2008 Camry Hybrid Battery Replacement and Customer Decision Process

The customer wisely chose to invest in a new hybrid battery for their reliable 2008 Camry, ensuring its longevity for their daughter's college commute.

### 2008 Camry Hybrid Battery Replacement: A Customer's Tough Decision
* 🔧 The 2008 Camry Hybrid requires significant repairs, with the **hybrid battery replacement** being a major focus due to its **high cost and complexity**.
* ⚡ Removing the hybrid battery involves careful steps, starting with **seat removal** and exposing the battery located **behind the back seat**.
* 🔍 The process includes disconnecting various components and ensuring safety by **removing the 12V battery and service plug** to **prevent high-voltage accidents**.
* 💰 The customer faced a tough decision when presented with repair costs of approximately **$5,800** for both the battery and ABS actuator, weighing the car's value against the expenses.
* 🚗 After thorough evaluation, the owners decided to invest in repairs, believing the car's **overall condition justified the costs** for their daughter's **first vehicle**.
* 📊 The owner felt they had received **good value from the car over the years**, emphasizing the importance of considering the vehicle's **history and maintenance**.
* 🔄 Ultimately, the owner’s decision reflects a **well-researched approach to vehicle investment**, prioritizing **safety and reliability** for their daughter's use.
* 👍 The video concludes with a call for viewers to **reflect on the logic behind repair investments versus purchasing new vehicles** in today’s market.

Hello and welcome to the Car K Shop. Welcome to this 2008 Camry Hybrid. So the decisions this customer had to make for their car were tough ones, and in this particular case, this car needs so much work.  Really, two items alone easily total the car, but the decision for this customer to go ahead with this job is something we're going to discuss as we start with the first big-ticket item: replacing the hybrid battery. So we're going to kind of start working on this and we'll talk along the

way; some tips on hybrid battery replacements, some DIY, although this is not exactly a DIY job because of the risks involved with the high voltage. But we'll talk about a few things and more right after this. So as we remove this hybrid battery, which, by the way, starts

with popping the seat out. This car has right around 137,000 miles, somewhere around there. I think I'll be able to pull this seat from this direction. Sometimes you just have to be... there we go. Just controllably rough with things to pop them out. This comes

with experience. This... uh... full disclaimer: the owners of this car are very nice people; they are actually my regular customers, and this is a family car. So the things we're about to see underneath the seat, we're just going to pretend they're not there and not pass

judgment. Okay, so the hybrid battery in this car lives somewhere behind the seat. Yes, you can sneak it out from the back, but sneaking things out is not my thing. I'd rather spend an additional five minutes, take something out of my way, and work comfortably than be fighting with

Space. So let me get some tools. Let's get this back seat out as we continue talking about this one. So this car can have two style seats, and I think this one is the easier one, the one that doesn't recline. And this is a

slightly rusty bolt. If you've never removed seats on Toyotas, these sides come off separately, like so. You might see me slightly struggling, but I'm trying; the camera is in the way. So I'm trying to do this. Normally, I would just come from this side and not have to

crawl in the car, but I guess we're going to put this as the things you guys made me do. So this thing, the kind of side bolster of the back seat, if you ever want to remove it, it has a hook—I hope you can see it

clearly on the camera—has a hook that sits in. So you lift it up, and then it comes out. So these are the folding type, which are normally slightly easier to do than the fixed type, the one that has like the little opening in the middle. So for these,

Aha! Here we go. That's—I'm remembering these are much easier because you don't have to remove the actual track. There are two 12s here. Come on. There we go! And then this whole thing kind of disappears. Then the other one is pretty

much the same thing. So the bolts I told you earlier are the ones—if you have a fixed type where this doesn't fold down—this one is already behaving nicely. Let's get the seatbelt out of here. All right, off she goes! Well, now we're going to

