driving on bad hybrid battery

are you still under warranty?

 

probably quite awhile, they don't usually just die.

 

Buy a MiniVCI and install on your Win32 laptop, and you'll see exactly what the problem is.

 

ebay. usually, an old laptop is recommended, due to virus.

 

I have seen plenty of customers get stranded when driving on a P0A80.
It's hard to quantify what exactly pushes the battery past the point of no return. Can be when it is cold. Or when it is hot. Or using EV heavily (like when backing up a hill). A high load situation.
I can say that a Prius with P0A80 is no longer reliable. You might be OK one day, but get stranded the next. Have a backup plan ready, even if that means simply keeping a cell phone handy.

 

napa/dorman is about as good as it gets in the rebuilt world. some people have had issues with defects and warranty, but much better than anywhere else afaik.

 

Contacting a dealer & Toyota asking if they can help you on the replacement may get a goodwill discount. Doesn't hurt to ask.

 

ouch, my ears.

yeah, 3 years and 30,000 miles outside the warranty is probably a stretch.

 

My offer still stands. Rebuilt, $800 installed with a one year warranty.
Brad

 

GREAT DEAL!

 

When my original battery threw codes for the first time it only drove for about 10 miles before going into the limp home mode where the HV battery isolates itself (no charging or discharging), the engine runs at high RPM all the time and you accelerate at a snails pace (like about 30 seconds to get to 30MPH). Clearing the codes or stopping/restarting the car resulted in it driving maybe another minute or two before the process started again.

However, when I pulled the battery stats after getting it back home I found the bad module was only putting out ~5v compared to the others doing normal voltages so that module had a serious fault. Depending on the severity of the underlying issue you may can drive it for weeks or months. But you'll always be taking a risk.

It may be that the worst that can happen is you get stuck in limp home like me. If you don't go on long trips or are ok with towing it home, you may be ok trying to milk every last mile out of it. Mine died 800 miles from home so I had to rent a Uhaul and car carrier to bring it back.