HV Battery Goodwill Warranty Listing - Toyota Prius USA

Green Bean doesn't make sense from a TCO perspective. The 5-year warranty is pro-rated, so they won't replace it if it dies 4 years later, for instance. Also, the Toyota battery will give you a nearly guaranteed 10 years whether you have a warranty or not. You can often install yourself and shave a significant amount of labor off, with a 1-year warranty instead. The warranty difference doesn't matter because the Toyota batteries never die in the first three years anyway. Nowadays, the Toyota part only costs $1600-1800, so hardly any more than Green Bean.

Typically, this would be replacement of one or two modules with used ones, then balancing the entire pack. It's a relatively involved process with little guarantee of long-term longevity.

 

Wanted to weigh in that my 2014 Prius at 8 years/154K (NY state HV battery warranty: 10 years/150k) had a P0A80 code.

Called Toyota Corporate and they told me (despite my pulling the code) I needed to get it diagnosed at a dealer. Understandable I guess. Did so for $190 plus tolls and was told...I had a P0A80.

Called corporate back to let them know I had it diagnosed at a Toyota dealer as requested - and they wouldn't do a thing for me. I'm a serial Toyota owner, but I will seriously reconsider my next car purchase. I love Toyotas but it left a bad taste in my mouth. Would have been considerate if they at least refunded me the diagnostic charge.

 

Hi. For full disclosure, I neglected to mention an important bit of info: I'm the 2nd owner. Yes, it was purchased new by original owner in NY and I am also in NY.. Agreed on subsidies or at least some new hybrid/EV-specific insurance. If you can insure glass, you should be able to insure batteries.

 

You essentially are asking Toyota to offer you a longer warranty than what others are given. They can only consider the request if you confirm you have the problem. After you confirmed the problem, they decided not to give assistance.

I don't think there is anything wrong on their part. You risk was only the diagnostic fee to potentially get a free replacement $2000 battery. I think that's fair

 

What a weird post. I said it was understandable that they'd ask that. If you think it's cool to have a babied Prius (with dealer service through almost its entire life) have a major part die at 8 years, I guess we disagree. Being conservative, I think the warranty should be 10 years/150k, whichever is later, not earlier. Also, if you can find me a new OEM battery for $2000 at a dealer, I'll buy you another Carrera. Three dealers I checked are all north of $3000.

And yes, I do think it's odd to make a customer jump through a hoop that makes Toyota money on a part failing just out of warranty, do nothing, and not even offer, say, a credit on the diagnostic if the customer opts to repair at the dealer.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

All the batteries are low on supply right now. These modules are no different than the 2nd generation modules, only the case is different. There was a time you could have bought a Gen2 battery for $1650, just transfer the modules to your case.

You could possibly just swap out the bad module and drive the car for another few years without issue. That will only cost you a little time and about $30-$50

 

Yeah man, if it was $1650, I wouldn't be posting here pissed off! But those times are long gone.
And even pre-pandemic 3rd gens were 2300 new around me...

 

You could possibly just swap out the bad module and drive the car for another few years without issue. That will only cost you a little time and about $30-$50

 

I have another post going about this and it's going to be difficult to do it where I live. City life - hard to find a place to park for a while and pull out a battery without getting hassled.

But we're going off-road here (by that, I mean we were discussing goodwill warranty extension). And anyway, I'd guess 95% of Prius owners don't even know where to start with maintenance at this level.

But getting back on-topic, I had no expectations of a free battery. Any discount would have been nice, or failing that, at least a credit for the diagnostic I had to do for them to even talk to me next time I had a dealer do service. I mean, they hooked my car up to Techstream for 10 minutes max. What's that cost them? And now they've got a pissed customer. I guess we just disagree about what's fair. I don't think Toyota owes me anything but I don't have to be happy with their treatment of me either.

 

Well you have a lot more information that you didn't have before. On the diagnostic, what did they pull up? Codes? It'll help identify the battery failure.

Is it heat related? Do you have pets? Previous owner? If the battery fan is blocked with pet hair, it would prematurely cause failure to your battery.

If you can easily identify the failed module with a code, to do a swap would cost you a few hundred bucks and 2 hours of time (you can find someone to do this)

 

I learned zero. The guy actually laughed when I came to pay because he just repeated what I told him: P0A80. No subcodes. No info on cause. It was literally a waste of time and money. Dr. Prius can tell me way more than their report. Anyway, let's not throw this thread off more than we already have - if you want to keep discussing tech aspects I have a thread going here. Take care.

 

P0A80 could simply be a battery that's out of balance. You could just do a force charge with your foot on the gas and brake, you'll be good again

 

The car would have to be in "drive" when you do the force charge

 

I've done it before, thanks. Had to do it for Dr. Prius battery tests when I got the car.

 

NY is a CARB state and the CARB battery warranty is 10Y/150K miles. Since the car is 4K over the mileage limit they can deny the claim. They cannot deny the claim because you are not the original owner - this warranty is for the car, and is not like a dealer warranty, which is just a contract between that business and the buyer of the car.

If it were mine and I didn't want to do the work myself, I would find a reputable hybrid specialist and have them examine the battery. It may be that the issue here is something like a corroded wire, loose bolt, or modules being too out of balance, which they can remedy for not too much money.

Another approach would be to contact Toyota again and see if they will meet you somewhere in the middle. Perhaps they could provide a discount on a replacement battery.