Battery advice

1. Yes, there is the option of installing a "remanufactured" traction battery, but you will need to find an independent shop willing to install it. You might save $1K with that alternative.

2. If you replace the traction battery, you may still experience other failures over the next nine years, such as the transaxle, inverter, power steering gear, another battery failure, who knows.

3. I suggest you determine the market value of the car (probably $5K at best) and compare that to the likely repair cost. It's unclear whether it makes sense to spend $2-3K in repair for a car with such a low market value. However, you'll then be faced with the decision of what other used car to purchase. Good luck.

 

There are some in here with 300,000+ miles. Wish you had a mechanic who could rebuild it with replacement cells for those that are bad in the original pack. It would seem you will be at the mercy of having a dealer replace it. Unless you have a mechanic who could at the very least do the battery pack swap for you.

 

It greatly depends on what it is going to cost you to do the replacement. If you are comfortable installing the battery yourself, it is definitely worthwhile even if you buy a brand new one. That is what I did. It cost me around $2,000 for the battery pack. I look at it this way, the car will only be worth around $2,000 to $3,000 with a dead battery because nobody is going to want it. If the car is in otherwise good condition, then with a new battery it will be worth $6,000 or more.

And yes, obviously there is a risk of other catastrophic failure of things like the transaxle, etc. But the chances of that are low. In fact, I'd say lower than risk of major problems on a regular non-hybrid vehicle. With a new battery you can easily get another 100,000 or more miles out of it.

 

Do you know a mechanic who would be willing to tear into the HV Battery, replace that cell, measure all the others, and clean up all the copper buss bars. Once the corrrosion is taken care of in the pack, and the cell(s) is/are replaced you should/could get several more miles out of the pack, in theory.

It would be especially grand, if you found a mechanic who would do the work, just for the Hybrid Experience, and give you a discount on the labor. One can always wish anyhow......

You can find used generation 1 cells on Ebay.

 

01-03 Toyota Prius Upgraded HV Battery Pack - eBay (item 130466800841 end time Dec-27-10 11:26:44 PST)

Is an example of a rebuilt battery pack. (in this case using newer Gen II cells, which have been less troublesome so far)

 

You can get a used gen1 battery pack with warranty or a reconditioned battery pack with warranty.

It is possible to get individual modules and replace them. This requires some toolsand know how.

Adopt A Part in Denver has all of the above in stck and we offer free phone tech support if you need it.

These are great cars and a traction battery is no reason to retire it.

Eric
Adopt A Part
800-508-2211

 

Sometimes problems with the 12V battery can cause the computer to not operate properly showing symptoms of Hybrid Battery failure. A dealer will always say that the computer and the hybrid battery need to be replaced. My experience shows that the life of a hybrid battery is time related more than miles related, and is about 8 Years. Make sure that your 12v battery is okay before you explore other parts.

 

@bobofky, do you know why the 12V might affect the computer in that way? (We also have an '01 telling us its main battery is dead, but in our case the hybrid battery was replaced in '08 and the 12V has never been replaced, and we've drained and jumpstarted it three times this year after a door didn't latch....holding out hope after seeing that post that maybe our problem could be our 12V rather than the traction battery, but unclear on how that might cause those symptoms!) Thanks.

 

When you start the car, the computer boots up using the 12V battery. I think that the computer operates from the 12V battery but I am not sure of this. I had to replace the hybrid battery in my 2001 Prius in January 2009. Everything was fine until August 2010 when the Red Triangle and other lights came on. The dealer diagnosed a failling Hybrid Battery and ECU. I was very busy at work so I let the car set. I started it occasionally to keep the battery charged, but I waited to long once and the 12V completely died. I put a battery charger on it and let it set for over a month. When I had time, I started the car and it operated fine although the warning lights were still on and I drove about 90 miles. The next morning when I started the car, the warning lights did not come on. The car operated the best it ever had for about three months before the warning lights came on again. I removed the cable from the 12V cable and let it set for a number of days. I reconnected the cable and the warning lights did not come on.

 

Worth a read:

Remanufactured Hybrid Vehicle Battery Packs

No idea how they are in practice, but they come across as a dedicated, sincere bunch on the web.

 

Computer boots and runs off the 12V battery.

 

This is quite rare.

This is incorrect. You can find this out for yourself by searching the forum archives.

Any time I see such sweeping statements thrown around, I get a bit skeptical. Usually, they come from someone who had one experience with one or two cars, and who is now applying that experience to every example of that vehicle that was ever built.

A battery pack can last longer, or fail earlier. Temperature, calendar life, and usage patterns dictate battery life.

This is a good idea for most faults on most cars.

 

I'm curious: would this be the one experience that led your to state that a dealer will always recommend an HV battery and ECU when an HV battery code sets?