Anyone had to replace a MKII Toyota Prius Hybrid Battery?

reni10

I just had a fault code come up on my MKII 04 Prius and after checking with my Bluetooth OBD connector the fault code is coming back as P0A80 which is the Hybrid battery needs to be replaced!!!

This is a big shock to me as I had no warning signs and then all of a sudden one of the main components in the car is gone!

As the car is so old and has 140k miles on it I know I am well out of warranty but has anyone had any experience on having the Hybrid battery replaced and how much it might cost etc.?

I will be making an appointment with the local Toyota dealer on Monday to get it checked but this is one hell of a kick in the teeth...

reni10

reni10 wrote: »

I just had a fault code come up on my MKII 04 Prius and after checking with my Bluetooth OBD connector the fault code is coming back as P0A80 which is the Hybrid battery needs to be replaced!!!

This is a big shock to me as I had no warning signs and then all of a sudden one of the main components in the car is gone!

As the car is so old and has 140k miles on it I know I am well out of warranty but has anyone had any experience on having the Hybrid battery replaced and how much it might cost etc.?

I will be making an appointment with the local Toyota dealer on Monday to get it checked but this is one hell of a kick in the teeth...

Check out the breakers yard or maybe the U.K.

I've heard a few hundred to over 2K from Toyota which is a ridiculous price.

Chances are just one cell is dodgy but not actually failed.

I can tell you now this is extremely rare, the Prius battery should last well over 300,000 Miles.

Proper diagnostic is crucial, Toyota Ireland will just drop in a whole new battery or recon maybe rather than repair the old cell, if it can be repaired it will save you a fortune.

I'll be following this thread with great interest. Sorry I can't offer more assistance.

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/prius-battery

If you can find the runt cell replacement is cheap, especially if you can do most of the work yourself. The voltage is lethal so you got to make sure you take the proper precautions and pull out the service plug to kill the high voltage but touching any cables even with the plug disconnected that might go to the inverter might have enough charge that it could stop your heart if you get a dart from it.

reni10

I won't be able to do this myself so will have to rely on either Toyota or an independent mechanic to replace it.

I am extremely disappointed with this failure and thought there would be at least another 100k before something like this failure would occur...

colm_mcm

To be fair, it's unknown what the failure is yet.

reni10

colm_mcm wrote: »

To be fair, it's unknown what the failure is yet.

P0A80 is the one and only fault code that is displayed and when that code is looked up it says Hybrid Battery Failure is the cause and there is no ambiguity about it unfortunately...

colm_mcm

What I mean is the code itself doesn't give any detail about the extent of the fault.

From what I have read it will be something as simple as a single cell that's being a bit naughty.

It's possible to revive some NiMh cells too, I've revived some old AA and AAA batteries and they're still going years later.

The Maha Powerex MH-C9000 is some amazing charger for your AAA and AA batteries and infinitely better than most junk off the shelf chargers that kill more batteries than they charge.

Anyway, same principle applies to the Prius cells. But you'd probably be better off buying cells from trusted sources , best place to try is priuschat.com for more advice in troubleshooting.

First is proper diagnosis of the actual fault.

If it is the battery then try a breakers yard and the U.K , if you get a reconditioned battery you'll most likely have to send the old one back , your old battery is still worth money.

Swapping the battery isn't that hard if you follow guides , it's time consuming and easier than replacing a cell.

Sam Kade

They only do 50-58 mpg I thought they would have better mpg.

Sam Kade

Sam Kade wrote: »

They only do 50-58 mpg I thought they would have better mpg.

I got 60 mpg Winter 64 mpg summer. That's not bad for a petrol automatic.

Better than most modern manual diesels.

Rafal

I had to do exactly that three months ago. Our 10 yo 150k km Prius lit up the display with plenty of warnings, the inverter was heating more than usual (vent in the back-right) so we drove straight to Carroll and Kinsella in Deansgrange. The risk of driving with a hot inverter was that it would burn, so we plopped €2500 all inclusive for a new Toyota battery, which was done the next day and the Prius was back to its usual happy.

