New battery arrived = Prius Lives again.

This is a follow-up to the Prius I bought for $2,800. never could get it to start. Well, the new battery arrived yesterday and it even had brand-new bus-bars and sense wires on it which my toyota friend says is unusual. It took about 2 hours to get all the parts transfered from the old battery (computer, relays, gas collectors, etc..) and to get the battery into the car. It started up first time with no problems. It showed an ABS code for a couple of miles, which eventually turned off. Apparently this is normal. So anyway, as soon as the license plates arrive I can start driving it. I'll need to get all of the fluids changed as the previous owner never did and it is well beyond the point they need to be changed with 150K on the car.

 

I certainly hope not. I was referring to the coolant, transaxle fluid, and brake-fluid.

 

It is difficult to say for sure. I didn't disassemble the pack. The only way I know to tell the difference is to look at the side of a module and see if it is metallic or plastic. I figure it doesn't matter that much being the car has 157,000 miles it isn't likely to outlast the new battery pack one way or another.

 

Well, it will be even more difficult to say since I never owned this car with the previous battery. Remember, I bought it two weeks ago with a dead battery,

 

I think you mis-understood. Typically the batteries that come from Toyota have no bus-bars on them at all. usually that is one of the many parts you'd need to transfer from the old battery module to the new one. But apparently Toyota is now including new bus-bars with the new batteries, which I think is great.

 

It is a 2002, I believe it had been out of commission for about 2 months, maybe 3. Body has some minor door-dings, but otherwise everything else looks pretty much like-new inside and out. Tires were worn out, I just put some new ones on yesterday. So far my investment in the vehicle is:

• Vehicle-$2,800
• Tax, Title, License - $280
• New Battery (and tax) - $2,000
• New Tires - $330

So at this point I have $5,400 invested in the vehicle. I think I've done pretty well. Even though I've seen 1st gen Prius's selling for that amount on Craigslist, typically those vehicles would have still needed new tires and probably a new battery very soon.

But the upgrades aren't done yet. I ordered a Plug-In kit from Enginer but it hasn't even shipped yet. And I am about to replace the fluids and try to get it inspected.

 

Just a little update here. A few days ago I put new spark plugs in, I think the ones I removed are the originals. And I put new tires on the car. Last night I got the back seats back in the car, the engine coolant changed, and the transaxle fluid changed. Again, I believe all were original fluids. Hard to believe none of this had been changed yet at 157,000 miles. My license plates arrived yesterday too.

I drove the car to work this morning for the first time. It still doesn't have an inspection sticker, but that will be remedied as soon as the new insurance card arrives. Anyway, the car seems to drive great and now that it has rear seats it is very quiet and smooth.

However, there are still some things to fix:

• The power lock actuator on the driver's door doesn't work.
• Inverter coolant needs changing.
• the "audio" button on the radio has to be pushed just right to get a response.
• Need to get a duplicate key made.

Those are all minor things. And Of course, I am still waiting on my Enginer plug-in kit to arrive. So overall, I think this is going to make a great car for me and so far (including the plug-in kit) I only have about $7,000 invested in it. So that makes a pretty cheap plug-in Hybrid!

I imagine more and more of these cars are going to start showing up for sale on the cheap with dead batteries. I think they are definitely a good choice for a fixer-upper for guys like us.