HV battery replacement recommendations

This is my first post but I've found some good tips here in the past so am hoping to get input on my current situation...

My 2006 Prius (original owner, ~238k miles) gave me the red triangle of death last week, took it to the local shop and was told the hybrid battery is done for. I considered looking for a new-to-me vehicle but trying to buy a car right now seems like a nightmare, plus I love my Prius, so am leaning strongly towards replacing the battery. I contacted the 2 dealerships close to me, plus the local shop that diagnosed the problem, and these are my options:

• Local shop: replace with new, non-Toyota battery w/ 2-year warranty for $2600 installed
• Dealership 1: replace with new Toyota battery w/ 1-year warranty for $3200 ($2463 battery + $750 labor)
• Dealership 2: replace with new Toyota battery w/ 1-year warranty for $1950 + labor (the service dept. rep gave me a labor cost of $49.99 which I am 100% sure is the cost for the 12V replacement, not the HV, but she insisted that was correct)
• Green Bean replacement w/ lifetime warranty for ~$1500

Dealership 1 is obviously out, which is fine since I dislike them anyway. Green Bean is tempting in some ways but this is my only vehicle so I worry about repeated failures and replacements, even under warranty. The local shop and Dealership 2 would likely be very similar in price once I got the correct labor cost from the dealer, but both dealerships told me the Toyota battery only has a 1-year warranty even if installed by the dealership. So I'm wondering if the 2-year warranty on a non-OEM battery is a better bet? Other options I haven't considered?

I know lots of folks will recommend DIY replacement but I'm not comfortable attempting that.

 

Thanks for your comments. I got the correct labor cost from Dealer 2 and it was highest of all ($878) so I ended up asking my local shop to do the replacement with a Toyota battery instead of the aftermarket, for a total of $2700. The aftermarket battery they were suggesting was new, not rebuilt, but based on what I read here I felt safer going with Toyota. More than I hoped to spend but the cheapest of the options I was comfortable with.

I did ask the dealer to double check the warranty info on the battery and they said it is only 1 year, not 3. I've seen the 3-year warranty referenced a number of times on here but both dealerships told me 1 and I can't find any specific warranty info on Toyota's website, so I'm not sure what's going on with that.

 

I am in the Shenandoah Valley, not NOVA, and I did see the dealerships on the Toyota parts site offering the $1699 price. The closest one to me would be a two hour drive round trip (or $300 shipping which negates the savings), and I decided the extra time and hassle didn't make it worthwhile.

I also remind myself what a low-maintenance, inexpensive vehicle my Prius has been for 15 years and even getting a couple more years out of it with a new battery I think will be well worth it.

Really appreciate those of you with lots of knowledge who take the time to post here, thanks again!

 

Interesting... I hadn't known about the recommendation to clean the fan until I was reading up on battery replacement options, and it sounded like a manageable DIY that I was thinking I might tackle once I've got my car back. Haven't seen anyone mention replacing the fan, though, so I'd be curious about the cost and the benefits of doing so.

 

Well, the shop originally told me they'd have it done Tuesday but called this afternoon and said it was ready. I picked my car up a few hours ago and on the very short drive home (~1/2 mile) I noticed the battery charge indicator was stable when before it would fluctuate dramatically even on short drives around town. I had a brief chat with one of the techs when I picked it up and he mentioned that the OEM battery was more complicated to install than the one they originally suggested, which he described as "plug and play". Made me glad I went with the OEM, and their labor charge was still less than half of what the dealerships quoted.

Got it! I missed the word 'filter' in your previous comment, that makes more sense

Oh I'm sure it'll be filthy! We should have a couple warmer days this week so I'm going to try it then. I also need to work on calibrating the touchscreen, it was already wonky before the battery failed.

 

I don't know enough about the installation process for either the OEM or the aftermarket battery to say whether they should be considered "plug and play", but I don't think there was anything nefarious in what they told me. I had asked if they'd done hybrid battery replacements before, and they said they'd done a few (one of the techs is a Prius owner so I generally have a little more faith in them than I otherwise might for a local shop). I'm assuming now that those were done with the aftermarket and they found the OEM to not be quite as simple/straightforward, for whatever reason. The labor quote was the same for both options, and the actual charge was a few dollars less.

The tech's description of the aftermarket as "plug and play" made me think it's been designed to be easier to install, which is fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if that meant small sacrifices elsewhere that could make it more susceptible to problems down the line... thus feeling like my choice to go with OEM was a good one.