What makes this badly timed expense more "fun" is that we are selling this car in Jan as a trade-in for the new Leaf which has been on order pretty much the day after the Prius issue. However, it is not all crying here, as the price for the Prius increased by about €1100 the moment I could show the invoice for the new brand new battery. We are getting a trade-in value of €5500 on it, which is within €300 of what I also had a private buyer offer for it, so I have a before-and-after value comparison (€4K from private buyer and trade-ins of €3-4k with the old battery). The car is in a very good shape otherwise.

The difference was well worth paying for the extra 4-5 months of driving of an otherwise amazing car.

Non of this should cost anything near 2500 Euro's if it's only a 50 Euro cell that has failed. Same O'l story in Ireland, can't get it repaired if it's any way technical.

It's good you get money back on it though. That car should go well over 300,000 miles !

TheChizler

There's a couple of battery doctor type places around, which recondition all sorts of batteries, might be worth a Google

Barr

I thought the batteries should last the lifetime of the car in the Prius ?

Is it an exceptional case where the batteries would fail or is it a common occurrence.

If it is not a common occurrence , why would it fail in one car and not another

Barr

Barr wrote: »

I thought the batteries should last the lifetime of the car in the Prius ?

Is it an exceptional case where the batteries would fail or is it a common occurrence.

If it is not a common occurrence , why would it fail in one car and not another

It's not a common failure by any means but some have failed in the hotter climates in the U.S.

Some have been known to go over 400,000 miles on the original battery.

My 2007 was perfect after 230,000 Kms when I traded it for the Leaf last January.

http://cityautos-reading.co.uk/price.html

600 Pounds for repair though I don't know whether this is including fitting the removal and refitting of the battery in the car.

I have read on priuschat.com where people have fixed the battery by replacing a single cell very cheap fix if you can do it yourself or have someone do the work.

2500 is a lot of money these days for the Mk II or any NiMh battery or just about 1 Kwh in size, to put this in perspective, Nissan are charging 2K extra for the 30 Kwh battery in the Leaf , 2 K for 6 extra Kwh for a vastly superior battery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p8Im1eL67Y

http://priuschat.com/threads/yet-another-hybrid-battery-replacement.128477/

reni10

There does not seem to be anyone in Ireland that can do this individual battery cell replacement!

Anyone gut any ideas as I am not going to stump up 2500 for a new battery on a 04 car that is probably only worth about 2500!

Bigus

My mechanic has my old Prius battery , I might be able to convince the mechanic/auto electrician to,have a go at replacing a faulty cell, in yours with a good cell from my old battery, if you want to chance it, PM me , he's green hills road tallaght.

But you really need to check all cells, use the guide in the links above to know how to find any runt cells.

The cells are easily got. Even call around a few breakers yards in the U.K.

Might be work getting a recon form the U.K and send the old one back if you can get someone to install the battery it would be easier than testing and installing new cells. The old battery is still worth money.

Barr

I was looking at a Mk II prius not so long ago. TBH something like this would put me right off buying one.

I was looking at the 05/06/07 year.


There could be a huge expense right around the corner. The last thing I would want is the possibility of something breaking that a local mechanic would not have a clue how to fix.

2.5k on a car that vintage would practically write it off.

Rafal

I did not expect our battery to last indefinitely when buying our current Prius 11 years ago. It had an 8 year warranty, and I felt that we got more than I expected. When you consider the price paid, please take into account the labour, which was part of the €2500, and that it also provides a new buyer with some peace of mind backed by the original Toyota paperwork which I am enclosing and which has increased its trade-in and resell value 1100-1500. Everyone's situation is different, and we needed a car for another 4-5 months while awaiting the new 30 kWh Leaf. It would have cost me more than 1000 to rent a nice, safe and comfy car for this period, not to mention the hassle of the lost time in arranging it—and in this case we had our otherwise perfect Prius back the very next day. Carroll and Kinsella literally turned everything around in super-quick time.