Start removing some of these panels. This clip has a special tool that pulls it very easily, or you can just use a clip-type tool to remove them. But let's remove all these covers so we can expose the battery. We'll get it out and go from

there. So this is how that tool looks like. We'll show you a close-up of it, but remove some of these clips for this panel. Let's see, we have more... there we go, that's free! And hello, Mr. Battery! This is the hybrid battery, and

the venting for it goes all the way up here. And usually you can sneak it by; I don't like to do that because that's how you break things, and this is a very vital component of this battery. So I am going to do this the long way. This is

the long way, which it's not really... This is where, in automotive repair, you can choose the easy, dangerous way where things might end up getting damaged, or you can just go the long way, and then things won't get damaged. 'Cause you see this piece of

plastic? It's actually into the package tray over here. So you just yank it out, you're going to damage it. But if you take a moment and just pop the package tray up—which this one's already not cooperating—there it is.

And there it is. For those who are not familiar with the term "package tray," if there are any Toyota technicians watching—Toyota wording; this is a translation from Japanese—"package tray." I don't know why it's called that, but that's what Toyota calls it in the

Okay, so there's the wire for the third brake light. Let's not forget that. It would be nice if we don't forget that. Now, the seat belt will be in our way here, so here's what we're going to do: we're going to pop these little

panels, and then we're going to disconnect the seat belt from the bottom, which is a bunch of 14s. Let me get some 14s. We'll get these out. Let's take the seat belt that's through, and then the other one, slightly covered by the track. This is where the Lego

effect starts. You take one thing to expose another thing. This is where you wish car designers would design something and then try to take it apart; see if it works. Because if they moved this bolt just an inch in either direction, we wouldn't have to do this, but

they didn't, and that's okay. And by 'that's okay,' I mean it's not okay. What are you going to do? Okay, last one. Oh, that thing is rusty, of course. This is a Chicago car; Rusty Land Special. This bolt, because it goes

outside, it gets a little on the rusty side. Get this through. Okay, our package tray is free for now. Here it is. If you ever want to replace a third brake light, now you know how to, although this is LED, by the way. So we did all this so the venting would

come apart easier and not have to break everything, because I'd rather spend all this time than to have the vent blocked or broken, and then the new battery overheats, and then we're back to square one. Kind of curious how this hybrid fan is going—the battery fan—you're going to

Look like this car doesn't have mega miles, but it is a family car, so there ought to be a lot of dust and debris. Let us see here. You know, I made one mistake doing this; this car has been parked outside. It's pretty hot outside, and this clip

doesn't want to come out. Nope, that clip broke. Well, one more clip on order for this one. Actually, might have a few extra of these same clips. We parked this car outside, and it's pretty hot outside, and now it's like an oven in here. So if you see me

sweating, it's not because I'm afraid of the high-voltage battery, because it's really hot in here. What have we here? There we go. So now we go to the trunk, which is a lot cooler than the inside of this car. Here, I need to disconnect the

battery. This thing is connected. I don't think that's how this goes. Well, since we are here, let's unplug our 12V battery so we can work freely from here on out. Whenever you work on major electrical components, or for example, if you're disconnecting a lot of

connectors under the dash or whatnot, you always want to disconnect the negative terminal of the battery. You can leave the positive one there. It is, and make sure you don't just leave it sitting next to it, because then it could move and hit it, and we

have potential fireworks. You can leave the positive connected as long as the negative is just away from the negative of the battery. Let's remove these. I think we just... yeah, we have to remove both. Now this one just pops out. And whenever you work on orange wires, pull the plug. This is

The service plug for the hybrid battery: right now, when you pull this plug, you have opened the circuit of the battery, so there's no longer power going to the inverter. Two things about this plug: when you install it, obviously don't put your

hand in there. But when you install it—and by the way, if you own a hybrid, you should have no business disconnecting this at all, because I see people do what I just did, and then the car won't start—because you actually have to press

it down. If you don't press it down, the car won't start. And the reason for that is there is this little plug right here; when you do this, it's not connected. When you press it, it actually engages and that opens—or closes—the interlock (that's the technical term). But this needs to be visible at all times when you're working on the battery.

