Needed to replace the 12V in a Psuedo emergency mode as I have to drive the car from San Jose (250 miles) to my other home near Yosemite for a job interview in the local county. Went out to go to the store and the dash lit up but so did everything else and it would go into gear. Read about it before and simply did not hesitate to remove everything at the back of the car and remove the 12v Battery. Ugh EXIDE Crap, worst batteries on the planet, IMO. I am a GIANT Interstate fan, I have had almost everyone I bought in the last 25 years last 7-10 years. Could not find the AGM battery, not even at the local Interstate store. I desperately needed the car dependable to get to the interview. My local Autozone had a Duralast that got good reviews, so I have my fingers crossed it last more than a few weeks. I checked with the local Toyota dealer since the OEM battery was highly recommended and they only sell the battery if I let them install it. Labor rate was $150 F.. that for undoing a few bolts.
Most of the AGM batteries in this size are made by two or three companies at best batteries today just seem to have a high failure rate because of quick manufacturing and other practices in place I guess so I try not to get into the battery wars too much pretty much any battery you buy is going to have some kind of prorated warranty to get you to 5 years or something or similar. You can run all kinds of shoddy batteries in the back of a Prius from universal batteries the 151 things whatever they are The only problem will be with any batteries will be how you connect the terminals there's a bunch of ways to do that if you want to play around or you just pay the $180 get the regular group size battery shove it in the hole and be done with it if you abuse the car and don't drive it and leave things on and do all that stuff put a pigtail on it and stick it through the little plate so you can plug up your charger when you need to without having to start pulling panels up and maybe check that terminal that plug you've added back there and see what it really is about every other week or so and if you need to put it on the battery tender it's just that simple I shouldn't be to forgetful of that.
There is no reason a Toyota Parts department won't sell you the part without installation. You probably contacted the service department and not the parts department. Also you should confirm the problem you have is actually the battery and not some other issue. The dash all lighting up is usually not a battery issue
"I checked with the local Toyota dealer since the OEM battery was highly recommended and they only sell the battery if I let them install it. Labor rate was $150 F.. that for undoing a few bolts." I agree, that doesn't sound right...it's a part just like if we were buying brake pads from them....should've escalated that up their chain and raise the BS flag!! Why are some Toyota dealers starting to act like Chevy and Ford stealerships these days???? The Car Care Nut has a new video with a Lexus bill for something like $147 for an oil change...they charged over $5 for the drain plug gasket and triple-charged for the oil filter and I think the oil was $15 a quart....highway robbery!!!
