Replace Hybrid Battery -- Where to buy dead battery to repair?

Ditto. Thanks for understanding Bisco. And thanks for respecting my right to choose what's best for our family. You're awesome!

 

Well that's good. Sorry it was only an impression. Thank you.

If this car was 5 years old, I will go for new in a heartbeat.

But it's 11 years old already.

However, others might still choose new in this situation. And that will be equally smart depending on their situation financially and how long they plan to keep the car, etc.

 

I appreciate you realizing that cash out of pocket is a huge factor for me!! And I appreciate your desire to help. And since I have some time I'll respond since maybe you'll have some excellent advice that I didn't consider yet.

First, this $500 battery is from a 2004 Prius with high miles--but I didn't get the exact. I guess 200,000. So it's even a little older and worse condition than the one in my daughter's car now. And the local battery guy will buy it back from me for $600 (Actually he wants the battery in the car instead of this one so I'll swap them when returning a core but still get $600 so it's the same).

"You have all the parts". this is the tricky thing. Just swapping any dead module with another will make a battery sure to fail in several months. Getting exactly the right module is impossible unless I buy up many batteries (like Dorman does) catalogue and compare them to find exactly the best matching module. So in effect I don't really have the right parts available to me.

So for me, that means only $400 more for a professionally rebuilt battery that can likely to last for 3 to 5 years and warrantied for 3 years and 36 miles (even though it's possible that is will fail early and get replaced that will be fine).

Replacing a battery is much less work and hassle than reconditioning which involves, opening a battery, removing the bus, cleaning the contacts thoroughly, recharging the modules individually, possibly replacing a module, and then balancing them all together. Then when it fails in several few months doing it again. No thank you. Others might choose to do this since it will be very low cost if they know how to do it and willing to do all that work to save the cash. It's a choice.

In my situation, it seems better to simply replace her battery with a Dorman.

 

Thanks for correcting this.

So still it's more about cash now versus hassle. I agree then that new is "hassle free" for at least 5 years.

And Dorman is warranteed for 3 years and 36K miles but might need replacing during that time.

I still choose Dorman for $1,100 versus new $2,100.

It's because of the age of this car already and how valuable cash is to us right now.

 

JC, I was just about to open it up when I called Eric about a question.

My thinking was that I could recondition it "really well" with Eric's advice and get
2 or 3 years out of it without failing.

Eric, was patient and walked me through all the options and ways to recondition
it -- and everything he said jived with what I already learned. Except there was
one hole in my understanding which was "how to match a replacement module".
I review that as one small details but Eric helped me see that is that HUGE
big deal that Dorman solved but it's extremely difficult for an individual.

So I dropped the idea of even bothering to open up the $500 one and simply
use it as a core to get the Dorman. And then after replacing the Dormong
into her car, the local guy wants the one out of her car back (which he installed
6 months ago). He says that one is newer and better than the $500 from the 2004.

 

Sorry, I'm going to explain 3 choices to customers when I feel I'm ready after replacing my daughter's battery and some more training and help with Eric.

1. New battery with 36 months warranty -- only from the dealer that will last over 5 years
2. New battery with 12 months warranty that I will install and will last over 5 years
3. Dorman with 36 months warranty that might last 4 or 5 and might fail during warranty.
4. Module swap that will fail in 6 months or less. I will highly discourage this option.

But since I will still over option 4 if someone insists that's all that they can afford or whatever reason.
I guess you can say that I'm still in the rebuilding business. But primarily in the battery installation business.

 

JC, you're making me consider doing that even if only for curiosity and the experience of playing with it.

But with other things going on in my life right now. I probably won't take the time. Thank you for your concern.