Toyota Hybrid 12V Battery, Ouch!

Exactly my point.. When that new fangled stuff breaks, and it always does sooner or later, they are usually very proud of the replacement parts. And while you can often find generic parts cheaper, they are usually sub-standard quality vs OEM.

Sometimes you are lucky if you can find someone that can even find the part that goes bad. I had a 91 camry that started running rough. Autozone help page said it could be one of 3 sensors (not counting the plugs, wires and coil that I had already replaced). As the one at the top of the list was about $ 600 I took the car to a dealer. He kept it over 2 weeks trying to find the problem. I sent Toyota an email and they emailed me right back a very nice email. Turned out it was the $ 600 part but the repair person ws tying other things first.

Many replacement car parts are out of sight. Fellow at work had a cracked tail light and it was over $ 100 for that piece of plastic. Bet it only cost $ 5 to make if that much.

There are no battery terminals under the hood of my second-gen. Prius either. Still have to get to the battery in the trunk. Not that I ever needed to...

It's not a deep cycle battery at all. It's a 12v battery that does nothing but provide normal 12v battery duties when the car is off, and when you turn the car to ready it opens the relays to allow the traction battery to then power the car.

It's a small battery, that's all.

Who told you it's a "deep cycle" battery? The dealer???

The Prius battery, which is the same battery, costs $300 at the dealer to replace. If your dealer charges $500, he's ripping you off.

Aftermarket, it's still a $175 battery.

Ah, the sounds of the ignorant.

Have you ever actually read your owner's manual? No, you haven't...

There are battery terminals under the hood of your second gen (2004-2009) Prius. You can lift the hood and hook up jumper cables just fine--and even better, all the jumping battery has to do is open those relays so the big battery can take over.

You don't have a battery under the hood, that's all.

And I am quite surprised that the Camry doesn't have these terminals. I strongly suspect it must, frankly.

I'm with you on this one, Elmo. I find it impossible to believe that there is no battery terminal under the hood. It's easy to believe there is no battery, but there should be a terminal post that is used for jumping the car with another car.

Have a 2001 BMW 325ci with battery in the trunk and no jumper terminals under the hood. Some cars do and some cars don't. Just jump the ones that do not, at the battery in the trunk. Not optimum, but it works.

Actually, the Camry Hybrid and the Prius 12V batteries are not the same. The Camry Hybrid 12V battery is larger, higher capacity, and more expensive. The batteries are both AGM (Absorbed glass mat) deep cycle batteries, just as the original Panasonic batteries are.

The aftermarket battery for the second generation Prius is the Optima model DS46B24R (D51), part number 8171-767. $170 from . While it will work in a Camry, it's much lower capacity than the original battery (38AH versus

57AH). That capacity matters in a hybrid where accessories run off the 12V deep cycle AGM battery when the gasoline engine isn't running.

You really want to use the D35 (8040-218) or D75/25 (8042-218) battery in the Camry Hybrid which are 48AH. Still less than the 57AH for the OEM, but not as far off as the Prius battery. The D75/25 has the terminals in the proper position, the D35 has them reversed but you can just install the battery backwards. The problem is that neither of these batteries have the vent hole for the vent tube, only the 8171-767 (D51) has the vent hose connection.

The bottom line is that for the Camry Hybrid you're left with three choices: 1) the original Panasonic battery (a custom battery sold only by Toyota) 2) a much lower capacity Prius battery, or 3) a slightly lower capacity Optima battery that is not properly vented. #3 is why elearnaid states "If you are looking for a battery for a Camry hybrid. Click here for what we recommend. Fits well and includes Toyota vent tube connection hole." Then they refer you to the Prius battery.

To buy the 12V Camry battery yourself and put it in yourself is $418 at the dealer I called. They do have a 25% off coupon which would bring it down to about $315. One dealer with on-line sales will sell it for $272 (plus shipping of about $33).

They charge more to install it because they have to do a few extra minutes of work like moving the temperature sensor over and attaching the vent tube.

If only it existed.

Bullshit.

Those items are all powered by the HV battery, not the 12v battery.

Call another dealer.

Call an independent shop.

Hit the net to see how much a battery costs from any number of Toyota dealers who are happy to deal with internet buyers.

You keep saying that, but it's not true.

"The Prius 12V auxilary battery which is used to initialize the Hybrid system and to power its accessories, is a Lead-acid AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) Deep-Cyle battery which is not designed to produce a large amount of current at once (which is drawn by most starter motors in conventional vehicles)."

Are you sure your BMW has no terminal under the hood? Look in the area around the right side shock tower, there should be a plastic cover with a + sign moulded into it. My BMWs have a terminal under the hood, I'm certain yours does too.

YOU ARE CORRECT, Jeff. I went and looked and there it was. Wife had a dead battery at the airport once and the guy with the jump could not find the battery. He found it in the trunk and jumped it there. Seems he could have just used the terminal under the hood. That is why I thought it wasn't there. I will remember that.

I am utterly astounded at how people will buy a shiny new $15K to $100K toy, and not once open the owner's manual to find out simple things like this--

--and worse, who will then go on the internet and declare their ignorant musings ("there are no jumper terminals under the hood") to be fact.

The reason the terminal is there is because BMW thinks you should not have to empty the trunk just because the battery takes a dive. Tow truck drivers should all know this, but you as the car owner should know it too.

Glad I could help.

Who really cares? That battery ran down for my wife and I was at home. It was the guy jumping the car that didn't know about the terminals. What am I supposed to do? Go out in the garage and get the manual and look it up? Let the guy jumping the car figure it out. Put the jumpers on the battery and you will NEVER go wrong.

BTW, why do they even put terminals under the hood. I could see doing that if the battery was inside the car, but it is in the trunk. Very easy to jump the car from behind. Ignorant Musing? Hey, Jeff was right. What is ignorant about that. BTW, Suck Me.

You should care.

That you don't, speaks volumes.