How to Replace a Hybrid Battery in a Prius (Upgraded Battery)

Watching this just in case. Never know when it might come in handy

The safety plug tool being the safety connection is genius

Chris, you did a great job making this video. The camera positions was perfect. You explained everything. My son-in-law recently purchased a 2011 Prius with 150,000 miles. It needed the batteries replaced but the previous owner opted to sell the car and purchase another vehicle. We watched this awesome video and purchased the batteries used in this video and we installed them yesterday. We took our time and referred to the video several times. Everything fit perfectly and we did not have any issues at all. Being an ex-mechanic, everything was pretty straight forward, but my son-in-law wanted to follow your steps. We even torqued the bolts and nuts to your specs. After installation, the car was charging up the batteries. Thanks again, for this fantastic video and recommending these batteries.

My brother was a master technician for 30 years. You have an amazing talent not only for mechanics but for teaching!!

I’ve done multiple hybrid battery replacement and repairs , I have to say this is the most straightforward and detailed video on YouTube I’ve seen , great job Chris!

I don't own a Prius or plan on buying one anytime soon, but Chris's car videos are just too educational and well-made to not watch. This is some high quality entertainment!

Okay, I have to mention something about safety. I worked near high-voltage lines for about 20 years and have worked with people who have died from them, so I know just a little bit about dangerous voltage, which this scenario is. Lockout tagout is absolutely crucial in a situation like this. Basically, you want to set up your environment so that you cannot possibly hurt yourself, no matter what happens. When you take out that orange safety plug, you are deenergizing the system from the battery, which is good if you are working on the system (inverter, generator, trunk to engine wires, etc), but you are still in danger from the battery, and the battery is what you were working on in this video. The battery is the source of the dangerous voltage that everyone is nervous about. It can shock you to the point of killing you, but that's not the only thing it can do. You can cause an explosion if the battery grounds to the frame of the car, which puts you at risk for blindness, getting injured by projectiles (in this case the entire battery or parts of it), getting severe burns from the fireball that will be caused when said grounding is accomplished, and probably some other things I'm forgetting at this point. Think of that battery as a bomb. You don't want just anyone handling a bomb if they don't have to. The safety plug splits the battery down to lower, BUT STILL DANGEROUS, voltages. Either way, the danger throughout this entire process is always the collection of 28 battery modules in one single location. As long as you have that, you are in great danger, from the time you are disassembling the trunk to the time you actually separate the modules in such a way that they do not have a reasonable chance of grounding out a certain voltage that will be able to kill or injure you ( basically when you're handling one single block away from any other blocks). Up until this point, you should at least have high voltage gloves and variety of other things as well as a variety of environmental safeguards to ensure that grounding is a very small possibility (such as putting an insulating barrier between the car frame and the battery, using insulated tools, safety glasses, etc.) When removing the battery, all sorts of things can go wrong. It's heavy and awkward, and you can easily flip the battery so that the terminals ground to the frame and then it's lights out, gloves or no gloves. The plastic bus bar covers are supposed to lower the risk but, as you can see, they are extremely fragile. They would not stand up to the weight of the battery if it were dropped. They are basically there to protect you from touching the terminals accidentally.. like touch.. touch.. tap tap.. Nothing forceful. When you do take out the battery, you must absolutely put it on a non conductive surface like dry wood, rubber mat, etc... No metal tables. There's probably a whole bunch of other precautions you need to take that are listed in a manual somewhere from Toyota, hopefully. I wish they'd put warning labels on these batteries so that people don't accidentally get hurt by something they don't understand..

I don't even have a prius, but I watched it from start to finish with full pleasure... Great job on the video, amazing!

Find me one person who wouldn't spend 40 minutes not only learning how to replace the hybrid cells in a Prius, but also experiencing the passion this man has for his job. Shine on, Chris. I know nobody more down to Earth, and no bigger nerd (in the best way) than ChrisFix. Thank you for the years of entertainment.

These videos are without a doubt the highest quality in the industry. It’s incredible how seamless all of his steps are. At times it feels like Chris can see into the future. Fantastic work as always!

