Maybe. DEALER.
Maybe your traction battery simply needs to be charged. DEALER.
One way or another you better off going there.
But!! After they tell you what it is and what it gonna cost, post here before making any decisions. Not sure about your politicians, but I am yet to see a quality dealer. They have, how should I put it, tendencies.

 

Took vehicle to the dealership and these are the codes that they have read:

P0A7F
P0A80
P3013
P3014

I might be wrong about the first letter of the last two, but tit has something to do with cell pack 3 and 4 becoming weak.

I'm sorry.. I'm still in shock. Dealership gave me a quote of $5k to replace hybrid battery system.

 

P3013 and P3014 indicate battery blocks 3 and 4 are weak. There are (6) 1.2volt cells in a module and 34 of those modules in a battery pack. The modules are then grouped (2) modules to each battery block. The battery smart unit checks each of those 17 blocks for low voltage.

There is a test procedure to check and make sure the battery smart unit is functioning correctly but to be honest about it, with two battery blocks showing low, it sounds like your battery could be going bad but check and make sure he did do this and can give you the right answer. Keep in mind this code is set when the voltages between blocks is more than 0.3 volts which is not much.

Can you call the tech and have him give you the difference in voltage between the battery blocks? He should have run a check procedure per P0A7F where the voltage in each block is recorded and certain blocks are compared to see the difference between them. If it is not very large, I would have them charge the traction battery (takes a special charger to do that), clear the codes and see what happens.

If the codes come back, try looking for a company that will rebuild your pack. They are made from std cells and you should be able to find someone that could replace the cells in the two bad blocks (which are the two that are compared to each other in the check). In fact, see if the tech will give you the voltages in ALL the battery blocks (17 total) and let us know.

By the way, the factory LIST price on that battery is $3541.14 with 1.8 hours of labor to replace. Given an hourly rate of $100, it should be just under $3,750 for the job. If it were me, I would use something like a green tec auto rebuilt with a 18 month, unlimited mileage battery at $1,895 plus $200 for labor and be done at about $2,200.

Your mileage may vary.....

Sorry for the bad news but try the charge first an see if those two blocks come back up before replacing the pack.

 

Ah.. it will be alright, just not what we expected to hear at this moment.

I will call the service writer on Monday and see if the tech did what you said he was supposed to do. I seriously doubt he did it.

We will not be going through the dealer to replace this battery, if that is route we choose to go. We will probably go the GreenTec way.

Thank you guys for the help. I will let you all know what the dealership says about the voltage between the packs.

BTW, how much does this special charger cost that you are talking about?

 

I don't think the Toyota chargers are available to the public but a grid charger from other suppliers would run from $300 to well over $600. At least know you are better informed at what you are looking at but that is not much help in paying for it.

The only bright side is that our cars will not need a tranny rebuild like several buddies of mine with Honda Pilots.....well over $3,500 for them as they just about need to be replaced.

 

David, it's a great pleasure and help having you here! Thank you so much for your continuous support.

 

David, I agree with above poster, your knowledge has been extremely helpful.

Right now, I'm attempting to get Toyota to help out on the part price and then I will work on the dealership to get them to come down off their labor charges. Perhaps I can get this done for less cost than with Greentec.

I will keep you guys informed.

Everyone take care!

 

You can buy entire battery for less than a thousand online. Those are not high demand items, seen them on e-Bay for $400.

 

One thing that might help when talking to the dealer, the warranty pay time for a tech to replace the battery is 1.3 hours. Customer pay time is 1.8 hours and they should settle for 2 hours of shop time for the install.

If they claim otherwise, have them show you the flat rate manual listing the time they quoted. There are several places to buy rebuilt batteries as well as a new, factory battery from Toyota.

I am leery of a used battery as most of them are pulled from totaled vehicles and you don't know how much the battery connectors and internals were stressed during the wreck. They might work fine for a few months or even a year before road vibration finishes the job of a connection that was cracked during the wreck.

 

Thanks everyone. Sorry it has taken so long to reply, but after careful research, I am going to go with the reman from Greentec. They have a 36 month warranty that we will purchase and it will still be cheaper than what the dealership wants to charge.

I attempted to get Toyota to come down on the price of the part. The dealership told me that if I was successful in getting the price of the part down, they would work with me on the labor. Toyota didn't budge and I don't particularly like the dealership, so the choice was an easy one!

So, thanks everyone for the advice.

P.S. - The batteries on ebay are cheap, BUT the shipping is what kills you. I saw one on ebay on $100, but the shipping was $1750?! It was free installation though...