The starter battery went dead this morning and AAA came over to jump start it. The AAA technician said it's common for our hybrid cars starter battery to go bad if not driven for a while (the battery is almost 4 years old so need to be replaced soon anyways)

Just wondering if anyone has swap out the starter battery yourself? Is it just straight forward replacement like replacing batteries in other cars then reset the windows settings ? Thank you.

You might want to read the post (by Cduluk) at the top of the "Pinned" list.

yes after my oem battery would not hold a charge i went to costco, their battery that fits our hybrids has more cold cranking power, and they have a full three year warranty, no questions asked. i did consider the optima battery that they also sell but it is double the cost with only a one year warranty. i swapped out the old battery with the new costco one and there were no problems. you do reset windows, also you will lose the history on your stereo presets and the history on the nav system for previous addresses entered.

I know that we should look for everything ourselves...finding a thread,Etc. but when someone asks, can someone just answer the question? I looked at the thread that CDLUC wrote but it had a lot of stuff in it and I am not sure if the battery question was answered there...so let me ask this...or should I look for this too....should I just get a better battery before my 06 battery gives out? Just answer if you,anyone, knows...don't tell me to look at previous posts. I have a hard time looking for previous threads/posts anyway...it keeps telling me that I am doing something wrong. Thanks, Rey

I dont think RX400h's suggestion was to answer the OP's question, a lot of cduluk's thread discusses things to address AFTER the battery is replaced.

The site is a wealth of information...and oftentimes yes you can find answers to your questions by searching.

Whether you want to replace your battery or not before it fails is a matter of personal preference. I would replace them after 3-4 years personally.

Whether you wait to change your battery, or change it when it still has some life left- as soon as you disconnect one, you'll need to "reset" everything, all the things i made that thread about.

Thank you guys! The main point for my question is whether it can be Do-It-Yourself or I have to go to dealership to do it. I searched before I sent out my post. I saw cduluk's post up the top and I found that very useful however he's describing what need to be done AFTER battery is disconnected (as SW03ES mentioned) but not addressing whether we can change our own battery without any adverse effects.

I remember seeing something like you have to go to the dealership to change the battery because the car memory stores information related to the communication to the hybrid battery (something like that) ...

Thanks to katzjamr for confirming me that it can be DIY and we just need to reset the windows/ stereo/ NAV memories.

You can definately do it yourself...

Exactly! Often someone has previously done exactly what you are contemplating, but for one reason or another won't see your question for days or even weeks. This is why the search function is so handy. I thought it was fairly clear that cduluk's post assumed the battery was replaced by the owner, but I guess to others, a dealership would replace a battery and not reconfigure important settings.

The good news is that everyone is now clear as to the requirements for replacing a battery. Most OEM batteries, if not drained excessively, will last a minimum of 5 years. My Corvette's battery lasted more than 7 years.

sunapollo: what you are remembering is that there was a tsb on the ecu settings that would go awry and and result in lower mpg after the battery was disabled, during body work, or during replacement. so afterwards, or at the next lube i would ask the dealer to check the ecu settings and correct them if needed. the copy of the tsb is on this site and i walked up to my service manager with it and he took it from there. the car still runs it just affects the gas mileage.

I ended up going to Sears to have my battery replaced and costed me half of what the dealership quoted me. Will have the service guys check out the ECU settings for me in my next service there. Thanks again katzjamr.

[/quote]The good news is that everyone is now clear as to the requirements for replacing a battery. Most OEM batteries, if not drained excessively, will last a minimum of 5 years. My Corvette's battery lasted more than 7 years.[/quote]

Perhaps not in Arizona. I often wonder how battery dealers make money here. Our heat kills batteries in a couple of years which usually means free replacements.

Tom

Any thoughts on hooking up a 12v computer backup or small 12v motorcycle or scooter battery to the terminals in order to not lose memory during battery replacement. I know that this will only work in a non-dead battery replacement, but could be beneficial to anyone replacing a battery before full dead status occurs?

It "would" work, but i don't think it would be worth it. It only takes a few minutes to reset everything.

It was probably just a slip of the tongue ... but fyi anyway. The little 12v battery is not a starter battery, in the sense of 'cranking-over' the ICE ... rather the aux battery simply boots up the ECU's, that in turn, signal MG1 (electric motor) to turn over and start the ice. Our aux battery too, just croaked at 35K miles ... so the dealer ploped in a new one under warranty. I'd have rather put in an optima yellow top, like we did for our Prius ... it's the same size/power battery as used in the Miata ... so it actually has 'cranking amps'. Now, if I sit in the car with the sterio on cabin lights on ... programming settings etc ... I don't have to worry about the under powered OEM any more.

Someone,

Was you battery covered by the battery warranty or the vehicle warranty?

Sorry ... Don't know - didn't ask - but a good question.