It was bound to happen and now it has happened.
My hybrid battery on my 2003 Honda Civic is starting to fail.
If you have ever tried driving a car like this you know it sucks.
Additionally, you are losing any mileage advantage provided by the hybrid at this point.

Replacing a hybrid battery with a new one from the dealer or dealer approved mechanic is expensive.
In my case it will be around $4000, last I checked.

However, a friend of mine, who seems to know what he is doing and has never let me down, says you can find mechanics that know how to replace individual cells for a small fraction (hundreds not thousands) of the cost.

He says that you can get an entire after market battery for about $1000.

However, my mechanic advises against both of those because he says that the cell charges need to carefully matched to work properly. But he is in the business of making money, not saving me money.

I am having trouble navigating through all of this inconsistent information.
And I certainly don't have the $4000...yet.

If any of you have experience, reference information, or advice on this, that would really help.

Thanks in advance

I had thought I might need to do this with my mom's Prius battery (turns out not needed). There are some really good videos about doing it yourself on YouTube, and I would be confident undertaking such a repair. However, in the case of the Prius, and I suspect your Civic, too, it will still be over $2000 just for the new battery. Replacing individual cells for less money is an option in the Prius, and perhaps the Civic, but it is a job that would likely need repeating as additional cells fail. An individual cell failure in an older vehicle is a sign all the cells will fail before long.

I agree with what 25To20 says. Replacing individual cells is much cheaper than an entire Hybrid Battery. However, problems arise when another cell fails, which could be within months, and the job needs to be done again. How many hours of labor is estimated on this job?

I am in the auto-parts business. We can distribute hybrid batteries from a few remanufacturers such as Dorman and Cardone. Our cost on this battery is around $1,700 with a $1,000 core charge that is waived/refunded with exchange of the original core battery. We sell it to garages for around $2,500.

However, even in replacing the entire battery, the alleged defect rate is 25% failure within two years. Our supplier has a tech line that the garages must call before we are allowed to pick up an alleged defect. Our supplier believes most defects are installer error.

Generally, power steering and electrical have high warranty rates, but 25% is excessive.

Now you know why an electric car is not really cheaper than a gasoline car. You pay a premium of about 25% over a gas car to buy it and then you are where you are now. i used to be in insurance and read many studies confirming this.

of course if the main goal is to go green, then I could see it, not considering the actual looks of most electric cars.

I had a 2004 Prius where the battery died at exactly 10 years and 1 months and 103,000 miles. Had it evaluated by Toyota and they would only replace it with a new battery for like $4700. Car wasn't worth that much. I investigated a small garage that was part of a regional chain out in the Mid Atlantic that specialized in hybrids. They offered a repair on the bad cell, which requires replacement of a pair of cells. They had some sort of charging system that drew the entire battery down to zilch and then slow charged it back to an estimated 95% of the original factory battery. They also threw a 3-4 warranty on top. The entire pair of cell replacement cost me $1400 out the door. It has been about 4 years and the battery has been working fine. However, I'm about to unload the Prius. I've always thought my car had some electrical wiring issues. When it rains I also hear water sloshing around as if there is a part of the car body that isn't draining. Still don't feel like I got what I thought I would out of the car.

I would recommend the pair of cell replacement approach.

Batteries are weird. I've been learning about them as I'm sitting on a ton of 40V LiFePo packs that were pulled from cars and repurposed.

The cells that fail tend to be near the output of the battery, they get fatigued first. So it is usually those cells, or cells that had a slight defect and they are fairly easy to spot with a voltmeter.

I'd go the individual cell replacement route if you can find someone with a lot of experience doing them.

I wouldn't get a 5k battery for a 15 year old car. Time to donate her to little sisters of the poor and move on. Maybe see if they will give you a deal on a trade in if you buy another Honda.

Did the individual cell replacement on my sisters prius. Lasted another 6 months just long enough to trade it in on a new one.

It is not a long term fix.

I've a 2005 Prius with 130,000 miles.. No problems so far, except that I think my mileage is a bit worse than it used to be. I didn't realize that the battery would really die; I thought it would just get a bit worse and my mileage would drop (which I don't care that much about; we don't drive that much). Was hoping to keep it for a few more years so my daughters could use it when they started to drive. Would I be wise to get rid of the car? Or is it possible that my Prius may be able to last for several more years without a new battery?

Thanks folks.
If I can't afford the battery replacement I can't afford a different car either.
However, if you can find a reliable commuter car with decent gas mileage for under 4 grand, send me the link.
Otherwise I'll save up to replace the battery on this car and drive it for the rest of my career (not more than 7 years).

