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Can anyone advise me on the success rate of using a salvaged hybrid battery to replace the original?

I have a 2001 Prius w/ 149,000 miles on it. I was told back in March 07 that I needed a new hybrid battery, but I'm basically waiting it out until the car is undriveable and it's beginning to feel like that will happen any day now as I'm getting the turtle, the master warning light, and the check engine light and feeling power inconsistencies.

I was told by the Toyota tech that there is no way to know if the salvaged battery works until he installs it. So, worse case scenario is that I pay the labor costs to install it and then it doesn't work.

The salvage yards are able to tell me the number of miles on the car from which the part was pulled - so that gives me some sense of the life left in the battery, however, isn't the battery adversely affected when it's just sitting there not being charged on a regular basis waiting for someone like me to come along and buy it? Should I be asking the salvage yards how long the part has been sitting around and buy the "freshest" one I can find?

I'm beginning to feel like a potential organ recipient hoping someone dies in an accident so I can get their organs!

In general, NiMH batteries don't deteriorate when just sitting. They do slowly loose charge, so you'd want to be sure the battery had enough voltage to fire up the system. If the voltage got low enough they'd have to call in the regional charger to bring it back up to usable voltage so it could bring the system back to life.

Just consider the cost difference between a new and used battery and go from there.

There is a third thing to consider (sorry to complicate your process). A newer battery -may- be a better engineered design. I don't know if or how often Toyota's supplier (Panasonic) improved their battery technology.

Perhaps Bob Wilson or others can comment on this.

A top Toyota guy makes the news of the day:

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2007 ... 63663.html

So rebuilding is now OK but the recycling bounty drops to $150? I didn't see that coming.

DAS

Das,

Reconditioning NiMh batteries (The "forbidden" Panasonic large format batteries) is how the RAV4 EV's are staying on the road. It is a common procedure in that community.

JeffD

Tochatihu, thanks for posting that link.

I'd read about reconditioning batteries before, but my dealership didn't present that to me as an option - unless the $3000 quote they gave me was already for reconditioned parts and they just didn't present it to me as such. It sounds less risky than buying a salvaged battery.

Any idea where I can buy a reconditioned battery and how I can convince my local dealership to install one?

Also, the dealership never mentioned anything to me about getting a bounty for recycling my battery. Guess I'll have to ask them about crediting me that towards the cost of the repair.

If the salvage battery is discharged too low to start the ICE, you might be able to manually charge it far enough to get things started.

Great, DanMan32, you are back ! Were you on a vacation or doing some incognito assignment?
I didn't hear read from you recently ?

try to ask you dealer about reconditioned battery, because I saw the reconditioned battery parts number when I go over my factory microfilm part list last week. The parts number for the reconditioned HV battery is G9520-47050 and the new battery is G9510-47020.

ea8631, thanks for posting that parts number.

I called the dealership and gave the Parts dept the number for the reconditioned battery. He said nothing comes up and he'd never heard of reconditioned batteries being available.

Maybe they are currently only available in Canada?

I called Toyota customer service and they said that none were available in the US and that it's not for certain at this point whether they ever will be available or not. I guess it's still in R&D.

My new job keeps me busy. I had much more free time to post in my last job. Not on my home PC that much either.
Makes it hard to catch up, as I can't catch up in one sitting when I wait this long, and then I lose the markers for what is still unread when I log off.

yea just make sure you get a HV battery from a car that ran before they took it out, i had the problem of having a battery with low charge so the vehicle wont start, once i charged it it started up. Sorry to hear about the problems with your car

a salvaged battery will work, i urge you to get one instead of a brand new HV battery. once u get a good salvaged battery, the car will run normally again.

if u cannot find out if the car runs, try to get a battery that is from a low mileage 01-03 prius, usually they never really discharge enough to hinder the hybrid system from firing up the ICE.

I found a salvaged battery from a 2001 Prius that had approx 45,000 miles on it.

The guy couldn't tell me how long the battery had been sitting around or whether the car ran when scrapped, but he gave me a 30 day warranty - I should probably get that in writing.

Glad to know there are others who have had success w/ a salvaged battery. I'll let you all know how it works out.

i guess you can try it once u get that warranty, itll most likely work.

ALSO very important, once u change the battery turn the ignition on ( but do not start the car ) and erase all DTC's, then start the vehicle

However, now you're going to have to start worrying about the transmissions!

just found a hv battery from a 03 in ebay, not sure if you are interested or not.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyota-P ... enameZWDVW