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Was wondering if anyone on has has to replace the main battery at your own cost yet?
I'd be interested in the details.

Age
Miles
Cost


Thanks

There have been compilations of HV battery fails at PriusChat and the Yahoo prius technical group. There are statistical problems extrapolating from group-posted results though.

Toyota had a recent press release stating out-of-warranty failure rates for NHW11 Prius battery but I'd have to dig for it. I think it also included in-warranty numbers.

The latest new cost from Toyota I remember seeing is $2300 or so. Some people have gone with pulls from salvage vehicles in the price range $500 - $1000 plus installation.

The NHW20 battery appears to have been much upgraded so I think its failure rate will remain much lower than the NHW11.

Have nothing on Hondas and Fords.

DAS

Hi Paul:

___I have not heard of anyone paying for a pack although I know of many that have had their Insight packs replaced via Honda's extended warranty.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

My Insight pack was replaced last month for the first time. It was covered by warranty. My car is a 2000 Honda Insight 5 speed. MY IMA light came on and I lost all use from the battery - no assist or regen. The good news was that driving with the battery not working at all I was still able to average 90mpg. If it fails again after another 8 years I may just continue to drive without replacing it. It's just a bit slower without the assist.

90 mpg with no battery. Dang.

There were a few people that I read about on the net that paid for Insight packs before the warranty was extended. The extension included directions on a reimbursement method if you had paid for it. I would not be afraid of a IMA in any of the new hybrids.

An Insight without the IMA doesn't sound so bad. But how would you start the engine?

Hi Mike:

___The Insight includes a small 12V and starter as well.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

And in some of the failure modes that I've heard of, the IMA system failed to assist any, but the 12v battery was still maintained by the system.

I wouldn't be afraid of the battery conking out. I don't use any assist at all in Blue Swayed and she's returning quite nice numbers. ;)

I replaced the NMH battery in my 2000 Honda Insight at 96000 miles under warranty (no cost) but would have been $2400 if over the 100K warranty period. I was getting a drop-off of MPG and it checked out as bad battery by Honda dealer. Replaced with no problem. Now 104000 miles and got ~81MPG on run between SFO and San Jose, CA this week (level highway at 55-65 MPH).

The warranty should be to 150K for the Insight battery, not 100K. The original warranty was to 80K but was upped when so many batteries had issues due to heat and too large DOD programming.

If you get an IMA light in a Honda Insight and you are out of warranty you have many choices which is best for you depends on your situation ...

#1>
While Idling with the head lights on... check the voltage of the 12V battery... if it is significantly higher than when the engine is off , than the DC-DC system is keeping the 12V battery charged and you can continue indefinitely like this ... you won't have IMA Assist , Regen Braking , or Auto-Stop , but otherwise the car will continue to run as any other light weight , Aerodynamic , car with a high efficiency lean burn engine.

#2>
have the HV battery rebalanced ... I figure about 90% of the time when Insight's get an IMA light the subpacks are just not balanced... Previously posted about my experience with this in the Insight thread.

#3>
Replace the bad subpacks in the battery pack and keep on trucking.

#4>
Replace the whole Battery pack with a Used one from a junk yard... I've seen Insight and Civic Batteries as low as ~$250 each.

#5>
ask Honda Inc. ( Not the dealer ) directly in a nice pleasant humble tone, about your situation and if there is anything they can do or suggest... Although Honda would not be required to give you anything or help you in any way... I've read about a few people still getting discounted and reduced prices from Honda.

#6>
Pay Honda the Full Price to do the work for you.

#7>
Ignore the Problem... when the Car is off... disconnect the 12V battery for a few minutes and pull the memory fuse to artificially clear the code.