My fiancee's car, a 2001 Toyota Prius with 160,000 miles had its main battery break
What exactly does "break" mean? Were you able to determine that a new battery was the only/best solution, and that the dealer/mechanic wasn't trying to gouge you?
I agree that a 13-year-old car/battery owes you nothing. In fact the 2004 Prius models (and later) have had even better batteries, so this 2014 replacement battery may outlast the rest of your 2001 Prius.
The battery died.
Um... I'm just curious what the symptoms of "break" and "battery died" look like. If you had a mechanic's opinion on it, I'm curious about that too.
I have a 2005 and a 2006 Prius and if your battery symptoms (whatever they may be) ever started to show up in my cars then whatever information you could share (about the symptoms) might mean that I could be better equipped to deal with them.
Nords,
I looked up the answer:
The Prius cannot be driven without a functional traction (large "hybrid") battery.
In fact, if the traction battery is bad, you will not even be able to start the engine because the traction battery provides the power to spin MG1 which turns and starts the internal combustion engine.
The symptoms:
Q. What are the signs of a weakening traction battery? We have an '05 w/110,000 miles, and have been noticing that the charging gauge swings from the low to the high levels very quickly. Whereas it seemed to sit in the blue range most of the time, now it is in the red or green ranges a lot more of the time. Overall mpg performance has not changed, though. We are in hilly Colorado, so a lot of downhill grades where the charge can go full green. One odd thing, when at full green charge and stopped, the engine continues to run with the charging arrows switching directions. Like the charging system is confused. Any ideas?
A.This is a sign that your battery is losing capacity. Many older Priuses will have reductions in battery capacity but wont necessarily notice it so much if they drive in flatter terrain. The Prius will tolerate a fairly large reduction in battery capacity before it throws a code, and though I'm sure this is partly to minimize warranty claims, tests have shown that the Prius can still get very good MPG even with quite a large percent of the battery capacity gone.
Remember that losing capacity (amp hours) is not the only way a battery can fail. Other problems like shorted cells and rapid self discharge will badly screw up performance and cause it the throw a code. If you're still getting good mpg then it's most likely just a loss of capacity, and at this stage you can probably just keep driving it.
It also looks fairly easy to repair yourself for $45 to $500. Maybe you can add extra batteries and go full electric :).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p8Im1eL67Y