Hey guys, ChrisFix here and today, I'm gon na show you how to replace a hybrid battery in a Toyota Prius., And I'm gon na, be showing you how to do this using common tools. Check this out. We don't have many tools at all.. That's all you need to replace a hybrid battery., I'm going to also show you how to find yourself a really good quality hybrid battery.

That way after you're done with watching this video you'll have everything that you need to know on replacing the hybrid battery. You'll be able to do it yourself, which is gon na. Save you a ton of money and I'm gon na show you what the dealer quoted me and you'll be able to get your car back on the road. So you can drive it.

Now I never thought in a million years I'd be Prius owner, but it was hard to resist.. I got this car for $ 1500., That's right. $ 1500 and it's worth ... and it's in great shape.

It has newer tires. The body is in good shape the paint shines and check out this interior. Now this is a 2007 with 168K miles, and I just take a look. This interior, it is spotless..

You can tell. The previous owner took real good care of this car, which is what you want to see when you're buying a used car.. So how did I get this car for $ 1500 instead of $ 4000? Well, let me show you by starting the engine. And that triangle right.

There is something no Prius owner wants to see along with those other check engine lights.. That is telling me there is something wrong with the car and we need to check it out. And to do that. We're going to plug an OBD- II scanner right into the computer.

And the OBD-II port is right here under the dash so just plug it right. In. Then we can hit ``, Read codes, ,'', let it scan and check it out.. So we have a P0A80 code which is saying `` Replace Hybrid Battery Pack.''.

So it's letting us know that our hybrid battery pack is probably bad.. So that's how I got this car for so cheap. It needs a new hybrid battery. And I did go to the dealer to get a quote.

Check this out $ 4000 to replace a hybrid battery. That is expensive that basically totals out this car.. So I'm going to be showing you how to do this for a fraction of the cost. With that said, I have a rebuilt battery pack from Electron Automotive out in Orange County CA..

They sent me this out. It's a 3-year warrantied battery pack, so they guarantee it for 3 years, but they told me that it would probably last more like 6 years. And this shipped to my door and cost $ 1500.. The car costs $ 1500, so in total we have $ 3000 here..

I already have a buyer for $ 4000 once I swap this out. He said: he'll buy it., So that's a quick $ 1000 profit plus I get to show you guys how to replace a battery pack. That should help tons of hybrid owners.. Now I do recommend that you don't replace one or two cells.

Buy the whole battery back, because these cells are matched and balanced to each other. So you get good life.! That's why they're labeled from 1 to 28.? Do it once do it right. We're installing a nice reliable battery pack for the next owner. He's going to love it? If that's too expensive for you, they do have cheaper options.

I'll, just link their information in the description below. If you're, a hybrid owner. Go check them out. And with that said, I do want to thank Electron Automotive for supporting the video and sending me out this battery pack.

Chris, the owner was super friendly. When I talked to him., He gave me a bunch of tips and tricks and the most important thing is: he backs his product 100 %. That's the type of person you want to do business with.. So with that said, let's get started and here are all the tools that you need.

Now normally I'm an advocate of using basic hand. Tools. Everybody has them, that's why I try to use them., But in this situation, you're saving, so much money. Trust me go buy yourself, a nice power tool, I'll link this one in the description..

It's going to save you an incredible amount of time when doing this. Job., Otherwise all you need is an extension, 8, 10, 12 and 14-millimeter sockets. We have a small flathead screwdriver, Definitely pick up a panel clip pliers I'll, also link this in the description.. It's going to save you from that frustration of breaking the plastic panel clips.

And we also have a torque wrench to get all the bolts tightened to the right spec.. So that's all you need to replace the hybrid battery.. You don't need any special tools.. So let's go get started.

Now to get access to the hybrid battery, we're going to go through the trunk and the battery itself is located right behind the rear seats right about here. Now. The first thing we want to do is make sure that we make this battery safe to work on and to do that we have to remove the safety plug which can be found under the carpeting over here.. So to do that start by removing the trunk floor.

Mat pop out the privacy cover, then we can remove the trunk floor, which covers the storage bin and spare tire tools., Remove the driver side bin cover and then the large storage bin can come out. And finally remove the 12-volt battery cover. And check it out. We can see the hybrid battery already that's this right here..

