2006 Prius with 160k miles on it. The engine is running more than 60% of the time when he drives around and occasionally, we can audibly hear his battery cooling fan in the passenger compartment. I ran torque analyzer with an OBD tool on his car and got the following report. It seems like Module 10 is holding less charge and dropping charge at a much faster rate than the other modules. It hasn't had any dash lights yet, but while we were driving around, his car threw a P0:80 code that showed up in the torque app (but still without lighting up the dash). Does he need a new battery? He has money for a new Toyota battery but was wondering if its worth it when you can get refurbished batteries for about ~1300. thanks
welcome! 1) it's probably close to its last legs based on time and miles. 2) if his mpg's are okay, and nothing else out of the ordinary, he doesn't need one yet. 3) a new battery is good for another 10+ years, a rebuilt is iffy at best, and usually a horror story. 4) call @Texas Hybrid Batteries hybrids in houston, great guy!
Thanks for the recommendation for Texas Hybrid Batteries...although it seems they're in the Dallas area only. Anyone else you recommend thats in Houston?
Yes THB is in the DFW area (Weatherford) not Houston. The behaviors ya'll have notice plus the PA080 code are a harbinger of things to come. The question now is how long do they want to keep the car? Option 1) Since the battery is still "good" they should be able to make the road trip to Matt @ THB. Most dealers charge $3500+ for a new Toyota batt so driving 8 hours r/t to save $1,000+ sounds like a no brainer to me. BTDT as I have one from him in my '06. Option 2) If you want to go the rebuilt route locally, there are some in the Houston area but I can't make any recommendations. What I can tell you is they are rebuilt with OLD modules since no one, not even Toyota, sells new modules on the open market. Those batts are only as good as their warranty which in turn is only as good as the company that stands behind it. You will most likely need to use the warranty within a 1-3 yr period. Some here have reported rebuilt failures in as little as 1-3 months. I think the worst was one poor guy who went thru 4 dormans in a little over a year! Keep in mind some warranties are only on the part and labor isn't included. Option 3) Repair the original pack yourself for under $100. Plus, you'll know who to find when you need to utilize the warranty because just like option 2 you will if you're keeping it! Option 4) Get and install a grid charger. They can revive an old pack and stave off the inevitable for a while. GOOD LUCK! Edit: one more thing. Check the battery cooling fan. If its clogged, the batt can't get adequate cooling. See Youtube vids.
I haven't been very impressed with their customer service and response times. Although thy have good reviews, I've now spoken with Texas hybrid batteries and think I'll make the drive up to Dallas and have it replaced by Matt....unless of course it dies within the next week and I have no choice but to use a local company. Towing to Dallas would be so many $$$$ I don't expect that to happen in 7 days...fingers crossed!!
If you have a place to work on it and basic tools and skills, you could remove the battery and take it up there in another vehicle. It's not hard to replace and there are lots of videos showing the procedure. You'll just want to transport it in a way that it won't become an 80+ pound projectile in a traffic accident.
Well this is just my luck :-(. The car dashboard lit up today after I came back to it in the target parking lot. Barely made it home....it's driving so slow and the engine is revving real high. I was really hoping I could take it to Matt in Dallas but I think I'm gonna give hometown hybrids a call to have it replaced asap with a new oem battery. I appreciate the idea of taking the battery out and driving it up to Matt but I won't get the time to do that until next weekend and I need my car running to get to work everyday. I'll give Matt a call tomorrow and let him know what happened :-/. He's been so nice over the phone and I was looking forward to meeting him iPhone ?
Just had the battery replaced by hometown hybrids. They had a brand new battery from toyota that was ready to go. Install took less than an hour and it was done in time for me to drive my car to work! I appreciate how quick they were in responding when I emailed them yesterday even though it was the weekend. iPhone ?
Wow. Car drives so much better now. Better acceleration and less noisy. I'm looking to get at least 8-9 more years out of this thing. Super happy iPhone ?
Right? Since the degradation is so slow over time, we just don't notice it. Even a conditioning with a grid charger makes a noticeable difference.
+1!! I noticed a huge difference in my wife's '06 when I put in the battery with all 2015 cells in May. She's getting 49-50 mpg and doesn't even try to hypermile. Lots of short trips, too. She is pretty light footed, though, but I think it's a good 4 mpg jump and it just runs nicely. The other day, I also replaced her inverter coolant at 119,000 miles. It'll be interesting to see if that does anything.
Is replacing the coolant a difficult job? Mine was replaced at 95k and I'm at 154k now. My next big job is to change all the struts and shocks out and then change out the coolant
It's 150,000 mile coolant. If it was changed at 95k, I'd leave it alone. It's so much easier to change with a vacuum pump to get the air out.
You can just dump the radiator and rinse out the overflow and then fill it back up with Toyota SLLC. You will not invoke an airlock which is a major pia and it's super easy and pretty good bang for the buck. Do that again in a few months and your good to go.
