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2017 Prius planning for new 12v battery

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Main Forum' started by TinyTim, Nov 23, 2023.

  1. TinyTim

    TinyTim Active Member

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    Toyota sent me an email for 25% off genuine Toyota parts. The True Start 12v battery for my Prius would be $154 after the 25% off discount for black Friday. Is that about as good as it gets for a new genuine Prius battery? I have been charging my 12v once every other week. It has no issues at all but I know they are supposed to last 8 years. It's getting to that point and for preventative maintenance, I was thinking about pickup up a new battery. I figure that I can use the current battery for another year and charge up the new battery once a month until I replace it.

    Should I wait until my battery dies or pick up a new battery?
     
    #1 TinyTim, Nov 23, 2023
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    If you can get that price, I’d go for it.
    But call them first, a lot of people go in and are told it doesn’t apply to the Prius
     
    #2 bisco, Nov 23, 2023
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  3. Kenny94945

    Kenny94945 Active Member

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    FWIW.... At 8 years.... I would buy this sales price battery and replace now.
     
    #3 Kenny94945, Nov 23, 2023
    Trollbait and TinyTim like this.
  4. Doug McC

    Doug McC Active Member

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    The battery has the potential to last 8 years however they often last a lot less (kind of like us humans, we can live for over 100 years but most don’t ). That’s a pretty good price (and it might require the old one to be exchanged). Either way, I’d go for it.
     
    #4 Doug McC, Nov 23, 2023
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  5. TinyTim

    TinyTim Active Member

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    The battery is through Toyota and their genuine parts dealership network. Not all Toyota stealerships participate in the program. The worst they could do would be to cancel my order. I have used the Toyota site before without any issues. If they want the battery they can swap it out. I will swap it myself, that's not a problem. I credit my charging program with my 12v for the battery lasting as long as it has without any issues. I have a 10amp charger/conditioner/disulfate 7 stage charger setup as well as another 4amp battery tender charger as backup.
     
    #5 TinyTim, Nov 24, 2023
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    in that case, your current battery is probably like new.

    please let us know if they honor the price
     
    #6 bisco, Nov 24, 2023
  7. Mr.Vanvandenburg

    Mr.Vanvandenburg Senior Member

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    It’s a good price. If you do replace you might want to put on a battery monitor. Best advice I have gotten so far on this site is the battery monitor. Put one on both vehicles now. I need to manually charge even more than I was, I learned. Or a battery monitor tells also about the old battery as it ages.
    I want to run a cable to the hatch from the battery so as to charge in the hatch area. I suppose I have to figure it out.
     
    #7 Mr.Vanvandenburg, Nov 24, 2023
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    do you have a link for that?
     
    #8 bisco, Nov 24, 2023
  9. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    this looks interesting, let's you check static voltage with car off. not sure about the clips though, could fall off from vibration
     
    #9 bisco, Nov 24, 2023
  10. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Another thing they do is put an extra $20 "core charge" on the price, when you cash-and-carry through the parts department, which you get back when you give them the old battery.
     
    #10 Mendel Leisk, Nov 24, 2023
  11. Zzz

    Zzz Junior Member

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    I just went to my local "car recycling center" (aka: junk yard) and picked up a replacement for $30. They had a few to choose from and it looked almost new. I have been using repurposed car batteries for decades.
    When people start having problems with starting their cars, it is common to replace the battery. Next they find there are other problems and then scrap the car. In summary, it is common to find almost-new batteries there. You can tell the age by the sticker on the battery. For some reason the manufacturers many times use a letter-number code where the letter is the month (A = January, B = February ... L = December) and the number is the last digit of the year.
     
    #11 Zzz, Nov 24, 2023
  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    parking lot battery swap, or sell it on ebay for 50 bucks
     
    #12 bisco, Nov 24, 2023
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2023
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