So now we want to go in this corner and the orange-colored safety plug is right. Here., All you have to do, lift the plug, handle up and then fold it down and then pull the plug out.. So with that removed, we essentially cut the voltage of the hybrid battery in half, making it a lot safer to work on.. Now, let's disconnect the normal 12-volt car battery, so this battery won't go dead.

While we have the doors open working on the car. And do that by disconnecting the ground, cable and tucking it out of the way, so it doesn't touch any bare metal.. Now we just need to remove the plastic trim piece which has four tabs holding it in.. So just give it a good pull upwards and pop it out.

And don't worry you can give this a real good yank without breaking it., And then we can push the seats down so they're out of the way. Good and we're almost there. The main goal is to get under here to get to the battery.. In order to do that, we need to remove this cover, which is held in by a couple of bolts.

Then we're going to remove this side cover and then we're going to remove this side cover we're going to move the seats forward and that will give us access to our battery. So remove the two chrome, tie-down bolts and then pop this cover off the battery.. Now I don't know if you can tell, but I can definitely tell by hearing it. This clip here and that clip right there broke.

That clip is good.. These are just plastic clips that hold this down., Not a big deal. You can buy a kit like this., Very inexpensive and I'll link it in the description. And then you'll have plenty of extra clips.

Just in case you break any.. So next we can remove the velcro from the seatback. And the last thing holding this in in each corner. There's a plastic clip that needs to get popped out..

Now this is where these panel clip pliers are going to come in handy. So we don't break those plastic clips., So get the pliers under the clip and pop it out. Just like that.. Now we can move over to the other side.

And let's pop that clip out as well. Good now. This should be all disconnected and we can remove it, giving us access to the battery.. Now we don't have complete access.

We still need to remove that side and this side trim panel.. So let's go. Do that. Start by unscrewing the nut that holds the bin in place.? Next, we can remove the small black bolt here and then we can remove the chrome tie- down bolt and don't forget about the plastic tab down.

Here. Just grab you panel clip pliers and pop this out. Good., And then we can remove the long silver bolt here. And the last thing we need to undo is this trim piece right here, but it's easier to get from the outside.

So let's go around and open the door to get to the trim piece.. The trick to this is to get your hand under the trim piece and pull upwards. As you do, that get your other hand and pull the trim out and away to remove it from the panel.. Now we can remove the entire panel.

There's two clips holding it in so get your hand back there and pop those clips out.. Now we can carefully unclip the rest of this panel. And don't remove this all the way, because we still have this light attached.. You don't want to rip out the wires.

So pop the light out, so you can remove the panel and just keep that light. Dangling there. Alright, so, with this trim piece removed, you can see we have access to all the bolts that are holding in this side of the battery.. Now we just need to get the trim piece removed from the other side..

It's the same exact process., Remove the chrome, tie-down bolt, remove the short black bolt and remove the long silver bolt.. Then pull the side trim piece up and out and don't forget to pop this panel clip out.. Now we can start at the back and carefully pop the two clips out by hand. And then wiggle the panel, the rest of the way out., And with that panel out, we are so close to removing this battery..

The last thing we need to do is remove the four 14-mm bolts holding the back seats in place.. These are the only 14-mm bolts in this entire job. Then slide the seat forward, which gives us plenty of access to the front of the battery.. So after seeing all these panels and nuts and bolts coming off this car, you guys are probably concerned on how to keep them organized, so you know where to put them when you have to install them.

Well. This is exactly what I do just like. We did all the interior pieces, I do the same thing with my nuts and bolts. I lay them out so that you can see exactly where they go.

This is the driver side., This side's, the passenger side.. You can use something like a storage tray like this or you can use baggies as well. Whatever works for you take pictures.. It's a lot easier to do this when you're actually doing this yourself and not watching a video..

It's a lot easier to remember where everything goes., I'm also going to provide you guys, a link in the description to a service manual so that you guys could easily look it up in the service manual, see what the torque specs are see. What bolts you need to remove in what order., Even though we have this video having something on paper in hand also helps., So there's a lot of resources for you here that way, this becomes an easy job., There's nothing to it. So, let's get back to work. And finally, now we're able to remove the battery.

Now the battery's held in by a bracket on this side and there's a bracket underneath this cooling duct here.. So let's start on this side and remove the cooling duct. Pop out. The two plastic clips holding the duct in and unclip the relay just by pulling it off., Finally pull the air duct off the fan like so.

