12V Battery Replacement Recommendation

The negative battery is connected to the ground via the rear body panel on the back of the car. The rest of the negative terminals that are connected to any electronics are bolted to the car body or anything bare metal on the body panel. That is obviously a serial circuit. It is very common knowledge for Add-on sound amplifiers installers to find a good ground that can give the order of milliohms resistance to the battery and alternator or DCtoDC converter negative ports. Otherwise, it goes crazy and lost some power.

We can use a bolt on the struts or Engine valve cover to start the car or regular car because the Effective resistance of the Starter or Computer is only about 0.1-0.2 Ohm (120 Amps starter). Battery internal resistance is about 2 milliOhm or 0.002 Ohm. Total resistance from the jumper negative point to starter could be 0.01 Ohm. So, 90% of energy still goes to the starter. With the 0.002 Ohm internal resistance of the AGM 12V battery, it is hard to find a ground port that gives lower resistance than 2 milliohms to the negative terminal battery.

I chose to use all bits of battery lifespan with caution. If you prefer to spend money on a new battery, it is up to you. We are here to educate each other. So far I have 0 flat battery problems in the past 6 years with just fuel and drive even during the pandemic that occasionally I don't drive for 3 or 4 days. My last battery lasts almost 8 years in hot Florida without a garage. Now, I have a garage and both hybrid and 12V batteries will naturally last longer. I have a jumper cable and people around us are always willing to help, especially helping a hybrid car.

 

No it is NOT.
You need to brush up on basic electronics.

That is one HUGE group of parallel circuits.
AND any device that needs a "cleaner" power feed will have it's own dedicated negative wire going (almost) all the way back to the battery.
As cars get more and more sensitive electronic controls, fewer and fewer of them use that frame or chassis for the negative power return.

Just stop, please.

 

A 6th-grade kid understands easily from the diagram. Car body as the ground is steel, not copper. The resistivity from the rear to the front of the car is not negligible compared to the internal resistance of the 12V battery. There is no dedicated negative wire for 12V, only for the Orange cable HV we have a dedicated negative wire with 2 contactors and Fuses. For 12V, only positive wire is dedicated and directly connected to the relay and fuse box.

You can take a look at the negative terminal cable on the 12V battery, it is simply bolted to the car body.

All electronics have large resistance, Larger than 0.1 Ohm to deliver power < 12*12/0.1=1440 Watts. Therefore, the resistance of the car body that is less than 0.01 Ohm does not really matter and we can consider it as a parallel circuit. But when we charge the 12V battery from any contact point on the engine bay, It is effectively a serial circuit relative to the internal resistance of the 12V battery. The ideal voltage source has zero internal resistance, in our case is a few milliohms.

 

And all of your ranting means exactly........NOTHING practical.
One can measure and charge the battery just fine from the jump points if everything is connected properly.
Just stop, please.

 

If you have no antithesis with explicit numbers, diagrams, and logic. You are the one that should stop. Something that runs does not mean working properly and effectively. We argue with logic and numbers.

 

Yeah, I haven't been driving my 2012 Prius Plug-In that much lately since I usually work from home now. The other day at a little over 120000 km, the car just wouldn't start. I had to jump start it just to get it to the local independent garage for a new battery install.

They installed a CA$369 (US$294) AC Delco battery with CA$40 (US$32) labour. One auto parts shop had an Optima battery for CA$364 and NAPA had their store branded Legend one for CA$499 (US397!) so that CA$369 price seemed about right, despite it being higher than what you guys are listing in this thread. Why the heck is NAPA charging literally twice as much for the battery in Canada compared to the US?!? I don't know how much the batteries are exactly at Toyota Canada dealerships but I seem to remember from a few years back that they were also quite expensive. I did try calling the local Toyota dealer something like 4 times and never got through to anyone so finally I just gave up and went to my local guy as I needed the car fixed uber quick. I don't know who manufactures these AC Delco batteries.

I didn't think there was any point trying to recharge and fiddle more with the old battery given that it was already a decade old. As you suggest, I was happy to "throw away" some possible usable battery life in a 10 year-old battery, for peace of mind.

 

I was quoted $340 CDN for the Toyota Yuasa battery, through Port Moody dealership last fall. Emailed SaskBattery and they quoted $229 CDN for same, with free shipping, and you only pay GST (roughly 6% vs 12%).

So it's over $100 cheaper, purchasing a battery that likely came across the Pacific, if it's shipped to Saskatchewan and back.

That was a few months back now, so not sure now.

 

$340 (US$271) at the dealer seems somewhat reasonable. I wonder what my my dealership would have had it for, but then again they probably wouldn't have been able to fix it right away and would have charged me more for labour. I'm in Toronto, and the dealerships usually are quite pricey around here. I hope my AC Delco battery doesn't suck but I may replace this 2012 model anyway in a few years. I've now owned a 2001, a 2004, and a 2012 Plug-in. Next up, 5th generation? Or perhaps a Lexus or something.

Thanks for the heads up about Sask Battery.

 

Sask Battery's website wasn't showing the Yuasa (website is a bit clunky), but they're responsive to email. I purchased a battery from them in 2015; it went well.

 

We replaced our 2015 v's 12 v battery in November 2021. The dealer charged us $242.00 + $54.95 labor = $296.95.
No tax as the dealer is in NH.

The battery lasted 6 + years, but did need to be replaced.

 

Always check the dealership parts department online.
Just yesterday I got an oem battery from a local dealership for $212. I saved $35 off the dealer's price by ordering online and selecting local pickup.
Installation is not much different than any other car battery, so no need to pay for that if you have a few wrenches handy.

 

Determined that intermittent starting is due to bad battery from other threads here. So inflation and supply chain problems take prices way up. Go to parts.toyota.com and there might be 2 batteries available - Yuasa 2880021171 (45AH which came with the car) or the TrueStart 0054421171325. Half of the dealers in the SF Bay Area permit online ordering and batteries are pickup only. Most dealers only carry the TrueStart.

So when is a $183.40 battery cheaper than a $175.75 - when it is in the next county, extra for core charge, and 1% extra for sales tax. California taxes the core charge, but you do not get the sales tax back when you hand in the old battery.

I also cleaned the gunk off the positive terminal connector with baking soda after dismantling.

Prices for AGM cells are $240 everywhere and $225 at Costco + core charge. Napa does not apply 20% to batteries or oil, only AAA which drops it to $235.

edit: With refund of core charge, it is a wash. Further to drive = more gas, more time spent.

 

Radio stations are retained at least for 24+ hours for each of the disconnect negative, put dumb charger on. Avg mileage and trip odo does get zeroed out.
Got new Toyota TrueStart from dealer Feb 24. Usually gets driven Tues, Wed, Thu and maybe once during the weekend. March 14, wife says Check Battery light is on, can't lock doors, etc. 4 hours later, I got no displays when Start is pressed. Battery reads 2.06v. Me thinks this is a defective battery. It is being charged and we shall see.

 

There is absolutely NO reason to disconnect anything to charge the battery.
And sometimes a new one will come from the dealer or battery store at only half charged or less.

It is a good habit to develop to fully charge a new battery with an automatic charger before it's first use.

 

As long as it is above 12V all the time, battery health should be fine. Normal usage will keep the battery above 12.4V and yes, we do not need to disconnect anything when charging.

 

12.0 volts is about half DISCHARGED.
So that statement isn't necessarily right.
It depends on how MUCH above 12.0 it is.