Help with main battery replacement on '01 Prius

Hi---New here, and trying to learn a bit about replacement of the main HV battery on our '01 Prius.

Just had the warning lights come on today---the center light has a picture of a battery with "main" in the middle, and the other lights are the check engine and the triangle with the exclamation point, so I'm guessing this means the battery is toast. (Obviously we will have a repair shop confirm this, but want to have all our ducks in a row before taking it in!)

The car only has 75K miles on it and is otherwise in good mechanical shape, so it makes sense to replace the battery despite the high cost, I think. A few questions, though:

- Any benefit to doing this through our local dealer vs. an independent shop specializing in hybrids, given that the car is out of warranty? We have two nearby dealers, one of which we used with no problems for warranty work, but both get pretty lousy reviews by folks who've used them for non-warranty work. There's also an independent shop that is highly regarded but, presumably, does fewer Gen1 battery replacements.

- Similarly, what are pros/cons to ordering a used battery or a discounted battery online? Cost for the battery was around $2500 at both dealers (plus $600 to install); the independent shop is closed till after the holiday, so don't know numbers there yet, though the ballpark they gave was in the same vicinity. Given that so much of the cost is the part vs. labor and we're putting this into a 10-year-old car, should I look more seriously at used batteries? I worry that we might then be replacing it again in a year or two, which would eat up any cost savings. Any reputable discount dealers (I saw a link here to Toyota World in Texas---experiences with them?)

Finally, any other advice on this? The repair shop was surprised to hear of the battery failing on a car with so few miles---the others they've seen were well over 100K. The accessory battery was replaced by Toyota at the tail end of the warranty. We have had to jump start the car three times this year (problem with door not latching, so dome light stayed on)---is this likely to have contributed to this, or are the battery systems removed enough from one another that it's coincidental?

Thanks!!

 

Thanks for the info---the Luscious Garage rebuilt battery option is an intriguing one, so might be worth heading across the bridge for that. (And yes, the independent shop is Art's---first out-of-warranty repair, happily, so it's the first time I've looked around for a non-dealer service shop, but they seemed to know their stuff.)

 

The small battery was actually just replaced in the fall of '08, I think---warranty on this car was 8 years and we squeaked in with a month or two to spare. So hopefully it's still in good working order! It's possible that it could be mucking with the computer, but seems more likely that it really is just the big battery's time. (The error code this time is the flashing triangle with exclamation point and check engine light, complete with an image of a battery that says "main," whereas when the 12V failed, we had no error code, but instead got symptoms like funky braking and odd computer performance that prompted us to take it in---so it does seem different.)

 

Thanks---looks like they're the suppliers for Luscious Garage (or at least, they're listed as installers).

Does anyone have any experience with the rebuilt batteries and their performance in Gen1 Priuses?

 

Thanks---think we will give them a try.

A new wrinkle, though---I thought it was the accessory battery that was replaced in '08, but my husband says no, it was the main battery that failed then too, and our dealer replaced one bad cell in it. (He is looking to see if there was a warranty for that repair, in case it's the same cell failing now.)

Is this standard practice for bad batteries? I don't see much discussion online of replacing individual cells...??

 

Thanks. Not sure if LG builds their own or not, but at any rate, the ReInvolt folks list Luscious Garage as an installer of their batteries, and LG lists their battery cost at the same price that ReInvolt charges, so either they're getting them from ReInvolt or charging the same to build the batteries themselves---either is okay with us. Still hunting for the paperwork form the last repair, though, so if we get really lucky---maybe it will be covered!

 

Thanks---that's helpful to know, in case my husband is remembering correctly. He thinks they diagnosed a bad traction battery cell and replaced just the cell that was having problems. It was under warranty and thus free, so he didn't question it or pay too much attention, since they returned the car in working order. It did have the battery resealing done as well, but that was much earlier ('05 I think).

 

Another update: So we found the receipt, which interestingly doesn't say anything on it about what was done, just that the check engine light had been on and the car had been driving strangely. Called the dealer and their records say they replaced the entire battery in February 2008 at 55K miles. So apparently we only got three years and 20K miles out of this one.... Husband is still certain that they told him at the time that they were only replacing a bad cell, but obviously we have no record on this one way or the other, unless it turns out that the battery says on it.

Seems really odd that it would die again so soon afterwards....and incredibly frustrating! Inasmuch as I can tell, Toyota's warranty on the repair is only 12 months, so we're SOL on that front. However, leaning increasingly towards going with the rebuilt G2 battery, if a new G1 battery is really only going to last this car another three years. Augh. Asked the tech at the dealer what might cause the battery to die so quickly, and all he could suggest was "bad luck." *sigh*

 

Yep, I know. We're already a single-car household, though, so not much more we can do on that front!

We have an appointment at Art's on Monday, so until then I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed that this is some other, less costly problem masquerading as a dying traction battery....we'll see!