I also don't think it was a single cell that caused the issue. I believe it was a good number of them. Let me explain why.

I noticed that our new battery behaves much more like the car used to behave 11 years ago, that is it spends more time in the "green" zone (main display), which the old battery gradually did less often. Also, the state of charge changes up and down much more gradually, and slowly, again like it used to be when new, and not like our ageing battery did in the last few years, especially so in the months before needing replacing. It all makes me think that the end of life for this battery means quite a few dead cells, which it was tolerating for a good while, perhaps a year or more, but in the end it could no longer tolerate.

So while considering the alternative costs of replacing it consider the time and work that would go into a cell-by-cell analysis and it's rather complex (see those linked DIY guides and video) labour, plus what it means to the life and potential value of the whole unit and the car. Ultimately, it all depends on your circumstances and needs. In our case, I am definitely happy with the value we got for the €2500 we paid.

Good luck with the replacement.

Barr

Barr wrote: »

I was looking at a Mk II prius not so long ago. TBH something like this would put me right off buying one.

I was looking at the 05/06/07 year.


There could be a huge expense right around the corner. The last thing I would want is the possibility of something breaking that a local mechanic would not have a clue how to fix.

2.5k on a car that vintage would practically write it off.

There are many car owners that risk large repair bills , look at the amount of dpf and DMF failures on many diesels, potential engine failures, gearbox etc. Some automatics for instance will cost well over 3K to repair if they fail. Look at the amount of Volkswagen Group owners who got screwed with DSG and Multitronic failures. Or BMW owners with timing chains snapping.

As I said, battery failures in the prius are rare enough but more common in U.S cars in hot climates.

Rafal

Rafal wrote: »

I did not expect our battery to last indefinitely when buying our current Prius 11 years ago. It had an 8 year warranty, and I felt that we got more than I expected. When you consider the price paid, please take into account the labour, which was part of the €2500, and that it also provides a new buyer with some peace of mind backed by the original Toyota paperwork which I am enclosing and which has increased its trade-in and resell value 1100-1500. Everyone's situation is different, and we needed a car for another 4-5 months while awaiting the new 30 kWh Leaf. It would have cost me more than 1000 to rent a nice, safe and comfy car for this period, not to mention the hassle of the lost time in arranging it—and in this case we had our otherwise perfect Prius back the very next day. Carroll and Kinsella literally turned everything around in super-quick time.

I also don't think it was a single cell that caused the issue. I believe it was a good number of them. Let me explain why.

I noticed that our new battery behaves much more like the car used to behave 11 years ago, that is it spends more time in the "green" zone (main display), which the old battery gradually did less often. Also, the state of charge changes up and down much more gradually, and slowly, again like it used to be when new, and not like our ageing battery did in the last few years, especially so in the months before needing replacing. It all makes me think that the end of life for this battery means quite a few dead cells, which it was tolerating for a good while, perhaps a year or more, but in the end it could no longer tolerate.

So while considering the alternative costs of replacing it consider the time and work that would go into a cell-by-cell analysis and it's rather complex (see those linked DIY guides and video) labour, plus what it means to the life and potential value of the whole unit and the car. Ultimately, it all depends on your circumstances and needs. In our case, I am definitely happy with the value we got for the €2500 we paid.

Good luck with the replacement.

You are right of course, it's better to have the battery replaced by Toyota for a new one with a warranty. Getting 2nd hand cells is always risky but could be worth it for anyone willing to take the job on themselves.

The car will have a very long life with a new battery.

Bigus

Myself and the mechanic pulled apart my old Prius battery as promised in PM to ren10 OP and found 5 dogey cells and 1 completely fecked according to the voltmeter, relatively straigforward but time consuming. I think Op was going to go for a complete used battery, which is a slightly simpler option.

