Ukrkoz

A big, big thank you for all your help both here and at the other forum.

After reading extensively here and at the other forum I decided to not get the Optima and Pepboys jacked up the price of the Bosch so I left that one out too. Got the Exide Edge FP AGM25 Plate plate sealed battery from Amazon

For the benefit of others who might have to do it I will post some tricky and gotcha moments I encountered while doing it and how I solved them.

My car is a 2007 Camry Hybrid, non Nav version

1. While removing the battery I found that a 10 mm socket and wrench works well except for the negative terminal which is too close to the trunk plastic covering and it is impossible to slide the socket / wrench inside to remove the nut. Even using the 10 mm spanner wrench was difficult. Finally I found that removing the battery holding L metal plate, the positive terminal and the vent flow tube made it possible to slide the battery out of its inside chamber, initially by tilting it and then moving it forward and sideways. The I could get to the negative terminal with the socket wrench. I held the positive terminal out of the way after unscrewing it, using a clear packaging tape to hold it.

2. The Exide battery is the same height and depth but its length is about 2 cm or so shorter than the original Panasonic battery. But after putting the holding plate back it seems to be firmly in place. Maybe the other Exide might be bigger and a perfect fit.

3. The original L shaped plastic tube inserted into the Panasonic battery is bigger and will not fit the smaller vent hole of the Exide battery. Luckily I bought the Dorman 924-254 battery vent tube and its L piece is perfect fit. So I used the original tubing, just removed the original L piece from the tubing and inserted the Dorman L piece and slide the other end of the L piece into the Exide battery vent. Since this is an add on item at Amazon buy it at the same time as the battery, though it came as separate deliveries for me.

4. The temp sensor removal was the trickiest part. Firstly I did not know where the end was and after many attempts I removed the adhesive warning white tape on the Panasonic battery and there it was under it. Next the end sensor was in a white gel which was in a shallow well on the battery. Not easy to pry out with standard flat screwdrivers. Finally I had an idea and used the tiny screwdriver you use to change eye spectacles screws and it worked. You can get a 5 piece tiny screwdriver set of flat and Phillips screwdrivers from Dollar store for $1. Comes in very handy.

5. The reassembling was fairly quick - battery vent tube followed by attaching negative terminal followed by sliding battery in place and the putting the holding plate and inserting the holding nuts and tightening it and finally attaching the positive battery wire and tightening the nut. The I removed the white gel and attached the temp sensor using electrical tape to hold it. The dashboard lights came on and I started the car with 3+ power up/off cycles with the ready light not coming on. . I saw the red battery signal on the dashboard.

6. I unattached the temp sensor which I had attached to the black part of the exide battery near the front side ( the top of the battery is all plastic) and reattached to the shiny central area which has the Exide logo. Hallelujah . The ready signal came on in the first attempt. I may have to glue it with a glue gun in the future or use extra tapes to hold it. Something for another day. I will keep an extra set of adhesive tape in the glove compartment since the sensor is attached to the front of the battery and not the top.

7. All in all, took about 1.5 hours. I can do the next one in 20-30 minutes now that I know the gotcha moments.

 

Wow.
First, you are welcome.
1.5 hr? I was done in about 20 minutes.

For those who will follow this thread. When you replace battery, connect backup under the hood. Pop fuse box cover and there is large copper nut or bus in the middle of fuse block. that's your positive. Connect negative anywhere on the engine.
Seriously, have back up 12V connected.

 

Hi! I'm posting this here because we've relied on all of the advice in this thread to get us where we are right now and I'm hoping you guys still have a trick up your sleeve.

We just bought a used 07 TCH, that was popping a lot of error codes about the battery. Dealer we bought it from didn't want to do the work on it, and after some research we decided that we could fix it on our own. The car still ran quite well. It actually ran for two weeks with all of the error lights on. The only issue it had was at low speed the vehicle would randomly shut off and the amber light would come on the START button. Pulling over and putting it in park and restarting it would solve the issue and we could continue on but we still wanted to fix that problem.

We finally get ready to do it and disconnect the 12v, disassembled the HV,
and we find the most corroded connectors ever. We clean those, and the bolts. We tested the cells, and all but one were reading properly at 7.9v. While reassembling the battery, I screwed up and over-tightened two of the bolts and broke the terminals off. We went and bought 3 new battery cells and tested them. They were at 7.9; all good. So we reassemble and reconnect the battery, and the car won't start. it turns on! The dash comes on, the radio will turn on... in fact, it seems like everything comes on except the traction engine.... We test the the 12v, and it's reading around 11.7v, which dropped near 5v whenever we tried to start the car. We took it to a battery shop who confirmed that it was dead. Also confirmed that it was the original battery, sold with the car. So at this point, its a 11 year old battery.... definitely needed to be replaced. So, per the advice from this thread, we bought an optima red top d35. It's reading the right voltage and all that, so we connected it back to the car and it still wont start. It still turns on... but won't crank.

We have checked at least 10 times to make sure that the orange HV connector has been put back in properly!!!

Our next move is to re-pull the HV pack and try to recheck/retest everything so we're hoping someone can help us.

 

No need to double post. Please pick a thread and stick with it.

 

Hi stitchitcher, I have seen this many times in the TCH. What you need to do is not pull the pack. Put the vehicle in accessory mode (the mode where the dash light comes on) and try and get a diagnostic scan done. The scan may not be very accurate but it will point you in the right direction. There are a number of reasons why the car won't start and you want to be able to know what to look for when you get to pull the pack out.

 

Also take a look at the wires that plug to the HV Relay Assembly that you have not mixed them up (+ve to -ve and vice versa). The +ve will usually have a red tape on it and you want that plugged into the +ve side of the relay assembly.
Ensure that all other connectors are in place including the Battery Pack Wire connector that is just by the side of the battery (looking from the rear passenger door), the 12 V connector from your auxilarry battery.

 

Did I miss something? Where do you connect the temperature sensor on the replacement battery? Is it part of the Optima?

 

Replacing OEM battery in my 2009 as getting weak. Just shy of 8 years on my OEM battery which is great especially since the car doesn't get used a lot and can sit for 3+ months or longer in the garage at a time ... unfortunately not able to use it during the winter months as we go south for the winter. Perhaps would have lasted longer with more frequent use. Will use the Exide battery greenvillehybrid used. Thanks for installation instructions. Still not sure where you taped the temp sensor. You indicated on the front vs the top ... could you also put it under the hold down strap (on the front) as someone indicated they did in an earlier post on the top?

 

I'd place it on the top, as close to original position as possible. it's a thermistor, heat goes up, right?

 

Only with a convective air current. In the semi-sealed battery compartment, there is likely enough dead air space that the battery temperature is pretty uniform.