I think I am going to look into finding one of those hybrid battery specialists. A link to anyone of those in the south bay area or Santa Cruz would also be appreciated.

I'm going to watch those youtube videos too, but I doubt that I am going to do this work entirely by myself.

CALiforniALUM said:

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I had a 2004 Prius where the battery died at exactly 10 years and 1 months and 103,000 miles. Had it evaluated by Toyota and they would only replace it with a new battery for like $4700. Car wasn't worth that much. I investigated a small garage that was part of a regional chain out in the Mid Atlantic that specialized in hybrids. They offered a repair on the bad cell, which requires replacement of a pair of cells. They had some sort of charging system that drew the entire battery down to zilch and then slow charged it back to an estimated 95% of the original factory battery. They also threw a 3-4 warranty on top. The entire pair of cell replacement cost me $1400 out the door. It has been about 4 years and the battery has been working fine. However, I'm about to unload the Prius. I've always thought my car had some electrical wiring issues. When it rains I also hear water sloshing around as if there is a part of the car body
that isn't draining. Still don't feel like I got what I thought I would out of the car.

I would recommend the pair of cell replacement approach.

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What this poster said. I got the same "story" when I had my 2007 Civic Hybrid. I asked "what happens when the original battery dies" and got the $4,000 answer. So I looked around and asked a lot of people and got back what is posted above. However, even though I am a loyal Honda owner and fan, that Civic Hybrid was aweful. I actually sold it off before having to worry about the battery. I was very happy to get rid of it, probably the worst car I've ever owned/driven.

dmh65 said:

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I've a 2005 Prius with 130,000 miles.. No problems so far, except that I think my mileage is a bit worse than it used to be. I didn't realize that the battery would really die; I thought it would just get a bit worse and my mileage would drop (which I don't care that much about; we don't drive that much). Was hoping to keep it for a few more years so my daughters could use it when they started to drive. Would I be wise to get rid of the car? Or is it possible that my Prius may be able to last for several more years without a new battery?

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Battery technology has changed a lot in 12-15 years. Battery cell life tends to also be dependent on the type of battery. For a variety of reasons I haven't investigated electric cars to the point of comparing battery systems, but that is the weak/strong point of electric power. I switched over from Ni-Cad power tools to Li-Ion battery tools (Bosch). Ni Cads tend to have one weak cell in a battery die and can be resurrected by replacing just the bad cells (it can be hazardous). I haven't had Lithium-Ion batteries fail yet and they definitely don't age (slower recharge rate and lower capacity) like Ni-Cad or Ni-MH cells. Unfortunately Samsung proved you can design a dangerous Li-Ion battery.

Toyota was the last car maker to switch to Lithium-ion batteries starting in 2016. Lithium-ion batteries offer several benefits that NiMH units can't match. Chief among them is weight savings: Lithium-ion batteries can store more energy in a smaller area than NiMH batteries. That means automakers who use lithium-ion technology can save weight and boost gas mileage. The other benefit of lithium-ion batteries is that they don't have a "memory effect" -- a problem commonly associated with NiMH batteries. And they charge faster.

Learned some things on youtube this morning.
Apparently the older hybrids, at least the Honda ones, had some design defects that cause some cells to age prematurely.

For one thing, the battery isn't cooled properly so they inner batteries heat up too fast, especially when using A/C, which heats up the engine. It was not clear if other climate control use also wears it out more quickly.

Also, I am finding replacement batteries for sale on-line, primarily from e-bay and bumblebee batteries. I know I should be careful when buying off of ebay, but does anyone know if bumblebee is generally trustworthy?

I am thinking about getting one of these batteries on line, especially if I can pick it up (the shipping can be almost as much as the battery). I would then need to install it or have it installed, which could also bump up the cost. I would be willing to pay somewhere between $1500-$2000 when it is all said and done, especially with warranty , which is usually 3 years)

Argonaut Garage on San Pablo in Berkeley specializes in these repairs. I replaced my Prius battery there - they were much less expensive than the dealer. I think it was refurbished or something like that, but it was a whole battery, not cells and it's worked well for several years so far.

GoCal80 said:

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Argonaut Garage on San Pablo in Berkeley specializes in these repairs. I replaced my Prius battery there - they were much less expensive than the dealer. I think it was refurbished or something like that, but it was a whole battery, not cells and it's worked well for several years so far.

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Thanks
That helps