And with that air duct removed. There is something very important I want to mention, and that is cleaning out this fan.. So a lot of people skip this step when they're replacing their hybrid battery, but it's very, very important for the long life of the battery and reliability of the battery that your fan isn't gummed up with a bunch of dust and it's a common problem on these.. So, let's remove this duct to inspect the fan..

So, in order to remove this there's 3 clips., All you need to do is grab a small screwdriver like this press, the center of each clip in, and then this will pull right, off. And I'm glad we checked this out because look at this. Those fan blades Are caked up with dust so we're definitely not getting maximum cooling., So real, quick? Let's remove the fan to clean it by removing these 3 bolts. With the fan loose, turn it around and push the wiring harness clip to remove it.

And then disconnect the electrical connector from the fan motor.. Now you can try cleaning the fan with a pipe cleaner and do each individual blade like this., And that will work. I mean check out all this lint that we just removed., But it's way easier to unscrew the five screws holding the cover on. Then we can separate the cover and have direct access to the fan.

And then blast the fan blades with some compressed air to remove all the lint. Finish it off by grabbing some Soapy Wooder and spraying it down and then drying it off with a towel. And That is how you remove all the dust and all the lint from those fan blades. It's like brand new.

So let's get those five screws back in the fan and get it together, so we can reinstall it. And just so you know, I want to show you the quote again: real quick. The dealer charges $ 350 for what we just did to clean the fan.. So it's totally worth it to spend the extra 10-15 minutes to clean your own fan.

Saved you $ 350 plus your new fan is clean, so it'll keep that new battery nice and cool.. So, let's get this installed and first make sure we plug in our connector. And then we'll get this in place.. Now we can tighten down the 3 bolts holding the fan in mount the wiring harness to the fan, support bracket and then reinstall the intake, duct and snap each plastic retaining clip into place..

Now. Finally, we can remove our battery There's two brackets holding it in there's a bracket here with 7 bolts and there's a bracket here with 7 bolts and then we'll disconnect a couple of wires.. So let's go over here. and remove the bracket on the passenger side by unscrewing, the seven 12-mm bolts.

And I think now you're, starting to see why an impact gun is a worthwhile investment for this job. With all of these bolts. And with this last bolt removed. Now we can remove the bracket.

Good with that bracket removed. Now, let's go and remove the other bracket.. This bracket also has seven 12-mm bolts, holding it in., And once we get all of these removed ..., we can remove the bracket. And don't forget to keep the bolts together with the bracket..

Now we need to take this cover off, so we can get to these wires here and disconnect them. So we can pull the entire battery out. So remove the two nuts over the wires, as well as the two bolts on top of the cover. And the last bolt holding this cover in is on the back side of this right down there..

So, let's remove that bolt, ... ... and then remove the cover. And just like what we've been doing, you want to keep all the nuts and bolts together with the piece that they came off of.

So when we go and reinstall this. We remember where everything goes. Now: here's the computer for the battery and the two wires that power the electric motor.. We need to remove those two wires and we need to disconnect a couple of wires back here to free the battery up., So disconnect these wires by pressing the tab on the side and pulling them.

Out. Then remove the nuts holding the two main wires in and pull the wires up and away. And I'll put the nuts back on the studs. So I don't forget where they go., So with all our wires disconnected from this side.

The last thing we need to do is go to this side.. We have a battery vent tube here, which needs to be disconnected, and then we have this lower ducting. That needs to be removed. So pop the clip out and unscrew the bolt holding the air duct down., And now we can move this out of the way..

And finally, we can remove the battery. There's two bolts on this side. Here and over here. Good.

And then there's three bolts on the other side. Here here and here.. Now this battery is heavy, so lift it one side at a time and pull it towards the back of the car., Then carefully, lift it up and find a place to put the battery. So we can work on it., Alright and we removed the battery from the Prius.

Now this next part's going to be fun, it's really cool.. What we're going to do is we're going to take this hard metal case off and that's going to give us access to the battery cells.. So we're going to remove all those old battery cells and put in our new ones.. Then we'll put the case back on we'll take our battery, put it back in the Prius and that's it..

