Dealer wants to charge me $950 to investigate triangle of death

Yeah so think about that they're going to go in the back take up the plastic plate undo the nuts on the cover take off the cover look at the bus bars and nuts what you're going to be frosted and then tell you they need to do a bunch of work I can do that myself so can many here. The choice of spending money is certainly an individual one. I couldn't see 950 and then having to put that hell a new battery from the Toyota dealer brand new You should be able to finagle them for about 14 to $1,900 or something brand new. So how many years ago was the hybrid battery replaced and was it new or a rebuilt thing? At 110,000 miles and what you have on now that should be 10 years or something like that? Batteries are time sensitive seems like

 

do you have any options besides the dealer?
it's nice that they'll apply the $950. to the repair, BUT: you can generally get a new battery for under 3k installed.
what if they tell you the repairs will be a lot more expensive?

ask them for the trouble codes they recieved and post them here. it is unusual for a dealer to get involved with opening up the battery.

a smaller shop should be able to open up the battery, clean corrosion, replace cells and balance, or whatever it might need. but in the end, it will not be a new battery.

 

Would need to know what trouble codes were set when the master warning light came on. Then can make an educated guess.

Complete (uneducated) WAG - corrosion on the voltage sense connector at the battery ecu.



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I am new to the prius / hybrid gang and I had a funny newbie moment last week with my gen 2 and a triangle of death. I was sitting in the car while in the driveway with the door open and my foot out while attempting to turn the car on and move it forward a bit to service it and I would get the triangle light and car would not start. Was stumped for like 10-15 minutes and then closed my door and the triangle went away and car started lol. Looks like the car will not start or drive while you have the door open of safety,

This may be funny now but when youre going thru it and are new to these cars, it can def scare the heck out of you.

 

I say go for it. Sounds like a good deal. Get that car fixed!

 

It has been a few years since we have replaced a HV battery but I think it is still possible to get a replacement battery for under a grand installed. If you are selling it this option might be worth while. Not getting into the new/reconditioned debate, if it will be someone else's car this fix keeps it running and get rid of the triangle. Currently running reconditioned batts in 2 of 3 cars with no issue a year later. And both cost less than a grand.

 

If you wanted to sell the car.. why would you do that when all you had to do was get a $800 refurb battery and sell it for the same price you'll get for it now with that new battery? $2k+ down the drain. Awful advice from the person suggesting to let the dealer fix it.

 

Glad you got those batteries replaced and I've never heard of a Toyota hybrid battery leaking, now I have a new thing to worry about!

 

It may be the hybrid battery again if your killing it.

Killing it requires the car to sit most of its life or just short distances all the time. This never puts a solid charge on the battery so it sits alot depleted. That will excite corrosion.