1) What to look for before you buy a used Toyota Prius ?
We have often been asked by would be purchasers of a Toyota Hybrid on what to look for when they go for a test drive to purchase a Hybrid. Some have put their faith in an AA check. The truth is that most AA personel do not know what to look for in a Toyota Prius, and don’t often test the hybrid section of the vehicle.
The Prius is a hardy car. Not much can go wrong with the petrol engine as it never Revs above 4000 RPM. A 100,00 Km odometer is probably only equqvalent to a petol engine vehicle doing 50,000 Km. The brakes are not subjected to much wear and tear because engine regen minimise the use of the brakes.
The weakness is the battery because it is at the limit of it’s design life. To test the HV battery take it up a 500 m hill. Put your foot down on the trottle and the battery should not run out of charge ie the tortoise should not show.
On the flat check to see that it has good accleration. The engine should cut out when the vehicle come to a stop after it has warm up the catalytic converter in the exhaust. If all these pass muster you got quite a good vehicle – battery wise anyway.
You still need to check the Air Flow Meter. this regulates the fuel intake. If faulty the fuel will be cut off when you step on the acclerator. You can only go at very low speed and the battery will quickly run out.
Hope that this helps. You can always email or ring us for more advise. thebatteryclinic@xtra.co.nz 00649-2704083
2) Is it a good idea to buy a used Toyota Prius ?
One fact that goes unnoticed is that the Toyota Hybrid not only saves money on fuel but also cost less to maintain. When new they cost $40,000 but a used one can be purchased from $6000 – $9000. If it last 5 years the cost of ownership at a little over $1000 a year is very low indeed You will half your current fuel and maintenance cost and so will most probably recoup your investment in the first year.
The weakness is the HV battery. The HV battery In the Toyota Hybrid was expected to last between 8 to 10 years. The HV battery in the series 1 hybrid manufactured between 1998 to 2000 are failing or have failed. The problem is that a replacement battery cost more than the car is worth.
The Battery Clinic is the only company that specialize in restoring and reconditioning these HV batteries and give them a new lease of life. We charge less than $2000 for this service.
Knowledge is power and we have had a few people bring in vehicles that they have bought for $2500 – $3000. We recondition the battery and they get a very good cheap vehicle for their commute.
This car still drives like new – very smooth and still gives the good fuel economy. At $5000 and the likelihood that the battery will last for another 5 years your cost of vehicle ownership is as low as it gets.
Our company owns 3 series hybrids for 3 years now and the only maintenance cost are the tyres, and oil. Because of re-gen from braking, brake pads do not wear out much.
Yes we believe that it is a good idea to purchase a used Toyota Prius.
3) How do you restore and recondition a Toyota Hybrid battery ?
The number of series 1 having problems with the hybrid battery is increasing because it was designed to last between 8 to 10 years. The car itself is still going strong and it seem a shame to scrap the vehicle. New Zealand can no longer import this as a second hand vehicle from Japan but I believe that it is still allowed in Australia.
The battery clinic can now rebuilt the nimh tube. We break up the tubes, test the individual cells and then spot weld them into a “new” rebuilt tube.
With this process we can now make good tubes that are better quality than just pure cannibalised tubes. The number of good cannibalised tubes is not high because they have to pass our 100 amps stress test. Rebuilt tubes pass this test with flying colours.
The impact of this new development is that the battery clinic can keep your Toyota prius running for many more years into the future.
4) Can the battery computer fail ?
We came across a series 1 prius where the battery charge indicator went wild. It would go halfway to full then to yellow with the tortoise appearing. By now our reconditioning process is perfected so we reconditioned it found the battery pretty dead but fixed it successfully even changing 6 dead cells.
When we put it back in the car we had the same problem so we drove it around thinking that we had to equalize the cells. This did not work so we had to take the battery out again. We tested the battery again with 100 amp load and found it to be very strong.
The suspicion then fell on the computer. We loaded the battery into another vehicle and lo and behold the same symptoms appeared. Wild jumping of the charge level indicator even though there was good power when the car was driven.
We changed the computer and all problems disappeared. First time that we have ever encountered a computer failure even though it did not bring up a battery fault.
What happened here was the computer software malfunction in the charge input sensors. This triggered a low battery to show the tortoise and revving up the petrol engine to charge and put in more power. It then sense that the battery if at full power immediately and went to half and 3/4 level immediately. Round and round we go as though there was very little charge in the batteries.
Anyone had this problem before?
5) Why don’t the petrol engine shut down when the car’s air conditioner is turned on ?
If the air conditioner is on, the petrol engine will not shut down, after the Toyota Prius comes to a stop. Most owners of the Toyota Hybrid know this fact. This is because more electrical power is required to run the air conditioner and the electric motor as well. If you don’t need it turn off the air conditioner.
6) What happens if the 12 volt battery fails ?
Before you blame the HV battery in your hybrid vehicle, check out the 12 volt battery.
1) The dashboard lights up, the gear shift box shows, but when you turn the ignition key nothing happens. Sometimes you will see the dash dim and nothing happens.
2) The car starts but idiot light such as power steering etc. shows but they still work and the vehicle seems to be working erratically.
Unlike normal petrol vehicles the 12 volt battery in the Toyota Prius Hybrid is not used to start the petrol engine. The problem here is that the 12 volt battery does not have enough charge to power the computers. Check the voltage of the 12 volt battery. It should be at least 12.5 volts.
If the battery is weak change it and presto – you are away again. This advise will probably save you some money as the local mechanic who may not know too much could charge you many hours to discover this problem or to not discover this problem!
7) What else can go wrong with the Toyota Prius ?
Almost any loss of power is blamed on the battery.
Recently we improved our reconditioning techniques to the point that we are absolutely certain that the battery is not at fault after we give it the seal of approval. You see – by putting the cells through a 100 amps stress test virtually shows out any fault in the cells.
A vehicle we just finish showed up the tortoise when we step on the accelerator. The battery charge level still showed green. We could drive the vehicle but could not step on the gas. What happened was that the gas would flow but at very low level. When the accelerator was depressed the fuel would cut off.
Typical of the symptoms is that the vehicle has very little power as the petrol engine cannot deliver. The HV battery will be drained and will fail if run down too low.
