In May of 2018, Batteries Plus installed a Dorman replacement battery in my Toyota Prius. The OEM Battery died after 149,481 miles of use. The Dorman replacement subsequently died after only 40k miles (193,006 miles). Although the battery lasted beyond its 12-month warranty, has anyone else experienced this "premature" death? This Installation at Batteries Plus cost $3,500!!!! I could have choosen the dealership instead for a NEW battery. I was not even aware that they were installing a refurbished battery!
Dorman Batteries are simply older batteries that have been “recharged” by Dorman. The only thing new about them is the orange paint. One of the members here did a post on how long it took to “rejuvenate” a Dorman battery to a usable condition. I think the count was 19 charge-discharge cycles.
I think originally they had a 3 year warranty when introduced, like the A-1 Cardone did. Both quickly revised that to a 1 year. Maybe after an extremely high warranty rate???
sadly, all true. if you intend to keep the car, find someone to install a new aftermarket battery from 'newpriusbatteries' for $1,600.
If you purchased it when they listed the three year warranty it should be honored, but alas I think it was 36k mi. In this case it has been 40k mi. Hmmm...
Since it is "just" past the warranty, I would check with them anyways, they "may" warranty it for you. Depends on the store. Worth a try though.
Based on the stories (tales of woe) I've read about Dorman, you did better than average, but you could have gotten a brand new Toyota battery for that price.
I deal with batteries all the time (rebuild, sell & fix Prius cars etc) and Dorman is the shittiest company to work with Prius batteries. The most crappiest ones I have seen were from Dorman. The only thing that seemed new was the bus bars (silver) but the rest looked like absolute shit. So not surprised it dies this quick. from what I understand Dorman wanted to be in the hybrid battery business so they bought a large battery refurbisher and made it their own. After making some shitty changes it seems.
I purchased my Prius and it had recently had the hybrid battery replaced, it was a Dorman and is now no good as I type. I opened it all up and found that an orange power plug was not seated correctly. I pushed it down and it clicked but it is too late, the battery has drained. I will upload pics of the problem area. I emailed Dorman but they said once a battery is sent out no one should open it not even the shop that you buy it from. Mine was obviously opened by the shop and they messed it up. Passed warranty so Im out of luck at the moment. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
The orange safety plug does two things. First, it connects the battery to the relay which then connects to the rest of the car. Second, when you slide the lever down, it closes auxiliary contacts that tell the computer that it's properly installed. You should not be able to slide that lever unless the plug is fully seated. Not having the lever fully slid to its limit will not harm the battery. What it does is keep the car from running unless it's traveled far enough to close the aux contacts. Apparently yours was seated enough to close the contacts, but not quite all the way in place.
I was not talking about the maintenance fuse plug but an actual harness for power on the inside of the hybrid battery.
The left orange plug is the power cable for the side of the hybrid battery that faces the rear seats. Notice there is a little dot in the center of the plug above the black part where it plugs in. The dot should be hidden and the plug should click and not be able to pull off unless it is pressed and pulled.
I will only buy brand new battery from Toyota dealer, or independence shop who got new battery from local dealer. Typically it cost between 2500-3000 installed but they will take your old battery for recycling. NiMh battery is really recyclable, not as good as Acid Pb battery that reach 99% recycled parts but way better than any Lithium ion battery, which in practice are not recyclable. In fact for Prius battery, Aging and heat is the main problems not mileage. In southern hot states, it is about 10-12 years when it needs new battery. In milder temperature, it can last more than 15 years. If you want it cheap, there are tons of eBay installer for used battery with 1 year warranty for less than $800 installed in your parking lot. I did it once and I sold it 4 months later since I know my 2006 Prius worth less than $3300 and I sold it that price. I do not want to spend $3000 battery and only got $300 nets from the sale. I will not keep it either since it started to have problems in hot Florida. Evaporator has been replaced for 14 hours labor, and I know something else will start to need replacement too. it was in 2017 at 230k miles. Oil consumption less than 0.5 quarts in 12k miles with 0W-40 and still runs smoothly.