As for rafal's comments , I'd say replacing 1 cell would get the battery back up and running, but replacing all six cells might give back full performance.

Absolutely, replace all suspect cells, still far cheaper. And the car will last forever.

The cells do need to be balanced and around the same voltage as the rest of the cells prior to replacement with the rest of the pack.

All cells then need to be reasonably closely balanced.

Fair play Bigus !

Bigus

Donation of bad Prius battery gladly accepted.:D

That Prius should run another 10 years with the battery replaced/repaired. Not a bad deal if you ask me really for 20 years of use !

Now as you know how to troubleshoot the battery you could offer to refresh reni10's battery pack. You will be able to assemble a one good one from the two and keep the working extra cells at hand for the future and/or flog on ebay.

reni10

Just to close this out for anyone else that might have this issue in the future.

I imported a second hand battery from the UK on eBay and got a local mechanic to install it.
The install took a few hours and now my Prius is back to normal again and I saved about 2k on the price if I was to get a new battery from Toyota.

I hope this battery will get me another few years.

Rafal

Well done and fingers crossed for your new battery.

So was the final total of all the costs that you had, including labour and shipping, €500? That is very good indeed. Did you get any warranty for the battery or as-is?

Well wear. And don't discard your old battery as you will be able to refresh the "new" battery with the cells from the old one in the future should you need to.

Excellent, well done. That car should go for years if the battery is good.

Sell the old battery , it's still worth money because it can be repaired , individual cells are cheap so someone will recondition it and sell it on.

reni10

It cost me €520 all in to buy the second hand battery and get it installed! So basically saving 2k over what Toyota said it would cost.

The new battery is from 2009 car so hopefully lots of life left in it yet.

I had a look at the old battery and it may only be that the terminals have some corrosion on them and not actually the battery capacity so might clean those terminals up and see if that makes a difference.

If anyone wants to buy my old battery from my then give me a shout.

WiseMona

reni10 wrote: »

It cost me €520 all in to buy the second hand battery and get it installed! So basically saving 2k over what Toyota said it would cost.

The new battery is from 2009 car so hopefully lots of life left in it yet.

I had a look at the old battery and it may only be that the terminals have some corrosion on them and not actually the battery capacity so might clean those terminals up and see if that makes a difference.

If anyone wants to buy my old battery from my then give me a shout.

Hi Reni10,

Just checking to see how the new battery is faring out for you?
I have a 2007 Prius and LOVE it, but it if let sitting for a day or two the battery dies.

So, I am thinking of replacing the battery but can't afford the €2,500 .. so looking for advice if you have a minute?

Thank you
Mona

zilog_jones

You sure it's not the 12V battery that's dying? You need that to start the car, and they're a hell of a lot cheaper than the traction battery.

What exactly is happening? If you're talking about it being completely lifeless after 1-2 days sitting idle and needing a jump start to get going, it's the 12V battery.

WiseMona

zilog_jones wrote: »

You sure it's not the 12V battery that's dying? You need that to start the car, and they're a hell of a lot cheaper than the traction battery.

What exactly is happening? If you're talking about it being completely lifeless after 1-2 days sitting idle and needing a jump start to get going, it's the 12V battery.

Hi Zilog_Jones

Thanks for the reply. I can honestly say .. I am cluless when it comes to this sort of thing.

It is completley lifeless after 2 days idle - so sounds like the 12 volt battery - which I will research now.

Thanks a million.

Mona

Soarer

Bigus

WiseMona wrote: »

Hi Zilog_Jones

Thanks for the reply. I can honestly say .. I am cluless when it comes to this sort of thing.

It is completley lifeless after 2 days idle - so sounds like the 12 volt battery - which I will research now.

Thanks a million.

Mona

12 v battery is less than €100 euro now .