V (expected 12.4-12.8)
Engine on: 12.1V (expected: >12.0)
ACC mode next day with engine off: 11.9V. Wonder if I have a short somewhere!

Old battery: 10.3V when removed. Date code I13. I'll ask about any possible prorated payments within the 7-year warranty.

Other thoughts:

• Refurbishing/reusing: It seems my new battery is on the low end of some of these measurements. I read about reconditioning batteries. Got to wonder if my new battery is a reconditioned or desulfated one. I do hope that they refurbish old batteries, somehow, for the environments' sake. Do Battery Minders/desulfators really work? I tried to charge up my old battery for fun. It was charged within a few hours, with my 750mA charger. I suspect only 1-2 Ah in there out of 45Ah for the new one! That battery was so dead, I couldn't leave my dome lights on for 10 minutes without needing to jump-start (thanks Costco USB jump-starter!) I stupidly tried to jump start a regular engine once, could that have killed it?

• Engineering screen: I was able to enter the engineering screen by turning on the parking lamps rather than the headlights. I had replaced the HID headlamps some time back and don't want to cycle them too much. Need to replace fog lamp covers.