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Orange County, CA - Cheapest Battery Replacement

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by Tony714, Sep 5, 2019.

  1. Tony714

    Tony714 Member

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    Hey Prius peeps, I'm in Orange County CA and would like to know the cheapest hybrid battery replacement place. I've seen a few and the prices vary wildly. Can the battery be discharged and recharged?

    Previous owner claimed to have a replacement, but this battery drains real quick.
     
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  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    You want cheap? I have a rebuilt for $500?

    You want cheaper? Then you're going to be looking for trouble
     
  3. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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  4. Tony714

    Tony714 Member

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    $500 is better than the outlandish charges the dealership quotes. Do you install too?
     
  5. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    That includes installation. You can come to me (preferred as I'll have all my tools), or I can come to you (less preferred). I'm 30 minutes from the OC
     
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  6. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    At that price including installation he should come to you. And bring beer. ;)
     
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  7. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    I've been offering this enthusiast discount price for a long time now. Whoever that wants it, it's available.

    This current offer isn't valid for installation until Sunday, the battery is still going through the reconditioning stages. It won't complete until Sunday morning.
     
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  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    'newpriusbatteries.com'
     
  9. Tony714

    Tony714 Member

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    I, uh, don't know what you mean by that. Do you normally offer this as a service, or is this just like a one-time deal? And what city are you in?
     
    #9 Tony714, Sep 5, 2019
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 6, 2019
  10. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    If your battery hasn't thrown any warning lights and the only problem on the replacement battery is it drains real quick, the problem isn't a failed battery, it just lost of capacity, which can be fixed via battery reconditioning where you drain the pack down and then recharge and balance several times at deeper and deeper levels. This is because in the inside of the battery poorly conducting crystalization grows and you break up that into better conducting material when you cycle the battery several times: BU-807: How to Restore Nickel-based Batteries – Battery University

    Toyota designed the battery to lose 50% capacity due to this problem and not fail... Reconditioning the battery can restore it up to 96% of original capacity. Just buy and install a wiring harness for $150 from here: Shop Consumer - Hybrid Automotive And then find someone in LA who has the equipment to borrow, or buy your own gear.

    The problem with taking the $500 offer, is that once you do reconditioning of your existing battery it could be a much nicer/newer pack than the one the person will sell you for $500 and they get your old pack, so might be good for them, not so much for you....
     
  11. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    I'm in Arcadia, and I've offered this before and it's not a 1 time deal.
     
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  12. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Do you know what battery I'm providing and do you know anything about the battery that's in his car? He is not the original owner.

    This is a pretty wreckless comment
     
  13. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Not a wreckless comment at all... I know enough about the business to know it's very difficult to determine how good each module in a pack really is. A pack rebuilder who spends less that $2K on diagnostic/rebuild equipment is going to be far less accurate at determining module health than a builder who's spent $10K - $30K in lab grade testing gear.

    There's a whole spectrum out there of rebuilders... And there's a good reason why almost all accredited shops only replace bad packs with brand new. I'm sure we both agree that's super wastful....

    But when it comes to rebuilders, some are hacks and you end up overpaying for garbage or paying cheap and getting what you pay for is often true. The rare gift of course is someone who does high quality of work and doesn't charge very much. But I've surveyed rebuilders on craigs list all over the west coast and these folks seem more interested in harvesting good packs then doing quality work on an existing bad pack.

    If the orginal poster had a brand new replacement OEM battery that's newer than the age of their vehicle and it only needs reconditioning and hasn't failed yet, then odds are that pack will last longer than one of your rebuilt packs that's as old as car's build date.

    First step in making a wise purchase would be to look at the serial numbers on the modules in the pack you're selling vs. the serial numbers on the pack the original poster has. Once you do that you could determine date of manufacture and if it's a pack that's never had a bad module replaced, which is likely to last longer than a pack that already has reached the wack-a-mole phase. There's way more to it than that, too, which is why I have detailed spreadsheets for all the testing that's been done on my packs I've done for friends and family.

    As in give the consumer as much information as possible and let them decide. Of course maybe that's too "reckless" for your profitability?
     
  14. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    I'm very transparent with my battery packs as this is what I do as an enthusiast. You must be confusing me with people you associate yourself with. I don't use this for my income. I spend my time carefully rebuilding my packs cause my time is worth a whole lot less than when someone is rushing to make as much money possible in the rebuilding world.

    This specific battery is not even a failed battery. I sold a 2014 battery to a member here and this is what I got back from the original owner.
     
  15. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Well, I'm the same way... And I've fixed some really messed up batteries that other rebuilders have worked on. There's so much garbage out there... And yes going slow and methodical and double&triple checking is key! Soon as I go too fast with this kind of work it's so easy to lose track of the sequence of everything.

    I also prefer to just work for friends and friends of friends so if I go slow and don't charge them for all the hours, I always have an altruistic excuse for leaving money on the table...

    I'll leave it up to you to work something out with this person in your area. But you might want to provide more details to them, especially the serial codes of all modules.
     
  16. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Hybrid automotive setup:whistle:?

    Good deal though (y).
     
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  17. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Yes Hybrid Automotive stuff. You know me....king of good deals. I just sold my parts car with engine, inverter, transmission, and tons of body parts/ecu/electronics for $100.
     
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  18. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Sounds more like a fire sale :).

    I’m sure it went to a good home:whistle:.

    Bet it made the new owner happy(y).
     
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  19. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    I think the buyer is going to take what he wants from it and sell it off for a profit. I just couldn't use anymore parts off of it. Too much of a good thing.
     
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  20. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    $100 is hard to argue with ;).

    If it had any gas in the tank that made it even more worthwhile :).

    I remember the interior was trash, wasn’t it:whistle:?

    But the mechanical components are a steal if you need them (y).
     
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