While an increasing number of vehicles have OE battery locations inside the vehicle, many are still located in the engine compartment and I suspect Optima's offerings correlate to a variety of factors, including the size of the market for a given battery group size. If Camry Hybrid sales numbers meet those of the Prius for as long as the Prius has been selling, we'll probably look more closely at designing a battery that we consider to be a "direct-fit" replacement for the Camry Hybrid, as we did with the Prius.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.twitter.com/optimabatteries

 

Bought my TCH Nov 2006 and it is still running OEM 12 v battery. I have left it sitting for 5 weeks while on vacation without difficulty. Thanks to all for the information you posted especially Captain Jim.

 

Yesterday my '07 Camry Hybrid wouldn't start and gave me a VSC system message but got someone to give me a jump on battery and started and is running fine. I tried to replace battery thinking that problem but dealer will have to order out of another state. Since car is running fine I'm wondering do you not get a starter battery alert message and could it have just been a fluke?

 

Captain Jim. Great detail in your original post. One question though - what did you do with the temperature sensor you removed from the original battery???

 

Measure the voltage of the battery after you have driven it for a significant distance (should be charged). Record that voltage and then check it again after it sits overnight or for 12 hours or more. Compare those voltages to the State of Charge chart about 3/4 of the way down the page at the link below. After driving your voltage should be up near the top. After 12 hours of sitting, it should not have dropped very much if any. Another check is to measure the voltage when the car is running. I should be significantly higher and around 14.5 volts to 15 volts. If it does not step up to that voltage when running it could be a charging problem rather than a battery problem.

Battery State of Charge

You could also compare your voltages to the ones I took when my 2012 was new. See this thread.

The Optima battery is an alternative to the Toyota one. Either the D34 or D34M should work. They are essentially the same battery according to an Optima rep who posted. The D34 (yellow) is more expensive and has a better warranty. The D34M (blue) has the convenience of a screw terminal so you can attach some temporary jumper wires to keep voltage maintained to the car when you switch batteries. You are not likely to collect on warranty, so it would chose the blue one and save a few bucks if you can get it cheaper.

 

Thanks for info diycarguy but unfortunately I don't have a voltage reader so can't check it sitting. I did take it to an auto parts place yesterday and they checked it and it was a little low but still read okay. I'm waiting on a call today to see if the factory battery came in. Still unsure but that is because women always feel "taken" when dealing with cars!

 

You should buy a digital voltage meter. You can get one at a place like Radio Shack for $10 or so. They are indispensable in diagnosing a battery problem. Much cheaper than a $200-300 battery.

The 12 volt battery in a hybrid sees very light service compared to a non hybrid car, and should easily last more than 6 years. But, of course failure sooner is always possible. The voltage meter will tell you the real story.

 

Well, I'm $400 lighter but do have a new battery! Does anyone else have trouble getting good gas milage with the hybrid? I've never gotten the 40 mpg in town, I'm more in low 30's and better on road.

 

you should buy nothing.
you can log into diagnostic menu off your nav system and it will show you all vehicle parameters.

well, of course, if you have nav system.

thermistor on the battery, or temp sensor, is simply pried off with a screwdriver and reinstalled onto a new battery.

 

With 25,150 miles on my 2011 TCH, the red ABS (air bag system) light in the instrument cluster came on. It stayed on almost all the time for 5 days until I could take it to the dealer. I tried to read the codes, but the reader said there were no faults logged. (Somewhere I read that ABS fault codes aren't accessible to a normal code reader).

Anyhow, when the Toyota service department checked it out, I was told that their code reader indicated the problem was a weak 12 volt battery, which the dealer replaced under warranty. In Phoenix, a normal 12 volt battery in the average car typically lasts around 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years, so this must have been a defective battery.

There had been one time I had to jump start the car when a dome light was left on for a couple of days, causing the battery to run down, but other than that there were no indications of a battery problem.

I commented to the service writer that an ABS light was a strange "weak battery" indicator. He just shrugged, remarking that when the 12V battery gets weak, there are some strange failure indicators.

I'm a first time poster, so sorry if this is the wrong thread, but this story of my experience may help someone else with a battery problem.