High Mileage Prii Being Sold on E-Bay Motors

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by mhawkin1, Aug 2, 2007.

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  1. mhawkin1

    mhawkin1 Matt

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    For the past few weeks I have been tracking Prii being auctioned/sold on e-bay. It seems every single Prius that has been listed with over 150k has had the main battery replaced. I don’t understand how this is the case with so many saying “the battery will last the life of the car,†and “not a single battery has been replaced.†It seems to me quite a few have been replaced.
    Am I missing something?
     
    #1 mhawkin1, Aug 2, 2007
  2. TheForce

    TheForce Stop War! Lets Rave! Make Love!

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    Are you sure its the hybrid battery or is it the little 12v battery?
     
    #2 TheForce, Aug 2, 2007
  3. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    links please.
    And we are aware of a handful of NiMH batteries that required replacement, but only a few.
     
    #3 efusco, Aug 2, 2007
  4. mhawkin1

    mhawkin1 Matt

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    They say 'main battery' and most of the time they refer to Toyota covering it under warranty, so I have to assume they are talking about the traction battery. It is hard to post links because the cars come and go. I just check every few days and noticed the trend.

    These have all been pre-2004 models. Should I be a lot less concerned since mine is a 2007 model?
     
    #4 mhawkin1, Aug 2, 2007
  5. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mhawkin1 @ Aug 2 2007, 08:54 AM) [snapback]489201[/snapback]</div>
    I don't think you should be concerned either way. Ebay maintains the ads even after sales...again, please post up some of these "every single Prius" ads, my experience is far different.
     
    #5 efusco, Aug 2, 2007
  6. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    The ads as I have found them in the order I found them:
    An '02--no battery replacement mentioned
    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyota-Priu...sspagenameZWDVW

    '01-no mention of battery replacement
    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyota-Priu...sspagenameZWDVW

    '02-no mention of battery replacement
    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyota-Priu...sspagenameZWDVW

    '06-Coils and ECU replacement, no battery replacement
    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyota-Priu...sspagenameZWDVW

    '07-as new
    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyota-Priu...sspagenameZWDVW

    '05-as new, no battery replacement
    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyota-Priu...sspagenameZWDVW

    [skipped 2 2G Prii b/c I'm getting lazy and no mention of battery replacement]

    '01-no mention of battery replacement
    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyota-Priu...sspagenameZWDVW

    Ok, I quit...I think you get my point. You've exagerated a bit in your original post with the "every one" comment. It's possible a rare Prius has had to have a battery replaced and they may show up on ebay, but there is no reason for concern, this is a rare issue in the 1G Prii and even more rare in 2G.
     
    #6 efusco, Aug 2, 2007
  7. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    HMMM !!
    Seems to have goten quiet. Maybe gone back under the bridge. :p
     
    #7 hill, Aug 2, 2007
  8. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Ok, I lied...
    I decided it would only be fair to check the completed sales of '01-'03 Prii.
    I searched at least the first 10 that came up...one had a transaxle replaced, one an ECU shortly after original purchase. Still couldn't find a single mention of a battery issue or replacement. You're going to have to help me out here....
    http://motors.search-completed.ebay.com/_W...h=1&guest=1
     
    #8 efusco, Aug 2, 2007
  9. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    Playing Devil's Advocate here:

    Say it was true, and the batteries were failing before 150k (yes, I realize that's not true, just for sake of argument).

    That would be great. My warranty is for 10 years, 150k miles. If it fails at 9 years, 11mos with 148k on the odometer, I get a new battery from Toyota for free.


    I'm pretty sure its not going to happen though.
     
    #9 dogfriend, Aug 2, 2007
  10. inventor00

    inventor00 Active Member

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    #10 inventor00, Aug 2, 2007
  11. mhawkin1

    mhawkin1 Matt

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    Surprising, a Prius owner that’s combative.

    Efusco – I mentioned they had ‘over 150k miles.’ Every single link you posted had Prii with a substantially lower amount of miles than 150k. There was a Prius listed yesterday that had 200+k miles for sale that mentioned battery replacement.

    I did not know you could search when the auction was over. If you could inform me of how to do this I would be happy to find links.

