Gen2 Prius (2004 - 2009) Extended Maintenance Schedule

I plan to exchange transmission fluid more often, perhaps every 60k miles.
As for the coolant fluids, I am undecided. I like the idea of a pH check.

 

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Your 140,000 entry has a typo: change to 1"4"0,000.

I was just at a Toyota Dealer yesterday and asked a Prius mechanic about changing my automatic transmission fluid in my 2006 Prius with 120,000 miles on it. He informed me that it doesn't have automatic transmission fluid. The maintenance schedule booklet is generic for Toyota cars, but the Prius doesn't have automatic transmission fluid. It has differential oil, and I had him drain and change it, but it doesn't have automatic transmission fluid. The engine and inverter coolant should be changed at 100k and 50k thereafter, but there is no automatic transmission fluid to change. Notice there is no dipstick for transmission fluid.

Any thoughts on this?

 

Do a search on transaxle fluid change. Also there are stickies on transaxle oil analysis. Good luck!

 

You think? Based on what? There is real data using laboratory analysis of used Type WS ATF in 2004-2009 (now 2010 as well) which indicate that periodic refreshes could be useful to prolong the life of the Prius Transaxle (An expensive part to replace). The general agreement after analyzing the data is that one early ATF refresh (30k miles) followed by ATF refreshes each 60k miles is a low cost ($100 at most dealers) insurance policy.

JeffD

 

Type WS is reasonably priced at some dealers, and if that is the case more frequent changes couldn't hurt. I can get the stuff for ~$5/quart.

And I think a Caterpillar or Cummins dealer can do a coolant analysis, but I think a 30K coolant change interval can't hurt either. GM's ruined "extended" life coolant in my eyes, after seeing what Dex-Cool becomes of itself after several years.

 

My practice is to change the ATF WS at 30,000 mile intervals, as that is the point when the viscosity declines 15%.

That is an excellent price; I have been paying ~$9/quart since a year ago or so when the price shot up.

I don't think it is necessary to change the SLLC coolant sooner than the maintenance schedule suggests (100K miles for the first change, then 50K miles for subsequent changes.) I've drained coolant from high-mileage Prius vehicles and it looks nice and clean without any debris, if someone poured that into a punchbowl you'd drink it without questions.

 

I'm still a believer in 30K coolant drains - but I think Toyota SLLC can be safely be ran longer.

Dex-Cool and VW G12 Pink left a bad taste in my mouth. Dex-Cool turns into black mud, and I know people with VWs with auxillary water pump failures on VR6s due to the OEM coolant attacking PA6/GF33 plastics. Both Dex-Cool and OEM VW coolants use sodium/potassium neodecanate and 2-ethylhexanoic acid as their organic acid components - both of which Ford, Chrysler, Mercedes, Toyota and Honda don't want near their engines.

 

If you like to change coolant at 30K mile intervals, no problem. However you can save money by using Toyota Long Life Coolant instead (the red coolant which must be mixed with distilled water) since that is rated for 30K mile changes.

Both Toyota SLLC and LLC are priced around the same, ~$21 per gallon - but SLLC is premixed with distilled water so LLC goes twice as far.

I would say that the 2G engine coolant change is sufficiently difficult, while SLLC seems to demonstrate long service life, so that there's no reason to do it more frequently than required by the maintenance schedule.

 

I got an Airlift on the way

I talked to Art's Automotive in Berkeley while I was getting the brake system flushed and they said it makes coolant changes on the Prius a breeze...

 

Can you give some feed back on the Airlift? Or maybe a link? I'm interested if it helped your coolant changes and/or other maintenance procedures.

 

I think it is better to use an Excel Sheet, so owners can mark all maintenance they make. It also serves as a great record when they finally sell the car.

Also it is better if you can put in some price info, so we know the total cost for each option.

Even greater if you can organize some group buy for smaller items such as oil filter, gaskets/washer, air filter, light bulbs, or even Optima battery. Since most of us plan to own Prius for long term, I think get a 5 year supply is reasonable for lots of us. Talk with some sellers and let them issue us a special discount code for a period of time.

Just my thoughts. Thank you for being such a great help to all of us!

 

Awesome cat pic on center console! Cat + Prius = Awesome

 

I totally noticed that lol. Glad I found this forum

 

I realize this is waaaay too late, but I'd also like to know more about this "Airlift."