Yes, some people have said this is not a big deal, but you need to have it visible at all times. If somebody, by mistake, takes it and plugs it in while you have hot wires around,

you could be in serious trouble. Safety first! So we're going to put this on the roof of the car so I can see it at all times and I know we're working safely here. Now we are kind of making our way to removing this behemoth right here, which

means we're going to have to go back in the hot car. But before we do, I just want to—I don't want to remove this panel completely; I'm just going to kind of loosen it, move it to the side. I think we're going to have to

Remove it completely because there's a vent behind it. Okay, scrap that plan. Thank you, engineers, for doing this for us. So, in order to remove this, you have to remove this. So let's do that. Remove the side cover, which has two—there are two—and then this thing.

Should you—don't have any more clips. It is thought we'd be able to sneak it out past the spare tire cover, but no. There we go. There's even more of these clips. TOA loves to use these clips at this time period. They're not the

greatest clips. This one is broken; they're just super flimsy. And this one ain't coming out anymore. There we go. Did all that so we can remove this vent. Well, let's remove this vent; that's out of our way. And this just has a clip here. This

is the exhaust vent, which has more clips on the inside. You're going to see the whole cooling system of the battery once we get this out. This one has another clip from the other side. This is the exhaust; it's just the fan pulls the air through, and this

exhaust just goes out of the vent side of the trunk. So we're going to remove the fan first. This is just a duct that sits here, and then the inner duct has two bolts here, as I find them—if I'm sure that right there—yeah, there. I see that duct coming

down. So one more clip and she's out. There is the intake duct for the hybrid battery. Some have mentioned that this is a filter; it is a clean-up filter, but it's not the main filter. This car actually doesn't have a filter, and that's one of

The things we're going to install, so there's that. Now, really, everything else comes apart very easily. The fan has a connector; let's put our seatbelt up.  The fan has one connector; there's that. There's this little duct; these clips... you can tell these were the early

days of the hybrid battery because not two, close are the same, and everything feels super random. I think there is one more bolt. I'm going to go get that bolt from the trunk, then we'll pull the fan. How about [Music]? That all righty.

This... oh, oh, this is not bad at all. You see that fan right there? That is not dirty at all; just a little bit. So I guess the battery is just ready for retirement, I suppose. Now we have this connector that is attached to the case of the battery; try to get it

out. There it is, and that's it. There's nothing attached here. There is the vent tube disconnect right here, and there is one more intake vent, which has two clips. Those out... don't break! Don't break! That's the intake vent that connects to the battery. Actually, this is

what sends air inside the battery. We're going to look at that now. We have to disconnect one thing, and then this battery is coming out. We have to disconnect the cables that go to the front for the inverter that go to the battery. In order to do that, you have

this little strange-looking clip. The thing about this clip is this is a safety clip. Whenever you see this clip inside the car, you're about to access an area with high voltage. And this is a little bit of brilliant engineering from Toyota. The end of the service

The plug is actually a special tool used to undo these. They designed it this way so you have no choice but to remove the service plug. Let's do this. This clip comes right out, so you have no choice but to undo the service plug to undo this now.

Now we know for sure you're protected and you didn't forget the service plug, so having removed that, we are in the clear. Remove this, and then after this is gone, we're going to remove more covers. There's this little ground here; remove this little ground strap, and then this...

should...there we go. Two high-voltage connectors, then there's this little ground thing, and then the two nuts (I keep saying bolts). That's it! We are disconnected from the car. Just one more connector here, which is a low-voltage connector...