    There is no reason to be aggressive with your response – I am a Prius fan. I can admit mistakes ‘every single’ was a poor choice of words.
     
    #11 mhawkin1, Aug 2, 2007
  12. mhawkin1

    mhawkin1 Matt

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    I also clearly understand that the chances of me needing to pay the replacement costs of a battery is close to 0 - that was not the point of my post. The point was how true is the statement "the battery should last the life of the car."
     
    #12 mhawkin1, Aug 2, 2007
  13. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Not being hostile, just trying to confirm your hyperbolic statements.
    Searching closed auctions is simple, just click "advanced" and within that box click the "completed auctions only" box.

    The "lasting the life of the car" is as accurate as the "lasting the life of the car" statements for a transmission, ICE, axle, etc for any other car. It doesn't mean that they will never have a faulty one or a premature failure, but that, in general, they are designed to last the life of the vehicle. There will always be exceptions but there is certainly no evidence of widespread premature failure.
     
    #13 efusco, Aug 2, 2007
  14. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    Will a service like Carfax reveal "battery replacement"? I am asking because the seller might state (incorrectly intentionally) to ease the buyer's battery concern. If I am buying a used Prius, I would pay a little extra if I knew the battery was replaced recently.
     
    #14 usbseawolf2000, Aug 2, 2007
  15. mhawkin1

    mhawkin1 Matt

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    Totally see your point on the 'transmission comparison.' It appears e-bay only holds historical data for 15 days... so this really does not help us much. I have been looking at the 150k+ listing for months now (as they are few and far between). I promise you, I have not seen a listing for a Prius with over 150k that has not mentioned traction battery replacement.
    Since the data is only good for 15 days, check in from time to time on e-bay and you will see what I am referring to.
     
    #15 mhawkin1, Aug 2, 2007
  16. jamarimutt

    jamarimutt New Member

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    My 2004's transaxle was replaced at 46,000 miles.
     
    #16 jamarimutt, Aug 2, 2007
  17. inventor00

    inventor00 Active Member

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    Our 2004 had it's transaxle replaced at 62 miles...2005 is fine....
     
    #17 inventor00, Aug 2, 2007
  18. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    Please remember that most '01 - '03 Classics were subject to the TSB
    about the battery bus-bar contacts and leakage/resealing work. After
    a while Toyota took to simply replacing packs wholesale rather than
    having techs dig in there and romp around with the high voltage,
    which would likely count as "battery replacement". That's probably
    still going on, given that the battery is one of the 8/100K warranted
    items, and the TSB happened because of a manufacturing defect allowing
    the battery module terminals to start growing a little corrosion.
    .
    As far as we know this isn't a problem with the '04+ since the hybrid
    battery modules were redesigned for higher current and better contact-
    area sealing.
    .
    And there *is* a lot of confusion stemming from fairly widespread
    replacements of the 12V batteries in the Classics, too. When someone
    says "I had a Prius that needed a new battery", what's the first
    thing that the paranoid listener is going to think??
    .
    _H*
     
    #18 hobbit, Aug 2, 2007
  19. mhawkin1

    mhawkin1 Matt

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    Understood... but every battery I was referring to stated 'traction battery' or 'Prius Main Battery replaced under warranty by Toyota' I don’t think Toyota is replacing many 12v's under warranty.

    Anyone readying this can just view e-bay for the next couple months... and we can talk about it then... I will put a reminder on my calendar! :D
     
    #19 mhawkin1, Aug 2, 2007
  20. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    During 2004-2006 I tracked ebay auctions of classic Prius. I recall that about 5/250 mentioned battery replacement. Based on email replies from the sellers (incomplete), 2 of those were likely the HV battery.

    I believe that Hobbit is correct that many of the HVB replacements that have happened were because of electrolyte leakage corrosion.

    Toyota has not publicly disclosed the total number of HVB replacements. They have said (but not recently) that none have failed in service. The rate may be about 1/1000 overall, but it is a hard number to get a handle on. The eBay offers may be higher, and reports from the Prius internet groups suggest lower.

    In my opinion, this is lower than the failure rate of conventional automatic transmissions, even well-maintained ones, which can cost a similar amount.
     
    #20 tochatihu, Aug 2, 2007
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