Finally won the battery lottery

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by JC91006, Sep 1, 2015.

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  1. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    So my weak 2006 battery finally triggered a triangle. I've avoided driving it so that I wouldn't go over the warranty period, just let it sit and drive it about 5 miles on the weekends. CA had a really hot heat wave for 2 weeks and it finally killed my battery. I took it into the dealer with 149972 miles on the odometer and the guy was like "you gotta be kidding me"

    Brought it home today with a new HV battery courtesy of Toyota. I was quite surprise that the dealer actually stocked this battery, I dropped off in the evening, picked up the following day in the afternoon.
     
    #1 JC91006, Sep 1, 2015
    wwinters, roostafish, KK6PD and 14 others like this.
  2. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    LOL!

    Nice work!
    See you at 300K.
     
    #2 ETC(SS), Sep 1, 2015
  3. JimN

    JimN Let the games begin!

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    A Parts Dept. that actually had the right parts! Amazing!
     
    #3 JimN, Sep 1, 2015
  4. CooCooCaChoo

    CooCooCaChoo Senior Member

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    Whaaaa ....
     
    #4 CooCooCaChoo, Sep 1, 2015
  5. HGS

    HGS Member

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    Way to go! Outstanding.
     
    #5 HGS, Sep 1, 2015
  6. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Good for you. In the past I had gotten replacement traction batteries under warranty for the 2001 Prius and 2006 HiHy, although in those cases the batteries failed much earlier in their service lives.
    Instead of the dealer stocking the expensive battery, perhaps the prompt repair resulted from fast delivery from Toyota's regional parts hub in that area?
     
    #6 Patrick Wong, Sep 1, 2015
  7. m.wynn

    m.wynn Senior Member

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    You should have crawled around a bit and dropped it off at 149999... Congrats!
     
    #7 m.wynn, Sep 1, 2015
  8. sillylilwabbit

    sillylilwabbit Active Member

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    Congrats! Barley made it.

    Question: I thought only the plug in Prius battery was warrantied up to 150k miles in CARB states, and not the regular Prius batteries.

    If the regular Prius battery is also warrantied up to 150k, then I may not need a plug in after all. :)

    Thanks


    iPhone ?
     
    #8 sillylilwabbit, Sep 1, 2015
  9. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    All Prius hybrid batteries are warrantied up to 150k in CA
     
    #9 JC91006, Sep 1, 2015
  10. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    The drive was not pleasant while the triangle was ON, the battery SOC showed 1 bar and I didn't have much power. I didn't want to reset the code as it may not come up in the next 28 miles......so I crawled in going about 0 - 30mph in about 20 seconds.
     
    #10 JC91006, Sep 1, 2015
  11. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    I went to Longo Toyota, the biggest Toyota dealership in the world, and they seem to be super fast too. I did check the part number (G951047031) that I received, it was a battery designated for the 2006 Prius, so there is a chance it was ordered and delivered super fast. I thought all the batteries were the same for 2004-2009?
     
    #11 JC91006, Sep 1, 2015
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2015
  12. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    CARB is nice. We are at 145000, maybe showing some signs of weakness.
     
    #12 wjtracy, Sep 1, 2015
  13. sillylilwabbit

    sillylilwabbit Active Member

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    Awesome, thanks for the clarification/information.


    iPhone ?
     
    #13 sillylilwabbit, Sep 1, 2015
  14. srellim234

    srellim234 Senior Member

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    Congratulations. We got the free battery replacement on our 2006 Saturday at Crown Toyota in Ontario. Hopefully we'll get a free MFD calibration as now touching the screen is so badly offset I can't access the screens necessary to do it myself.
     
    #14 srellim234, Sep 1, 2015
  15. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    I don't think they'll cover any repairs to your MFD, the battery replacement only disconnected your 12v and your hv battery......nothing more

    But there was a member here about a month ago that got their MFD damaged/scratched by Cerritos Toyota, he got a "used" replacement installed for free
     
    #15 JC91006, Sep 1, 2015
  16. srellim234

    srellim234 Senior Member

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    Could a power surge when the batteries were reconnected have caused the MFD malfunction?

    I honestly don't expect Toyota to pick up the tab but I am hoping they can recalibrate the screen and not have to replace it. That should be a lot cheaper.
     
    #16 srellim234, Sep 1, 2015
  17. strawbrad

    strawbrad http://minnesotahybridbatteries.com

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    Do you know the day your car was placed in service? You have ten years from the day the car was originally sold. To test the "signs of weakness" get a Mini VCI and run a charge and discharge test as shown in this short thread. Unable to determine the cause of the triangle warning | PriusChat That will give you an idea of how close to the end you are. A 1.2 volt difference will light up the "Jackpot" triangle of death.

    There are two things I can think of to help push a battery over the edge. The first would be to head to the mountains and do some 75 mph or more runs up and down the biggest hills you can find. If the battery makes it back home then run on more discharge test to get the SOC as low as you can. You could run the AC in park until the gas engine kicks in. Then as JC91006 did just park the car unused for as long as you can. Weak modules will self discharge much faster than strong ones. You need just one cell in one module to take a dive. I rebuild batteries. A self discharge test is an absolute must do. I often find 2 or 3 modules out of thirty that have good capacity left but fail on self discharge.

    Is it unethical to help your battery fail just before the warranty runs out?

    Brad
     
    #17 strawbrad, Sep 1, 2015
  18. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    The way Toyota has these things setup on their battery ECUs, you could have very little capacity left in your modules but it still won't throw a code. Mine was getting pretty weak where I would drive 1 mile and have swings of the SOC from full to empty and back. That should already be a warranty issue but until it throws a code, you can't get anything from Toyota.

    It's almost like the engine burning oil thing, 1 qt in 600 miles is still normal.

    My 2005 crossed the 150k mark without issues, battery was still strong. But I still changed it out with a fresher newer battery I bought off another Prius.
     
    #18 JC91006, Sep 1, 2015
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2015
  19. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    ...you and I cannot play the CARB game as we are non-CARB 8-yr 100k miles warranty.
    I will be at the mercy of Toyota.
     
    #19 wjtracy, Sep 1, 2015
  20. HGS

    HGS Member

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    I'm guessing that living in Florida, I can't help my TB fail at 99,000 miles.

    Interesting procedure though.
     
    #20 HGS, Sep 1, 2015
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