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My experience with a mobile battery repair in central California

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Pro-289, Apr 25, 2020.

  1. Pro-289

    Pro-289 Junior Member

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    I have a 2008 Prius w/150k miles. I finally got the battery christmas lights on the dash. It drove hard, high engine usage. I drove it like that for almost a week until it started to crap out and seemed to shift to "first gear". While at a stop light I'd barely go 1 mi/h floored. I'd power cycle the car to get back to driving. But it got worse and more frequent.

    So I called around for prices on new batteries from Toyota, Meineke and junkyards. I ultimately went to Craigslist to search for battery repairs. I called one, left message, no response. Called another, got answering message, hung up. Then they called back later and said they only do full battery replacements for $550.

    I found an ad from Prius-R-Us for $399 repair, so I called it and the guy said he'd do the repair for $550. I was desperate and said okay. Set up a date for Saturday. Come Friday he calls and says he couldn't make it Saturday and would be out of the state for a few days and asked if today Friday was okay. I said no, didn't have the car.

    So I did some searching and found hybrid-fix.com who advertised $399 for a repair. Their website seems to have been created in 2018, so I gave it a shot. Sent a text asking for a repair. Texted back and scheduled an appointment for Tuesday around 11am. Texted around 10:13a stating an ETA of 11:40a. Tech drove about 70 miles to my location. Showed up at 11:45a. Found one cell bad and replaced it. Took 1.5 hours, with talking and everything. Only charged $400.

    Car works great so far. Got 45 days of free service if something goes wrong. I'll also get a discount on future repairs.

    By the way. The repair shop Prius'R'Us from the bay area was recommended to me by my work neighbor. He had recommended them to a different friend of his also. That friend was scammed at the same time they wanted to come to my house for the repair. They scammed him for $1,200 because he didn't speak good English. Don't trust Prius'R'Us (650-544-5542) from the bay area.

    Mike at hybrid-fix.com was polite and very knowledgeable, we even talked a bit about gaming computers. Took apart the car fast because he knew what he was doing. So anyway, if anyone is looking for an emergency hybrid battery repair/patch, go to this guy. Sticks to his price, knowledgeable and easy to talk to.
     
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  2. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    SO.....you paid $400 for only ONE new cell.
    NOT a good deal in my book.

    The other cells are the same age and likely will fail soon too......like a matter of months or weeks.
    A LOT of owners who start down that path are soon sorry that they did because it turns into a continuous hassle.

    Good luck. You likely will need it.
     
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  3. royrose

    royrose Senior Member

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    I agree with Sam, 4 repairs like that and you will have paid the cost of a completely new battery kit from newpriusbatteries.com

    So, start saving up for that now.
     
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  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    congrats!
    did mike talk to you about what all the risks and possibilities are as you head down the road?

    all the best!(y)
     
  5. Dxta

    Dxta Senior Member

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    Another wack a mole repair here. Sometimes its even the customers that would desperately forced you to just do whatever it takes for me to get my car "fixed today", not minding the tediousness of the exercise. I usually explained upfront to my clients about jobs like these. If they can't dropped off the car for the required duration, I'm not going to be blamed for any failures in the future.
     
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  6. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    @Pro-289

    I'm glad you were able to get the car fixed. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Unfortunately, anyone who comes to you and swaps one module and calls it good, isn't really doing you any favors, other than getting your car back on the road "today".

    When your car was new, you could think of your HV battery as being made of 28 brand new "D" cell batteries. As it gets miles and wear and tear, the individual D cell batteries wear and age differently. They're never exactly the same, even when new. As they age, the individual capacities change, but not by the same amount. After several years and a 100k miles, you now may have 5 "D" cell batteries, 10 "C" cell batteries, 7 "AA" size batteries, 4 "AAA" size batteries and 2 "CR2032" cell batteries (and one of the 2032 has failed). The problem you're going to have, is that unless he brought some 'real' test equipment with him to test each module you still have the other 2032 cell and the AAA cells in the battery waiting to fail, which could be next week or could be next year.

    Here's an example of a HV battery removed from a 2007 Prius with 143k miles. The battery was replaced. It was removed from the car and about 3 days later, placed on my workbench to measure the energy remaining in each individual module. This is my best indicator for checking the health of a replaced battery. It gives me a clear view of how the battery was balanced (or actually out of balance) when it finally failed and coded out.

    The column label 'first discharge' is a measurement of how many units of energy remained in that module. Kind of like how many pennies in a jar. In this example, it was module 9 that was causing the car to code out. Over the next couple days, modules 11 and 13 had enough self discharge problems that they also now show up very easily.

    You can see there were 3 modules (in red) that could be easily identified as being bad just by using a voltmeter. So he found one that was similar to these 3 and replaced it. The question is, did he find the other 3 in yellow, that are destined to fail very soon?

