I have a 2010 Prius, with over 170,000 miles on it, which has never given me a problem. I tend to do my maintenance religiously (ie. oil, tire rotation, etc.), but yesterday the "Check Hybrid System" light along with 4 other lights on the dash board came on. I used my old scan gauge & pulled a "P0480" error code, which is indicative of a problem with the hybrid battery. Since I hadn't change by 12 volt auxiliary battery in 5 five years I decided to force clear the "P0A80" error code & replace the 12 volt auxiliary battery. So far I have driven over 100 miles and no error codes or dash board lights have gone on. I'm still wondering if I should replace my hybrid battery at a cost of $2900 or if I should think about purchasing a new 4th generation Prius? Only other issue I have with the vehicle is the high oil consumption, at a rate 1 quart per every 1000 miles, and struts/shocks that may need to be replaced. The oil consumption issue, which I temporarily fix by adding oil, makes me think that I have a future head gasket issue that may need to be addressed also. Any suggestions in this matter would be appreciated.
The low-hanging fruit with this might be to remove and inspect the battery. There can be corrosion build-up on the bus bars, reducing it's performance. Several members have had good results, just cleaning off the bus bars and all the connectors. I believe they also measure the individual cell voltages, see how they compare, and maybe shuffle the pack, moving the middle-of-pack to the ends and vice versa. I'm not that knowledgable, haven't done this myself That's more likely to be due to: 1. sticking piston rings 2. leaking valve seals 3. clogged Exhuast Gas Recirculation and/or clogging intake manifold That's not to say failing head gasket is not "waiting in the wings". Anyway: Of the above, #3 is the low-hanging-fruit, something relatively easily addressed. Problem though, at this juncture, it might be too late. There's a Technical Service Bulletin, for cars with less than 60K miles only though: first an oil consumption test is done, and if you "win", they pull the engine, separate the head, the block, remove the piston bearings (check their tolerances), ream the cylinder carbon at top, pull the piston assemblies out, and replace the pistons and piston rings, with revised versions, which seems a tacit acknowledgement, that they screwed up. But out-of-warranty, that would be very expensive, a salvage engine swap makes more sense. From reading your whole post: it might be time to move on.
You never mentioned whether you have ever had the EGR system cleaned, so I'm going to assume you haven't. That would probably have extended the life of your ICE, in terms of limiting oil consumption and avoiding head gasket problems, but if the car is already burning oil, it's probably too late now to do much about that. In addition to the struts/shocks you may eventually find that you have a problem with your catalytic converter since the engine's oil burning is putting additional strain on that system. At this point, it might seem best to trade it in on a new one, but the car still has some value to you (you know its history and now that the 12V has been replaced, you may be able to squeeze a few more good years out of the car yet). Trading it in you may not be able to recapture its true value. I guess your decision depends on your financial situation and how much you can get for your old car. We chose to keep our old Gen 2, but bought a Gen 4 with the expectation that the old one wouldn't last much longer. A year later, the old car is still running fine and the new one is just sitting. I don't think you would want to find yourself in that situation either. ;-)
How much do you think this car can fetch with an oil burning issue and failed hv battery? Newer engine and battery will cost $5000 and you could go another 100000 miles
2010, 233k and I've done all the cleaning and changing of liquids in the past 3-6 months including adding the OCC 4k miles ago. I'm gonna try having the 12v battery checked, although I bought about a month ago, plus I wanna clean the hybrid battery fan and hope for the best! I hooked up my car, at park (not under load) and all the batteries read in the high 15 to low 16 volts so I had a hard time believing the battery was bad.
I have over 170,000 miles on it, but after force clearing the "P0A80" code & replacing the 12 volt auxiliary battery, I haven't had any issues. I will continue driving & monitoring the vehicle in order to see if any codes show up, but if they do, then I will replace the hybrid battery with either a new ($2900) or refurbished battery ($1500). I am aware that the bus bars & connectors on the hybird battery may just need to be cleaned, therefore I will keep that into consideration before replacing the hybrid battery. I believe my 2010 Prius Model 3 is past the CA. warranty phase (ie. first 10 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first)