Now, while it's that simple to do, there are going to be a ton of nuts and bolts that we're going to be removing.. So what I like to do is stay organized. That's the key to making this a really simple job organization.. So the first thing we need to remove are the 8 case bolts..

So let's first remove this rubber piece down here which prevents the sharp edges from cutting. You and next we can remove the five 10-mm bolts on this side of the case., And this last bolt allows us to remove the end piece here.. Then there's 3 fasteners on the other side of the case that have to be removed and that allows us to remove the case. So pretty cool right.

This is what a hybrid battery looks: like.. It's a bunch of cells wired in series that power the electric motor in your hybrid car.. So next we want to remove these black bus bar covers., And that gives us access to all the bus bar nuts on this side which we need to remove. And if you'll look closely you'll notice, all the nuts are corroded and it's typical to see some corrosion.

So it's not a big deal. I'll show you how to quickly clean that up. So now remove all 28 bus bar nuts on this side, and you can see how having power tools makes this a lot faster. And finally, we can pull off the bus bars from the battery.

And now with all our bus bars removed. Our total voltage at this battery is now around 8 volts, so it's even safer to work on.. Now we want to do the same exact thing: we did on this side on the other side., So remove the bus bar covers and remove all the bus bar nuts on this side. And finally pull the bus bars off the battery.

Good. Now all our bus bars are completely removed.. I have them off to the side out of the way so that we can remove our battery pack.. Now our bus bar nuts were pretty corroded, So a little trick is just get a little bit of white vinegar and we're going to take these corroded nuts and let them sit in that vinegar, which will remove the corrosion as we swap out our battery packs..

Next, we need to remove these vent tubes, so grab each one and give it a good yank upwards to pop it off each battery cell., And then we have a temperature sensor at the top, this green wire. That goes right there.. So you want to get your flathead screwdriver, get underneath the sensor and just pry it up and give it a wiggle until it pops out. Alright.

So, with that sensor removed, we can move this off to the side. There's an air dam right here that needs to be popped out. Like so, and then there's two nuts holding this in., We have a nut right there that needs to be removed and then, on the opposite corner. We have a nut right there.

And with those nuts removed carefully flip the battery over. Beautiful, and the reason why we have to flip this over is because each battery is actually bolted in. You can see the set of bolts on this side and you can see the set of bolts on that side., So the battery's held into the case with all those bolts.. That means we have to remove each bolt.

And again, a power tool makes this a lot quicker. Ok. Now we can remove the bottom of the case, but not all the way, because we still need to remove these temperature sensors. Just use a flathead screwdriver to pry them off., And once you remove the sensors pop the back of the air dam off and now we Can remove the case from the battery pack., So let's flip this battery block over and we need to move these compression blocks.

Now, there's two sides: you can go from. Notice that this side has a black piece right here. We want to leave that side and we're going to unbolt it from this side.. Now before we take this compression block off and remove the battery cells, I want you guys to notice real quick right.

Here is a positive, so I'm going to mark that down as a positive.. So we remember we have to put a positive right here. And then, if we go all the way down right there in this corner is a negative.. You want to make sure it's in that orientation.

When you put the new batteries in. And now we can go and remove the battery cells. So get something under the battery to elevate. It then remove the four bolts holding the compression block, on.

And finally slide all the old bad battery cells out. So we can install the new ones. Alright and we are almost done so out with our old battery and in with our new one.. Now the new battery we're about to install does have a label here..

It says: `` Put this side closest to the computer.'', That's number 1! So we're going to install this one first and then we just follow it's labeled all the way to 28.. You want to put them in order, that's going to give us long battery life and good performance.. They actually match and balance each of these batteries to each other using a computer algorithm and that's how they can warranty it for so long., So keep them in order and let's get them installed. Now, when handling the battery packs, it's very important that you don't drop Them or bang them around by mistake because hey can crack and they can get damaged..

It's also important that you line them up.. So if they're like this, that's no good. You want to make sure the ends are flush.. They kind of fit together, like legos you'll, feel them kind of click in like that., And you can see it leaves an air gap right there, which allows air to flow through it and keep these batteries cool..

So it's very important that you line the edges up as you install the battery cells so that they're flush and even with each other, so that they fit together properly. and then we can get the compression block hand tightened on the end.. Alright. Before we tighten down these compression blocks, we just want to make sure that we have our positive here and we do and our negative here and we do..

