This sucker started going dead on my 2001 if I didn't use the car for more than a day or so. It just apparently lost capacity over 7 years and couldn't keep up with the theft deterrent and other "off use" electronics. So I had to pay $335.37 to Toyota for a replacement. Nice Hugh! The new is different from the original (hope it's upgraded capacity!) and required special new mounting hardware which they didn't stock (natch!). Three days and all that dough just to change a
12V battery (sheesh!). Any one with similar experience?
Any lead-acid battery that manages 6 years has done well. Having said that, this seems like an awful lot of money for what is, essentially, a low capacity, small battery. Maybe it's because it's relatively rare? Living in the UK - and being used to dollar/pound parity - i.e. anything that costs a dollar in the States is usually around a pound in the UK ;-( - gives me cause for concern about what it will cost me in 3 years time.........
A quick Google search for "Prius 12 volt battery" turned up several hits at $133.95, which is still ridiculously expensive but a far cry cheaper than the OP paid.
That is a shame but last year over in "Prius Technical Stuff" we looked at servicing the 12 V battery. I took mine out; removed the "Do Not Remove" seal; took out the little plugs; and added distilled water; and put it back together.
Eventually my 12 V battery will fail and when it does, if water rehydration doesn't work, I'll buy a $25-35 lawn tractor battery and copper piping from Lowe's. I'll fabricate two adapters and use the cheaper battery.
There is an adapter that allows you to use a Miata battery in your Prius. This brings the price to about $90 the last time I checked. But for my purposes, a sealed, lawn tractor battery with vent tube will work good enough.
Um, do you think paying over $335 to replace said battery is also not a big deal? I rather doubt he would have posted anything saying "beware" if it had cost under $100.
With the car in READY? With the car ON, the 12 VDC system gets the power from the inverter. But if you notice the speed change with the car not READY, so you're running on just the battery, this does sound like it might be getting a bit weak.
The battery is rated at 35 Ahr and I think AutoZone will test it for free.
But before doing a battery swap, you might check over in "Prius Technical Stuff" and probably even PriusChat about how to add water. This is not a difficult task and a little distilled water goes a long way.
Sounds like a good idea but not something I worry about. In my case, I don't have much 'stored' in the ECUs.
I've heard a lot of good things about the Miata battery. But I need to point out I live in North Alabama and our batteries suffer more from heat than cold. So for me, a lawn tractor battery is a good alternative.
It's a car. The battery is good for ABOUT five years, but....frankly, it goes dead when it goes dead. Replace it.
That's how the world works. There's no specified time limit, no maintenance schedule for the battery. Either it works, or it doesn't. When it doesn't, replace it. That's how car ownership is, with every car.
If you've had the car (or the battery) for 5 or more years, you should not at all be surprised to come out and find the battery dead. You're on your own as to how to deal with that. If you don't like surprises, then just have the battery checked every time you're in for maintenance--they'll know when it's on the downhill slope, and you can take care of it right then and there.
In short: no, Toyota should not have specified maintenance replacement every X years or months. Not at all. That's not how car batteries work.
I made no comment on the expense--because neither did the original poster. I responded directly to his idea that somehow, some way, the time to replace the battery should be specified, that he should never randomly come out to the use the car and find out it won't start, that he should never have any SURPRISES in life whatsoever, that it's Toyota's responsibility (!) to prevent him from ever coming out to find that the car won't start.
Apparently, he's never owned a car before.
As for the price--well, a smart buyer investigates all aspects of the car before buying it. A smart buyer looks at regular maintenance costs and finds information on reliability, in order to evaluate operating costs. A battery is a maintenance item. 'Nuff said.
Said smart buyer also investigates insurance costs, for example.
One hates to be called "not a smart buyer," but if the shoe fits...
BTW, Chrysler pulled a similar stunt with their cars awhile back--put the battery way down such that replacing it meant pulling the front wheel and pulling off the fender liner. Sure, it was a standard battery. But the labor costs added up. All so that it cost Chrysler less to manufacture.
Such is the Prius. It was convenient for the manufacturer. Screw the customer. Let him pay for it. Toyota needed a certain price point on the sticker. That's all. Toyota doesn't care if the car needs $5000 worth of maintenance 5 years later. That's later. (The car doesn't, but even if it did, Toyota wouldn't care.)
You know, there's enough information out on the net nowadays that EVERYONE spending $25,000 on a car (or even $10,000) should know EVERYTHING about that car prior to beginning the purchase process.
The problem is, the world is full of idiots who happen to have (or think they have) $25,000 to spend. They don't bother to KNOW anything about that $25,000 purchase; they go out, get caught up in the emotions of buying a new car, and just sign on the dotted line right then and there.
Stupid people let emotions rule the decision. Smart people don't let emotions into a business deal. Notice how the car salesman is a businessman, and has no emotion in the deal whatsoever.
Guess who wins?
And if you find out 5 years later that the tiny CMOS battery in the trunk costs $335 to replace, so be it. You COULD have spent a couple of months lurking in any number of Prius forums, and found out everything about the car. But you didn't--because you made it an emotional decision, not a rational business decision.
12V battery (sheesh!). Any one with similar experience?"
That post? The one in which he talked about how much the battery cost and didn't say anything you just said he said? _That_ post?
So, let me see if I understand. When he bought his 2001 Prius, which, unless he specifically states otherwise, I'm assuming was in 2001 or
2002, he should have read in forums that may or may not have even existed at the time, that, when the battery on that car got to be 5 years old (which had not yet happened to any other of that model Prius, as it was introduced that year), it would cost him $335 to replace it?
Again, as I said, I doubt we would have heard anything from him if he'd had to pay no more than $100, which is the most anyone would reasonably expect to pay for a 12V car battery without any prior knowledge of this one.
The problem, of course, is that it's a very small battery, physically, and there is no large aftermarket supply of them as there would have been for virtually any American brand. I can remember owning a 1971 Honda 600 coupe, and discovering that instead of the typical (for the time) price of $16 to $19, I would have to pay $42 (I think) for a battery which was only available from a Honda dealer. I bit the bullet and bought one; what else was I going to do? I had a similar problem finding 10 inch tires for the car (I ended up with Michelins, of all things).
I needed a second car at the time, and this one was offered in the classifieds. I bought it in 1975, and it had about 40,000 miles on it. I kept it for 2 years, at which time, I believe it was just about clapped out. It was leaking oil into the passenger compartment from someplace up front. It was responsible for my purchase of a set of metric socket wrenches and a 6" extender--I needed it to occasionally tighten up the starter, as it would work loose. It blew an exhaust valve, and I had a 1-cylinder car for a while--it had no acceleration at all, but even on 1 lung, I could redline it in all 4 gears.
I believe it was junked when I traded it in, in 1977.
I remember seeing two other 600 Coupes in the area with some regularity. One was pristine, owned by a fellow worker who had bought it new, and the other had been customized--great big fender flares on the rear, and what looked like 15" rims with drag slicks ON THE REAR. It had about a
15 degree down slant from rear to front. Quite stylish, I guess. It still had that little air-cooled two cylinder engine driving the front wheels, of course.
You got ripped off. the battery costs $137.50 and iseasily installed in about a half hour. These batteriestypically last 4 years and can cause all kinds of weird symptoms when they begin to go bad.
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