...for various sensors and the computer, or whatnot. Actually, I take that back; there's always the ground. I forgot about that. I'm going to reattach this nut so this other wire won't come flying out. That's it! Three high-voltage cables are disconnected. I think we are ready to

remove the battery, which this one happens to be one of the heavier ones, and the biggest ones, except the Highlander might be a little bigger. But the Prius is a lot smaller than this. There are bolts alongside the case. I don't like—some people like to disassemble it in

the car. I don't like to disassemble it in the car; get it out as one unit. You can swap it over, and we'll talk about that in a bit. But uh, let me get these 12 mm bolts so we can start pulling this battery out of this...

car, and there are a few more bolts through the other side. I'll get them, and then we'll get this battery out. Now, this battery should be loose—emphasis on the word *should* be—yeah, there it is. Very, very heavy. I'm going to try to move it a little bit.

Here it is. Then we're going to carry it out of the trunk. Jose, you're going to have to help me with this one. This battery is a little too heavy for my broken back. Let's remove this battery. Okay, let's remove this battery, Jose.

Warning for you, Jose: the edges are extremely sharp. It's like a battery by Gillette! All right, hold on. You got a good grab on it on the other side? Yep. All right.  Watch your fingers when you set it down. Set yours down first. Yeah, I got it.

Got it. Let's just position it a little bit more centered. There we go. It's out. There's the battery. So this is the hybrid battery. This is one of the largest ones, and this is one of the oldest ones—nickel metal hydride—and

very large. So, something about batteries: you notice there are two sections to it. If you look here, this is a section; this is the actual battery; this is all the computer and the relays and all that. We're going to take all that out. So you see, we've got to swap

it to the new one. Speaking of the new one, this is the new one. You notice it comes in this massive box, and Jose made a comment as soon as we got it that, uh, this is going to be pretty heavy and big. Is it going to fit through the car?

It's actually a much larger container than the battery itself. This is called—don't quote me on this, I'm just remembering from memory—I think it's called a DRC, durable reusable container, or something of that nature. Basically, this is the container to securely

transport the batteries. There's actually training on how to package the battery, and I remember the first time I ordered a hybrid battery, we opened the shop—the dealership actually asked, "Hey, we can just send you a battery. Do you have this training?" Yes, I had to send them a

certificate and all that because that's not something the dealership requires, or Toyota; the federal government—actually, not the federal government, the Department of Transportation—requires it for transportation. Yeah, maybe that class. I took it too long ago and I'm not remembering all the

little details. But basically, the packaging is very specific, and you have to sign your name—who packaged this battery—and this container, of course, is reusable; that's why it looks a little beaten up. This is just for transport. They basically take the hybrid battery, put it

in here for transport. Let's remove the case, the DRC, and here's the battery with more packaging around it. It's a brand new battery from Toyota. And here's the thing: as I go through the maze of this packaging, many of you will right now

stop the video and comment, "Why can't you just get an aftermarket battery? It costs half the price of this." Well, here's the problem with aftermarket batteries, and maybe when we take some of these covers off, you'll start to see it. I am yet to see a company that

Truly, refurbishing this battery... These aren't actually the instructions, but this is the transport sheet we got to fill out. They don't truly refurbish the battery. So, this battery has multiple cells, and if you don't replace all of them—you only replace the bad ones—well,

guess what? They're all the same age. So if you replace just two, you leave the rest. A year or two, one of the other ones will go, and then you'll go back. They'll warranty it; they'll just throw another cell in, and then they'll

keep doing that until you get tired and you give up. You either sell the car and go get a real battery. That's the problem. And if the aftermarket companies that do this, they replace every single one, and the price would be the same. So why don't you just buy a new one? That's

the reality. These cells cost the same thing, and if you replace all of them, well, you've got this price. That's why they're expensive. Let's get this battery out and let's start swapping things over, because there is a lot to swap over here, and there's some

dangerous stuff that we're going to do with high voltage here. So, uh, let's do that. All right, let's remove this. Jose, remembering the metal is made by Gillette. All right, got it. Awesome. Let's watch the car—watch your hands. Set yours down. All right, sitting on this—just

position it better. Better, right there. That's good. I like this. So, Hyper batteries, when they come in, they don't come in with all the computers and the relays and all this stuff, so we're going to have to swap them over. Usually, this stuff doesn't

Really wear down; it's the battery itself that does. But let's start removing some of this, some of these covers. And there's that vent that we tried to remove in the car, which has a clip in it. Get rid of this clip, then we remove this.