Started watching videos on how to detail a car and ended up here... I don't have a car, not even a drivers license, but these videos are so mesmerizing! Chris, hats off to you for going in such details and being so patient and explaining every step! I wish professors in schools had this kind of approach to reaching kids. Great job and keep being awesome! 😊

Its crazy to me how far you go the extra mile. There will be a single bolt and yet you still set up an entire shot, Camara, lighting, everything just to get a one and a half second shot of a single bolt. Genuinely, i appreciate that a lot and so mad respect for you for really going the extra mile and then some!

Damn, this guy is a gem! Nobody on Youtube does instructive car repair videos in detail as well as him.

I swear to god I wished this video never ends. Amazing attention to detail, camera angles, explanations, and so on and so forth. Just perfect.

One thing to mention - you can see corrosion of original buss bars (like in 17:10) which is is often the cause of reported battery failure while battery itself is still in pretty good shape. Sometimes it is enough to take buss harness apart, clean it and re-assemble and your "failed" battery will work again perfectly fine. It is not guaranteed fix but if you are willing to take battery apart it is worth a try before spending 2000+ USD on new pack.

Your preparation before filming is spectacular. Scripting to ensure you pantomime to match your voiceover, pacing to make sure sped up parts match the feel of the rest, and overall preparation (research on torque specs, for instance) is absolutely unmatched anywhere else. You also have branding down to a science. This is a must watch for anyone looking to create instructional content.

The safety plug as a tool is great. The ease of battery replacement makes me see these cars completely different. Beautifully engineered.

I don't think I've ever done any of the work you do in these videos but I still love watching your videos. They're so well made, very detailed, and super informative. It's almost therapeutic.

Hey Chris, I'm not a mechanic at all, but because of the detailed process you shared in this video (including the trusted vendor for the upgraded battery), I had enough confidence to attempt swapping out our old hybrid battery on our 2010 Prius myself instead of paying 💰💸 to a dealer or shade-tree mechanic. I spent the extra $500 for the entire pack from Electron Hybrid Solutions instead of just swapping out the cells, and, for me at least, that was money well-spent. There were a few hiccups along the way, but nothing insurmountable. I just filled up the tank today in town and reset Trip A just to see how the new battery is behaving. On the 21.1 mile trip back home, half on the highway at 70+ mph, half on country backroads, I averaged 65.6 mpg. Before the old battery bit the dust, I was averaging about 43 mpg. I'll take a 50% improvement any day of the week. Thank you so much!!! The hiccups: 1. The ratchet straps holding the battery tight in the wooden crate had loosened somewhat during shipment to me, so a couple of the mounting fins had been bent up pretty badly. I was able to gently bend them back good enough to get it properly mounted. I advised the vendor of this. 2. Also due to the loose straps, one brown, cigar-sized piece of electronics had broken off its mount and the square socket end where it plugs in had been broken. I just transferred the same piece off my old battery onto the new one and sent the broken piece back to the vendor with my old battery (notifying them of the situation). 3. Because my Prius had been out of commission for a couple months, the 12v battery had run all the way down, so I had to manually unlock the car and climb back through to the hatchback area to manually release the hatchback door latch to get it open....to even begin work. Also needed to jump start the car to test out the new hybrid battery once I'd gotten it installed. 4. When the Prius first started up after the new battery installation, the "check hybrid system" error had gone away (and no triangle of death), but the entire right side of the dash display was dark. I drove it a bit down the gravel driveway and back, and the car seemed to work fine both with the gas engine running and on electric motor alone, but the right half of the dash remained dark. A quick check of PriusChat indicated that that might happen if the 12v battery runs all the way down. Which mine had. So I parked it for a bit and left the jump pack attached to the 12v battery to give it a bit more juice. Of course the regular driving of the car should charge the 12v up just fine, but I didn't feel it was safe to drive the car around or get too far from home until I had the full dash display back. After about 15 mins on the jump pack charging, the Prius started up with full operational dash and has been fine ever since. Thanks again, Chris! You're amazing!

This was EXPONENTIALLY **THE BEST** Automotive repair video I've ever seen! Well done!!!! --Your explanations were perfect: the lighting was spot on. Editing was unbelievably crisp & sharp.... VERY impressive. (No extraneous tightenings, explanations or removal steps, etc.)... the best 40 minutes I've spent in years! Thank you!!!!!