We also want to make sure it goes from positive, negative, positive, negative all the way down, or in this case we want to make sure our numbers are in order., And the last thing we want to make sure is that our compression block here lines up with The edge of our battery and that our batteries are all even.. They should be completely straight all the way down.. None of them should be sticking out at all., Just be nice and even all the way down, and that looks good.. So now we can torque down the compression block bolts to 24 ft-lbs.

And then remove the wood block and flip the battery upside down. So we can reinstall the bottom of the case. And a little trick with these temperature sensors. First, let's get this air dam in place on the end.

Here. Make sure it snaps in good., Since these temperature sensors trigger the fan to go on to cool the battery down. It's a good idea to put the sensors more towards the middle of the battery where it gets the hottest.. So instead of having the sensors spread out along the entire battery, like they were put the sensors more towards the middle here.

So we're going to put that one there we can put that one there and we can put this one here. Now, since the sensors are more towards the middle, the fan will kick on earlier and keep this battery cooler, giving it a longer life and better performance.. Now, let's get the case on so it fits over the battery. And make sure the bolt holes on both sides line up, so we can screw in our bottom battery cell bolts..

It's important. We start each bolt by hand, so we avoid cross-threading them and snapping a bolt. And don't ask me how I know that. And once all 28 bolts are in, we can torque each one down to 60, in-lbs., Make sure you're tightening these to in-lbs and not ft-lbs..

Good now we can flip the battery over and torque down the two nuts that go to the corners of the block.. These nuts get torqued down to 90 in-lbs. Good., And now we can install the vent tubes. The holes on the tubes connect to the vent protruding off the battery.

Snap, these on all the way. So if any gases do escape from the battery, it gets vented outside the car. Good.. Now we can get the air dam back in place and then get the sensor wire, run it to the mounting spot and push it in so that it clicks in place..

Alright now the last thing that we need to do before we put our case on is get our bus bars connected., But before we connect the bus bars, these are all corroded. So in the kit it comes with brand new bus bars to swap in place of all of these.. Now a good clean bus bar is very important, which is why they're included in the kits.. It connects each battery to each other in series..

So it's important that we swap these out. And to do that. Get a flathead, screwdriver and pry it out like that., Then press in the new bus bar until it snaps in. Again pop it out with a flathead screwdriver and then press in the new one..

So you're going to want to swap out all the old bus bars with brand new ones.. I already did this entire side.. Now we're going to do the other side. And the other side is very similar.

The only difference ... is there's an extra tab here. That needs to get pried out.. Then you can pry out the old bus bar.

Then we can push the new bus bar in and then the extra tab. Alright. Now, with all the old bus bars removed and the new ones installed, we can mount the bus bars onto the battery. And then tighten down our bus bar nuts, which have been soaking in vinegar to remove the corrosion..

So, let's drain this and dry, the nuts thoroughly., You don't want any moisture on here. And look how good these came out. That's a great little trick to remove corrosion.. Now we want to tighten down each bus bar nut to 60 in-lbs..

Then snap in the plastic bus bar covers. Good. And with this side done now, let's go to the other side. Put the bus bars on the battery, then torque each one down to 60 in-lbs put the bus bar covers on so they snap in place.

And finally, we can put the case back on over the battery. Torque down the four bolts on this side to 71 in-lbs. And can't forget about our sharp edge protector. Put that back on..

Then we can put the side cover on and torque that bolt down to 71 in-lbs and finally, there are three fasteners on the back that get torqued down to 71 in-lbs.. Alright, so we installed all the nuts and bolts. Our case is ready to go back into the car, So let's get it in there And this battery weighs over 80 lbs. So it has some weight to it., So be careful when you get it back in place.

In the car. Now we want to install the five bolts that mount this to the car.. There's two on this side that get torqued down to 14 ft-lbs. And then the last three are on this side and get torqued down to 14 ft-lbs as well.

And with the battery secured to the car we're coming up to the most exciting part.. We need to connect our electric so that we can start up our car and make sure the battery works. If the car starts. That means the battery's installed correctly and we're good to go to install all the rest of the interior pieces..

So, let's go and connect our electrics. First, we need to connect the 3 harnesses here and make sure each one clicks which lets you know it's pushed in all the way.. Then we need to connect the two high voltage wires to the relays. And tighten down the two nuts holding the wires in to 50 in-lbs..