    Green 2007 paint.jpg
     
    #6 TMR-JWAP, Apr 25, 2020
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2020
    Albert Barbuto and Montgomery like this.
  7. Montgomery

    Montgomery Senior Member

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    Yep, it is not a good situation for poster to be in. $400 here, $500 there, and after 3 fails money spent could get the entire repair done.
     
  8. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    Well warnings given, warnings received.
    I normally would pile on with continued illumination that singular cell replacement rarely seems to be a long lasting solution BUT....

    I'm not going to debate or disparage the actions of a OP that sends messages from his Atari 400. That's a trump card there. Good luck with your mobile battery repair.
     
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  9. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    Single module replacement works for those who understand what they are getting.

    It is not ok if the repair person pretends like it is "just as good as a new battery pack". It ain't.

    Sometimes putting a bandaid on a bleeding aorta keeps you alive, and you are satisfied with that. You know it won't last, and it could fail at any time. As long as you are aware of the situation is what is important.
     
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  10. Pro-289

    Pro-289 Junior Member

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    Exactly.

    @everyone else
    Jesus christ it's a tough crowd here. Five grumpy old posters here who probably work for these "new battery" shops. I know the exact situation. I drove my car for awhile with the battery flag on, and it eventually became undriveable. I needed someone to come out ASAP with cells to get it repaired. Was short on time I could be without a car. Didn't want to get it towed to Toyota to spend $2.7K+ on a new battery. I've since purchased an OBD2 adapter to monitor my blocks. Plus when it happens again I'll buy some cells, maybe even ahead of time from eBay for $24-$30 each (I know, I'll load test'm) and spend a day watching a YouTube video to take apart my car and replace them myself. Maybe I'll even get as good as that guy who replaced a whole battery in 12.5 minutes. Maybe while I'm at it I may even do a light bulb load test on each cell to weed out the week ones. I've read some people can get 300k miles on a battery. How do I know I couldn't squeeze that out of mine if I throw in the towel at the first sign of a 1/28th issue. Maybe at 2/28 or 4/28 I'll be fed up with the process then be willing to spend $2,700. Until then, cheer up, quarantine will be over soon.
     
  11. Albert Barbuto

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    OK, so your back to running well. Excellent! Let's keep it that way, by doing a little work, and barely spending any money.

    1) Purchase Torque Pro for $5.

    2) Use your OBD adapter.

    3) Back up a small hill, or accelerate on the level to put a "real" load on the entire pack. We are talking 50-60 amps.


    You will quickly see what pair of modules are weak. Work on these modules while the pack is in the car. Cycling will bring them back to life. Stubborn modules may need to be re-hydrated.
     

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  12. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

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    Guess I'm number 5 on that list....What a shame. That kind of hurts my feelings... :( And here I was, even stating that we all sometimes gotta do what we gotta do, and then providing some real data as to what to look out for.

    Grumpy? Naw, not really.

    Old....well, I suppose I'm getting there day by day. My best days are probably behind me and I've probably forgotten more about a Gen 2 Prius battery than most people will ever learn.

    work for a 'battery shop'
    ?..not really unless you consider I'm a one man show with a side gig specializing in building Gen 2 batteries using Gen 3 and Gen 4 modules from late model wrecks and that I've installed my batteries for a few dozen forum members. (How's that for a run-on?)

    Have somewhere around 1500 modules 2003-2017 on the shelf taking up space? Yup

    I think I'll go practice my grumpy skills on the wife and kid...

    In the meantime...There are many members able to provide advice on Gen 2s. There are several very knowledgeable members who can provide very sound advice irt HV battery and HV system issues. Your dilemma is just figuring out what to listen to...…...
     
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  13. mistermojorizin

    mistermojorizin Active Member

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    thanks for sharing your experience. Could you recommend a good shop in the central cali for priii? I'm looking ahead to when my 25k free service expires with the dealer. also, would want to get my transmission fluid done at some point, and i've read dealers are taught that shouldn't be replaced so they have issues with that. of course wouldn't mind saving some cash.
     
  14. ericbecky

    ericbecky Hybrid Battery Hero

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    Pro-289,
    You've got the right idea to prepare for another failure.

    You certainly could do the work yourself if you put in the time watching videos etc.

    I'm always happy to sell modules to folks and help them through the repair of they need it. It won't last as long as a new pack, but it may just get you by enough for what you need.
     
    Raytheeagle likes this.
  15. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Clean up your act please.
    Jesus doesn't care about your battery or the banter that goes on here.

    AND.....while your information might be valuable, you seem to think that EVERYBODY who owns a Prius should be capable of and interested in doing something similar to what you did.

    NEWS FLASH: The VAST majority of owners have no ability or interest in messing with the battery themselves.
     
  16. EChua5

    EChua5 Junior Member

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    I’m in the DFW area. Had an issue with check engine light indicating multiple cells going bad. Went with HBRepairOK who came down and swapped the battery for $750. He explained to me rebalancing and load testing on cells. Battery is still working 1.5 years later (knock on wood).