Very, the cover, there it is. That's the whole stuff that we have to swap over. So, first thing is the orange wires. You've got to be careful with these orange wires; you just handle them with negligence because there is actually a situation where you connect these wires

in a way and you become the ground, and that's bad news. We're going to start by removing the orange wire carefully, trying not to touch terminals together. There's a ground wire all the way to the bottom.  These big wires, you do want to be

careful with if you're ever doing this yourself. Now, this is one of the safer ones because you're not directly bolting onto the bus of the battery, but still, you you've got to be aware that you are working with high voltage and things are

not just—you can't work with negligence. You've got to be aware of your surroundings. Never touch wires you're not supposed to touch. This is the black—this black behemoth—that is a relay block. These are the main—the system main relays; SMR, I think, SMR P and SMR G. So when you

start your hybrid, you hear like a bunch of clicking, then the car comes on. These are actually the relays that click. What these relays will do, they'll power on for a second, then power off, and the computer has a way to check the resistance of the wire that goes all the way to the

First, if it notices any high resistance or a short to ground, it'll disable these, and the car won't start. This is a safety feature in case of radiator damage, wire damage, or whatnot. It'll immediately disengage these two, and we

have no issues. We're going to install this last, and it's very important that we get the order of things right. Then we're going to remove this zip tie. This is a very Japanese zip tie. Let's cut this little factory zip tie.

Actually, so brittle it just broke. That's okay. I don't know why they do this; they put the zip tie from the factory, but they did. That's okay. Here is the battery sensor, basically the main battery computer. Unplug the stuff off of it; this is the battery computer, and

then I have to get a trim tool. This just happens to be one of the possibly busiest weeks in the shop; all my tools are all over the place. We have two evaporators apart; let's just say that we have a lot

going on here this week. Then we have this little mini vent; there's that mini vent, then one more connector. This connector—they're actually not high-voltage wires, but because it goes inside the battery, this is like the various temperature sensors and voltage sensors inside the battery.

They're all connected here, and then this wire actually comes with the battery. This is the low-voltage side of things. This is… actually, I'm sorry, I might have said this backward. This is temperature sensors; the orange one is voltage for individual cells' voltage.

A little contraption here; we get it out. Should be able to swap it out all right as the last component. And this is the converter assembly. Last thing we do have one little junction block here. Here we're going to swap over, and now we pretty much have everything out of the

old battery. We are ready to assemble the new battery. We're going to get some of these connectors off, so you start assembling this by putting the first component—last component first—and this is the key thing here. This was the last thing we removed; this is the first thing we

install. We're going to torque these to spec, because some of these high-voltage junction blocks, if you get a crack in them, we have problems. Let's torque this guy down there. Here we go. 71 in-lb. Then the converter goes in first. This converter actually has a

fan, which is very, very clean. Yeah, this is clean; we're good. So this is the first cable that goes through, and you're not going to touch [Music] that. Okay, now we figure out the maze of everything, which is—you already plugged this in before—see?

This is how this becomes very intricate because the routing of these wires is very important. If you don't route them right, we have all kinds of problems. This goes right here, here, because that's the wire we disconnected at the bottom. One is here; goes here as well. The high-voltage

cables are brought through here.  Tool—going to fit? It's not going to fit. We'll just do this by here and go. Separate these two, separate these three. Cool. And fan goes next. This is going to situate some of these cables here. Let me install this vent, and we'll see

What we've got here... So now this one goes in here alongside these. As I get these little... Bri... here, there we go. I kind of like the routing of this. Trying to make sure it actually goes on the outside of these. There we go. I like this, this...

