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P0A80 code went away on its own…?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by 21Dora_ST, Feb 12, 2022.

  1. 21Dora_ST

    21Dora_ST New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2022
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    Location:
    GA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    LE
    Hey all - first post here but have been reading and researching for a couple weeks. My sisters car had the infamous P0A80 code after resolving a couple others. Key word is had. I have an appointment to have the battery pack replaced with an OEM. Should I stick with it or cancel?

    2007 with 217k miles.
    Replacement battery pack, Dorman built in 2017 (we bought the car used, didn’t pick this brand)
    New 12v in Oct 2021
    No changes in MPGs in a year (39.8)

    Let me back all the way up…about a month and a half ago, the car went into limp mode for the failed inverter pump P0A93 and P3193. I replaced the inverter pump with OEM. However car would run for 15 seconds and stuff off. Sister swore she put gas in the car the day prior so I spent a couple weeks running through everything else possible for a failure to start (12v health check, fuses, clean MAF/throttle body, change air filter/spark plugs). I was getting ready to order the fuel tank replacement and figured I’d try gas. Bone dry. (**facepalm**) Put a few gallons in, as suggested by all the different (P319*) threads here. Car fired right up, adjusted to all the new/clean stuff and ran like normal.
    Doing all that the car sat for about a month, since I can only work on it on weekends. I know this is bad for the hybrid battery. So, it was unfortunately one bar from the bottom once I got it running again. When I did get it running, I got the first P0A80 code. I cleared the codes and ran the car a bit for three days (also suggested in another sub thread). It got the battery back up to a little over 60%. Ran fine for about a week or two.

    Then a couple days ago, car threw the A80 code again, kinda went into limp mode then started to run normal. Battery was chillin in the blue zone, two-three bars not showing, check engine light on. I scheduled the appt to have the battery replaced with an OEM one vice the Dorman garbage.

    Today, we throw the AC on. Car all of a sudden started running green battery bars and removed the check engine lights (without me resetting the codes). Dare I say better than it has since we bought it a year ago. False sense of security Im sure.

    I swear I read this is normal when a pack is about to go out. Maybe I didn’t. However, I just want to be sure that I’m not wasting my money replacing this battery when it might not need it. I do not currently have an OBDII reader that works with Dr Prius. I have a wired OBD-SX and blue tooth MX for my personal sh!tboxes.

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  2. TMR-JWAP

    TMR-JWAP Senior Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2016
    6,087
    5,803
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    Location:
    Columbia, SC
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    One question you need to ask the dealer is whether they will accept a Dorman battery as a core. A while back, the techs were provided with a guide of things to look at to see if the battery had ever been worked on, including date codes, paint marks and fastener alignments. This may only be applicable for warranty work, but it's a question worth asking when looking at the Toyota core fee. If not, you're looking at another $1350ish added to the price of the battery replacement. Probably in the $4k or higher range for the complete install, but this will, without a doubt, be the most reliable battery replacement option available.

    My experience with Dorman batteries is they actually have pretty good modules in them (and good harnesses, nickel plated busbars and a very clean ecu), but a module or two fails a year or two or three after installation. Replacing that module and any other weak ones, results in a pretty darn reliable battery. I've rebuilt a handful of them for local customers. This includes keeping the battery or car (sometimes I pick up the battery, some drop off a battery, some drop off the car) for ~3-5 days so I can do appropriate module testing to determine capacity of each module so they're all well balanced. 5 or 6 years and I've never had a 'repaired' Dorman fail again (so far)
     
    SFO likes this.