Followup to followup on my Prius battery

[PeterB]

Ehhhh, I think I'm fine doing the battery install myself ... the videos do make it look reasonably easy, and it has the advantage of not having to interact with anyone as I do it. And I'm in no immediate need of the car, since I'm strictly self-isolating, but on the other hand of course it's nice to have a working car... so not a super rush, but I would say better sooner than later. (In the meantime, until I do the replacement, the car DOES start up if I jump it.)

[space-time]

how do you jump it, do you have to call someone or do you have your own jumper kit?

[ztirffritz]

Another benefit of getting the battery from Autozone is that they'll take the old battery for recycling.

[PeterB]

space-time wrote:
how do you jump it, do you have to call someone or do you have your own jumper kit?

Portable jumper battery, got on sale on the advice of those here. One of those itty bitty ones... works great.

[wurm]

If you've gotten comfortable with the idea of installing it yourself, there's always the option (as I did) of buying the battery from the dealer and just paying for it online and picking it up. I'm sure if you asked, they'd be happy to bring it out to the car for you and put it in your trunk or back seat. No contact at all. I ended up with an OEM battery for not much more than an Optima or other aftermarket. About 15 minutes to install and I was set. And FWIW, mine was showing zero symptoms of dying a slow death. I just wanted to be proactive heading into the winter with a 9 year old battery.

Of course you'll have to make sure to time it so that the car is running long enough to get to the dealer and back. Just don't shut it off while you're waiting for them to come out.

One more thing. Until you return the old battery core, you'll end up paying about $15 more for the new one. So unless you can pull the old battery and bring it with you in another car, you'll need to make two trips. That's one more advantage to getting it all done at one place in one trip.

[Acer]

The old battery will make a nice door stop.

[RAMd®d]

Every place around me that sell batteries, has a core charge, a fee levied to encourage the recycling of the old battery.

There's no way I'd pay anybody to do this, as long as I'm physically able.

That battery change has a lot of fiddly bits, but is still just a walk in the park.

A few simple hand tools and what— 30min tops, job done.

Lifting the batteries might be an issue for some people, but still easy peasy.

Somebody's posted this video, yes?

HIs is a 2012 GIII, so unless there's a marked difference in a 2014, a walk in the park.

[PeterB]

Yes, I'm the one who posted that video.

... and yes, it does look VERY easy. Just a matter of having the metric size wrenches and ratcheting wrench plus the right size drivers.

Edit: oh, and the only other thing that I thought might be tricky -- if the battery terminals are corroded in any way ... I might not be surprised if that were true, given the weather conditions we have down here.

[p8712]

I never could get the vent back on right. Mine ran for 2 years without itfor no issue. Still suggest an optima battery.

[PeterB]

p8712 wrote:
I never could get the vent back on right. Mine ran for 2 years without itfor no issue. Still suggest an optima battery.

I looked at the Optima batteries, but they seem to get even worse reviews than the AC Delco. And the vent... apparently the AC Delco is ventless, so you don't need to worry about it.