is working. I like it. Let's keep going, because the next thing we're going to put on is our smart computer; that's what they call it. They... it's actually... now, this is a basically a 2007-2011 system, technically.

a second-gen hybrid system, but it's not really... kind of a weird second gen. It's not smart at all by today's standards. And now we untangle these wires. For some reason, these came tangled up; usually they don't. Hear a click on this one... there it is. Got to make sure we plug

this in, because if we don't, we're in trouble. I think we got pretty much everything up to this point. This goes here. All we got to do is get our relay block, which is this one right here, get it situated. It is not situated there. This little baby

wire... there we go. Okay. From experience, never impact this because, uh, they love to crack, and they are extremely expensive, these relays. Because you notice, as expensive as the battery is, these did not come with it. Got to swap the old ones out. So, and just go wailing at it with an

impact... These are also 71 inbs. Then get little wires in here, and then the last thing here is this way. Okay. Did you notice a pattern here? You have this vent... Let me put it on before we forget. This is a very important vent. I left these two for last because these

Two wires actually send power from the battery.  When you connect them, there's a possibility you might create a short circuit or damage the service plug, so leave those for last. When you're done, you're good. This is this style battery, which is a little bit

safer. The ones that you have to directly bolt to the bus of the battery require insulated gloves because if you touch two wires at the same time, you might create a ground path, and then we have major problems. Before we

move on, though, this was a common mistake—it's a very common mistake—often forgotten: there's this little vent that doesn't come with the battery, and if you don't swap it over, we have major problems. So let me do

that now before we continue. Last thing before we cover everything up is this little cover.  Sure we're not forgetting anything, which we are not. That's it! This is all swapped over. Now we connect our wires; that's it. Now we just have to put the covers on and we're good. Now we put our

Toyota Hybrid Battery Replacement : Is it Worth It On Older Hybrids?

The Car Care Nut

Hybrid Battery Replacement in a 2008 Toyota Camry

Customer faced a difficult decision due to extensive car repairs needed.

Two repair items alone cost as much as the car's value.

The process begins with removing the back seat.

The hybrid battery is located behind the back seat.

The car has two styles of seats; the one in the video is easier to remove.

Removing Panels and Accessing the Battery

Special tools are used to remove clips and panels efficiently.

The presenter chooses the longer, safer method to avoid damaging components.

Explanation of the term "package tray" used in Toyota terminology.

Disconnecting the seatbelt and removing additional panels.

Disconnecting the Battery and Safety Precautions

Disconnecting the 12V battery to work safely.

Always disconnect the negative terminal of the battery first.

Importance of the service plug and its safety function.

Keeping the service plug visible at all times for safety.

Removing additional panels and vents to access the battery.

Challenges encountered due to broken clips and rusty bolts.

Removing the exhaust vent and cooling system components.

The car lacks a main filter, which will be installed later.

Disconnecting remaining connectors and cables from the battery.

Disconnecting high-voltage cables and safety clips.

Comparing Old and New Hybrid Batteries and Aftermarket Options

The old battery is a nickel-metal hydride type.

The new battery arrives in a durable reusable container (DRC).

Discussion on the disadvantages of aftermarket hybrid batteries.

Aftermarket batteries often don't replace all cells, leading to recurring issues.

Replacing all cells in an aftermarket battery makes the price comparable to a new OEM battery.

Customer's Decision-Making Process and Car's History

The car has been regularly maintained since new.

The car experienced underpowered performance and warning lights.

Initial diagnosis showed a potentially weakening battery.

The battery failed again, causing the engine to run constantly.

An ABS light came on, indicating brake issues.

The estimated repair cost was around $5,800.

The customer considered the car's overall condition and future use.

The daughter would use the car for college and occasional long trips.

Similar used cars were more expensive and in worse condition.

The customer viewed the repair cost as comparable to buying another car.

The customer's decision was based on the car's overall health and potential longevity.

The presenter emphasizes that this decision is specific to this car's condition.