Alright - and one last thing we need to do - is install the safety plug. Push it in swing the handle up and then push it down to lock it in.. Also, we can't forget, we need to reconnect the 12-volt battery., So tighten the bolt to the chassis. Alright and our dome light is on and let's go see if we did it OK moment of truth.

Make sure that you have your key with you. So the car will start up. We're going to hit this once .... Ok, that's a good sign.

We're going to take our foot off the brake and press on the gas ... That should start the gas engine and it did and check it out. The engine is charging up the battery., I don't see any check engine lights, no dashboard lights, no triangle anymore.. That is awesome.

I'm going to shut her off and we're going to go back and get everything back. Together. Alright and we fixed the Prius, The battery's good to go. She started right up and we saw the battery start charging right away, which is awesome.

The new owner is going to love this.. We put a nice high-quality battery in here. It's going to last. For years to come.

Now we need to get the interior together.. So let's remove the safety plug. So it's safe to work around the hybrid battery., I'm going to keep our 12-volt battery plugged in because we're going to get the interior in real quickly. So we don't have to worry about the battery dying.

And putting the interior in is the exact opposite of the way we removed it.. So let me give you a quick overview.. First we're going to get the cover on the battery computer. So, let's install the junction terminal where the open end faces the front of the car., Then we can put the cover on and tighten down the 5 fasteners to 66 in-lbs to hold the cover in place..

Now, let's install the battery support bracket on this side.. So get it in place and there are 7 bolts that need to get torqued down to 21 ft-lbs. So get each of those bolts, torqued down. Good, and now let's go to the other side of the battery..

Here we need to get the lower air duct connected to the bottom of the battery. And push the plastic clip in as well as tighten the bolt down to 35 in-lbs. to hold the duct in place.. Next, let's install the vent tube which vents the battery outside the car.

And then let's get the support bracket in place and torque down the 7 bolts to 21 ft-lbs. Good.. Finally, let's install the upper air duct and make sure it's connected to the fan., Secure it in place with the two plastic clips and remember to attach the relay back on the air duct.. Alright.

Now, with our battery installed everything all connected now we can go and install our trim. Pieces. Now remember we have everything, nice and organized, so we're going to put the seat bolts in and then we're going to put each side on and it's all organized. So we know exactly what order they go in..

So, let's finish this up, starting with the seats., So slide the seats in place and torque down each of the four bolts to 27 ft-lbs.. Next, we can install the driver side, trim., Remember, to put the cargo light back, and this snaps right in. Then push the trim into place and hit around the edges to make sure the different sections of the panel click in. Good.

Now tighten down the chrome tie-down Bolt the small black bolt push the plastic clip in and finally tighten down the long silver bolt. Perfect. Now, let's do the other side. Get the trim in place and hit around the edges.

Then tighten the chrome bolt the small black bolt push the plastic clip in place, tighten down the long silver bolt and don't forget about pushing the side trim back into place.. Now we can get the battery trim in and remember to push the plastic clips in each corner of the trim.. That's one. And that's the other..

Alright, so remember we broke the two plastic trim clips that hold that in.. Well, we want to replace them with some nice new ones., These clips just slide and click into place. And now just hit the trim down to secure the trim.. Then tighten the last two chrome tie- down bolts, reconnect the hybrid battery safety plug.

So we can start the car up, get the driver side bin in and tighten it down then get the two covers on followed by the rear trim piece which snaps in with a little pressure. Finally get the large storage bin in., Then the trunk floor and the Privacy cover.: Let's put the seats up and get the trunk floor, mat in., Alright, and that is how you replace a bad hybrid battery using a rebuild kit., And you just learned something that many mechanics are afraid to even touch., Plus we've saved $ 2500. By doing this ourselves., Actually we made $ 1000 because this car is sold. And you can do the same.

Exact thing find yourself: a Prius with a bad hybrid battery, fix it up and then sell it., It's a win-win. You make some money and the next owner gets a reliable car., Or maybe you already own, a Prius and the battery's going bad. Well now you know how to replace it yourself to save money., And hopefully the video was helpful if it was remember to give it a thumbs up. And if you're not a subscriber, consider hitting that subscribe button for more how-to videos..

Also, as always, all the tools and products, including the hybrid battery, are linked in the description, so you can easily find them.