Hybird Battery HELL

This is a common story from prius experts rebuilding batteries. They're probably not that expert at it.

What you got is a poorly rebuilt battery, not new. Now that they have your money, you can prepare for multiple breakdowns and hope they honor their warranty

 

Yes, I'm on my third battery repair (that's what you bought; a repaired battery, not new). If you want problem free, get a new battery from Toyota and be good for another 10 or so years. It's gonna' cost ya' tho'.

 

If you read through the HV battery replacement threads on this site.......you will see that what he said is absolutely true.

It is also good to check/replace the 12 V battery as it can cause false failure reports too.

Sorry for your trouble.
You probably will be seeing that "local Prius battery specialist" several times over the next two years.

Did you by any chance do a network search for that company to see if you could find any reports on them ??

 

unfortunately, it's hit or miss. some folks have had decent luck with companies like dorman, while others have not.
and there are some real scams out there as well. all the best!

 

Sure. Early on a rebuilt batt was the way to go as the pool of good modules was plentiful and cheap. New individual modules aren't available so this cottage industry has been dealing with used modules that are getting older every day.

 

Those two things don't seem to go together.

 

REALLY ??
That seems like a critical piece of information.

Of course, a "rebuilder" could buy a brand new battery assembly from Toyota and "part it out", thus giving him new modules to work with.

 

Yup. Rebuilt or refurbished implies repaired with new modules but nope, they are used. IIRC, one PC member supposedly found some chinese knock-off's on alibaba but AFAIK no one has verified or tried them.

Just about anything is possible but I don't think that would be cost effective on a large scale. Plus, I don't think the new modules would match very well, performance wise, to nearly 14 year old ones.

 

The industry has not decided on clear language policies regarding: Rebuilt, Refurbished, Overhauled, Reconditioned, and other language that is suggestive of similar ideas. Therefore, there are success and horror stories surrounding each descriptive for a given part - those responsible for the component to not all subscribe to the same standards, therefore YMMV!

No, you are not the only one without $3500 laying in wait for a HV pack to fail. Most, if not all owners of used Hybrids are mentally in Las Vegas with their HV packs, rolling the dice while hoping not to have to pay the piper.

In my(opic) view, unless you can get a new HV pack from Toyota, it's still some wild gamble. A guaranty or warranty is only useful if you don't need it, after all the lack of transportation while repairs are effected is also costly.

 

As fotomoto has already said, you cannot just add a new module or two to a failed pack. It will not work as the old modules will not play nicely with the new ones. The only way to do it is to replace all the modules with the new modules, which is what Toyota are effectively doing with a new pack. It would not be cost effective for a "rebuilder" to do such a module swap, for obvious reasons.

 

You are right, of course, but I think you underestimate the levels of deception that some people will go to.

Doing that would allow them to say "New cells are used in the rebuilding process".......when in truth only a few are used AND that really isn't a good thing......but it SOUNDS good.

 

There are quite a few unscrupulous folks out there doing all sorts of shady things when it comes to hybrid batteries.

For the most part, if it sounds too good to be true, beware.

 

We drove our '05 for MONTHS with an intermittent (mostly active) P1121, it never caused a performance issue and no, heat did not cause the failure. I recently documented on PC the internals (also have some videos here:

)

As for P3011m that is directly related to the HV battery you just had replaced:
P3011 TOYOTA Description
If there is an abnormal internal resistance or electromotive voltage in the hybrid battery blocks, the hybrid battery Electronic Control Unit (ECU) determines that a malfunction has occurred. When the malfunction detection condition is satisfied, the battery ECU illuminates the MIL and sets a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC).

 

If you had a battery for less than 3 weeks and he's saying "it's showing a bit low". I hate to imagine what would happen after 1 month. Hopefully this battery he put in will be better......

 

What industry is that? . CraigsList come on by and get a rebuilt hybrid battery full of used batteries and corroded buss bars with a tail light warranty? WoHoo!
Whack A Mole Industries LLC.

 

P3011 is a bad battery module. Classic whack a mole rebuilder baloney. Now you know.

Get your money back and go get a new battery from Toyota and motor on down the road for another 200,000 miles or trade it in.

 

For an approximate $12.50 per week, in 7 years, one would have $3500. I plan on keeping mine for as long as possible. I have been putting away this amount since day one. I don't plan on buying any other type batteries except a "new" one from toyota.