I am sending my '02 Prius into the shop for it's 120K checkup in a few weeks. I am wondering how long my traction battery will hold out, and it seems that there is no good way to detect a failing battery before it goes. I am planning to get a rebuild at reinvolt, but since I live in Maryland I would like a little warning. I had always understood that there is no good way to detect a failing battery, but OLDNOAH posted a few error codes pertaining to batteries in a nearby post. Is testing for these codes part of normal dealership servicing? Would they report error codes to me normally or would I have to ask?
Sad to say, there is no good way. The Dept. of Energy Prius went 160,000 miles and the batteries were still good. The longest Prius have run over 300,000 miles on the original batteries. But there are some indicators to look for: minimum-maximum voltage spread increasing minimum voltage module-pair seems to be just one over and over again, the weak one battery temperatures seem to be increasing There are active tests that monitor the voltages and charge and discharge the battery. However, even these test at best give an indication but are not predictive. Art's has a nice write-up: Predictive battery failure analysis for the Prius Hybrid Bob Wilson
