Cheap HV battery replacement -how possible?

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By having plenty of willing victims, and or generally not fulfilling the customer sold warranty after the fact. They get your virgin pack with one or more modules that have failed, and give you a frankenpack of used hodge-podge modules back in exchange.

That is a bit tricky, as there are many internal and external variables involved. The best way would be far too time consuming, and require extensive/expensive hardware. The easiest way would try an app like Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus or "Hybrid Assistant" (with the separate Reporter app), though I'm not sure how accurate either app actually is.

Did the person who serviced your vehicle at least clean the HV battery fan for you?

 

rebuilt are hit or mis. if this one doesn't survive, and you still want to keep the car, your best bet is 'newpriusbatteries'

 

Is it worth it to you to replace the battery every 4 months at $660 a crack?
That's about $1900 a year.

Or would you rather take that $1900 and put it towards a different vehicle?

It is impossible for a Used battery to last as long as a New one. A Used battery is definitely will not the same quality as a Used one.

You get what you pay for.

Edit: Nevermind. I missed that you already bought the Used one. Well basically start putting money aside. You will need it for your upcoming hybrid battery purchase when the one you have fails. Or you can put that money towards a different car.
Think long and hard now, about what you are going to do when the current battery fails. Better to have a plan ahead of time than trying to make a plan in the middle of crisis mode.

 

Welcome, Joe. I see it as a wise decision your wife made if you just wanted to get it running so you could trade it in. The dealer would then sell it to an auction house and it would hopefully be used for parts. If you keep it, you'll soon be facing the same problem again with the frankenpack (great term, @SFO). And I could not bring myself to foist that battery onto an unsuspecting buyer.

 

Here's what I see happening with this kind of car lately when owner chooses not to properly fix it..
Owner trades it in
- car is sold to an auction house.
-The battery fails while waiting to be sold
- A small unscrupulous dealership buys it and swaps out one of the bad modules.
- the car is to an unuspecting buyer
- the battery fails shortly after is purchased
- the cycle repeats.

 

Imagine the next customer of that repairer getting Joe's battery with 230K miles including one replacement battery module that came out of someone else's battery. That should last just around 3 months.

 

I see this happen all too often and it is heartbreaking.
A single parent barely making ends meet who aspires to a Prius for good gas mileage.
Small dealership sells them a car at full retail that the dealership know has swapped modules that will be failing soon.
They don't care and just want to make a quick sale.
Then in a couple of months the battery dies and the buyer ends up with a very expensive lawn ornament.

 

but this guy is 5 stars on yelp. doesn't get much better than that, are there 6 stars?

 

get yourself a copy of tech stream and run the battery health check

 

Eric do you have any suggestions as to where I can buy some decent modules? I need 7.

JAB

 

I can help you with that.
I'll send you a message.

 

After ALL of the sad stories about repeated failures when only the "bad" modules are changed........
Are you sure you want to go down that road ??

 

I picked this car up for $200 and have just been tinkering with it. I drive 2 miles to work each way and if I could get this up and running again that would be awesome. If not then I have gained a wealth of knowledge. I am also doing the balancing on my cells to try and add to whatever life they may have.

JAB

 

I'm going to say really nothing was "After the Fact".
Because the first thing that should of indicated concern about the quality and durability of the replacement was the $660 cost.
If your priority is "putting as little into that high priced repair" as possible, then the tried and true cliche is you get what you pay for.

How these independent offer "cheap" replacement?
Well...there's no magic trick. A new Hybrid Battery costs what a new Hybrid Battery costs. Refurbished or rebuilt, is a subjective term. You could ask this independent exactly what he did, or the history of his replacement battery. But if he's doing the whole thing for $660, it isn't anything close to a new Hybrid Battery, I can't imagine it's anything but a used replacement, with maybe some replaced cells.

I wouldn't even bother trying to test for quality. IMO a $660 randomly refurbished Hybrid Battery, and you're on borrowed time, right out of the gate.
If it's working? I'd just drive it.
Who knows? Hopefully you'll get at least that 3 months. And/or hopefully if it fails before then, you'll get warranty support. If it outlasts that 3 months, ---well go as long as you can.
But if you wanted peace of mind, then you needed and will need to make a much bigger investment into a new hybrid battery.

14 year old Prius with 230K on it, whether you want to make that investment is an aspect you need to evaluate.

Your best hope, is just that it works.
You've invested $660, if you can get a year? It's arguably worth it. But that level of investment IMO really doesn't come with a guarantee, much of a warranty, or any applicable peace of mind concerning the issue.

 

Down the rabbit hole with frankenpack's monster! Who could pass that up?

 

There are extensive write ups on here about people reconditioning their packs on their own and replacing and balancing modules. Are you saying that I am not doing this the correct way?

Interested in your replies...

JAB

 

we don't know how you're doing it. but if you are doing it correctly, you can certainly add life to the pack.

 

Doing my best to follow all of the advice from the old timers.

Cheers

 

Please use the quote feature here to indicate WHO and what you are replying to.

Physics and chemistry dictates that once the chemicals that make the battery are used up......converted to inert compounds.....there is NOTHING you can do to reverse that process.......regardless of what the makers of fancy chargers want you to believe.

The techniques you are seeing results in a slight, short term improvement that varies by situation.
For instance, if a single cell has a very high resistance over a long period of time, the other cells will never fully charge.
When you replace that bad cell, you need to bring those other cells back up to a full charge to have a good starting point.

When you do that, it LOOKS like you have rejuvenated the cells when in fact you have only brought them back up to a full charge.
They are still old cells......and the older they are the sooner that they will fail too.

When doing research on a subject like this, you need to develop some skill in throwing out results that are scientifically invalid and look for information that does NOT come from companies that stand to make money selling you stuff (fancy chargers in this case) or from "self appointed" experts who have drawn a conclusion based only on one (or a few) short term results.