I know they all use "refurbished" batteries, or more likely batteries from wrecked cars. I can't even find a single one on Google now, but when I looked 4 or 5 months ago I found a ton of them, wondering if they've all gone away, surely not. Anyway, I replaced a module on my daughter's car 5 months ago, now another one had died - yes, I know, to all that said that would happen, you were right. She would prefer to go ahead and buy a new battery from Toyota, and I'm inclined to agree, but just wanted to check if anyone could recommend one of the replacement services.... Thanks, Ian
You could DIY with new. Or if you want someone to do it, we have had great success with mobile installers installing our kit in customer cars.
Well... Most replacement services I see are found on Craigslist... And yes, just replacing a bad module without reconditioning remaining modules individually is one of the main reasons for having to replace the next module 5 months later. But if you watch them discharge during reconditioning you'll see some modules losing voltage much faster. There's also a self-discharge test where you max charge all modules and then see which modules lose their charge the most just sitting there for a day, a week or a month... There's also charging and balancing via a grid charger, as well as keeping corrosion out of the voltage sensing circuit and keeping an eye out for cells that are running hotter than others via a thermal imaging camera. Without all these efforts and more, you can only get months not years out of a rebuilt pack. Then, beyond the rather crude DIY techniques outlined above, there's professional rebuilders who have $30K in lab-grade electrical testing equipment that can get incredibly detailed information about each module and build super high quality refurbished packs, like the guy I buy used modules from at: Hybrid Battery Conditioning | Reconditioned Hybrid Car Batteries Service
