My experience at the dealership.

1. Your car needs a new 12V battery. If you are able to DIY install you can call around to the local dealer parts dept to see if you can get a price of around $139. Or you can install an Optima which will also require installing new terminal connectors, do a search if interested.

2. If you wipe off the engine oil dipstick you should see two dimples on it. They indicate the minimum and maximum allowable oil level.

3. Look at the engine coolant pump. This is on the side of the engine facing the passenger side, and has a pulley attached to it. Examine the inside of the pulley. If you see a pinkish stain that is evidence of a coolant leak via the pump bearing. Also look at the radiator coolant overflow tank (the plastic translucent tank mounted behind the radiator) and observe the fluid level within. If low, then replenish with pink Toyota Super Long Life Coolant.

4. There are four coolant pumps: engine coolant, inverter coolant, cabin heater core, and coolant heat recovery system.

 

You mean you went to the "stealership." I got the same year Pri you got. And when I went in for a radiator flush, they listed every single thing possible to replace. It's just bait for suckers. I have 183k on my Pri, and it still runs flawlessly. And now about your water pump: do you see any pink stuff? That's how you know if you have a leak. I changed mines at 145k. And $400 is pretty good for a water pump. Peace.

 

are you driving to kentucky from illinois for service?

 

Watch out for service departments at dealerships. Most of service reps are paid on commission. They are paid to sell you extra services and can be worse than sales people at dealerships.

However in this case you need a battery. You an get an toyota battery online for 120 to 150 bucks. You can get optima battery with a kit for 200 and you can also get a prius style battery from batteriesplus.com. Optima is the best battery and Toyota oem is the simplest fix.

I bought mine at "Toyota Parts" | "Toyota Accessories" | 1stToyotaParts.com and found the part number on priuschat forums.

I had a worse experience at tracy toyota( tracy,ca). I took my car in for recall and was told that i need new water pump for engine( $480), Water pump Belt(170) transmission fluid change($200), ac filter(60), wiper blades, coolant replaced,etc.

My car was 100 percent with no issues. I was worried because i cannot really ignore a leaking water pump. However i had replaced ac filter few days ago and $170 for water pump belt on top of water pump replacement was a big red flag. How can they charge 480 for water pump and not replace a belt during installation. I am glad they did not want to charge me another 170 for changing water pump gasket.

I took my chances and decided to check my coolant level once i got home. It was full. I still ordered a waterpump and belt because i hate ignoring any kind of leak on my car. Called my personal mechanic and made an appointment. He could not find any leaks or crusting on the water pump. My car was 100% with no issues. I paid him $60 to replace my coolant and engine oil. I requested these just because car was in shop. He used toyota coolant as suggested by toyota.

In the end i saved almost $1000 for not letting them touch my car. I am still concerned about them doing the recall. Not sure if they did any work. I have driven over 2k after this with no issues or drop in coolant levels.

 

why oh why do we distrust dealers so? they sell us these wonderful cars after all. the dealer is your friend.

 

10-11 volts average does mean the 12v is dead dead dead and needs immediate replacement. Your dealership is correct in that you will be stranded no doubt whereever you parked it last when it finally gives up the ghost.

 

No.

The voltage reading of 13-14V when the car is READY only means that the DC/DC converter within the inverter is doing its job. This says nothing about the 12V battery's condition.

The 12V battery condition is determined by measuring battery voltage when the car is IG-OFF, after the battery has rested for several hours so that surface charge is not inflating the voltage measurement.

As an alternative to that approach, you had measured 10-11V when the car was IG-ON. The battery is under a moderate load when that measurement was done, and this also shows the battery is close to dead.

Since I know that owners are easily confused by measuring battery voltage under a variety of conditions, my suggestion is that you determine 12V battery condition by leaving the car IG-OFF and turning on the headlights. If the lights are nice & bright then the battery is probably OK.

If dim then the battery obviously is discharged and if more than 4 years old should be replaced. If less than 4 years old you can try recharging it overnight first.

 

Another simple test is to roll the windows up and down. It may be hard to judge brightness but a slow clunky motor twitch will be obvious.

 

Hmmm, my battery is almost 7 years old. Lights are nice and bright, windows operate smoothly. Guess I'll get out my Simpson 260 and take a few readings at the battery.

 

Those tests are when the car is not in READY. It would be surprising if your battery lasted 7 years, but not unheard of. As a general maintenance item they should be replaced every 3 years. However, since you are in California, your "cold" is like our summer high more than likely. Batteries dislike thermal shocks. In my climate where we get swings from -40 to +40, 3 years is a good life for a 12v. 5 years is pushing it. 7 years means it has been garaged.

And compare the speed of the window going up when the car is READY versus when the car is just in ACC mode and not READY. There should be a difference. The greater the delta time, the worse the battery condition.

 

+1
I'm about an hour from Romad with a similar climate. My factory batteries usually last at least 5 years. If I'm going to keep a car, I replace the battery at 5 years and I'm good until 10 years. Since I don't keep a car over 10 years, that covers it for me at the same cost as driving the car until the battery dies.

 

2k, by -40 to +40 I'm assuming that is in Celsius, so we're talking -40 to +104 degrees Fahrenheit. Definitely greater that I see. And yes, it is kept in the garage.

I'm going to take readings at OFF, ON/ACC, and READY; both with lights on and off. That should give me a quick overview.

 

Is there anything else? Well other than Kelvin.

I meant garaged as in "trailer queen" or covered show car with a maintainer on it. Even if you park in a garage at night, if it is -40 outside, you are probably going somewhere where it will be parked outside for some length of time and cool down.

OFF and ON/ACC with and without load will test the battery. When in READY mode, you are testing the dc-dc converter not the battery.

 

Absolute Fahrenheit is the last of the 4 scales I know.

OK, I see that in Ready the reading would be like testing a battery in a standard car where you'd be measuring the alternator output at the battery. I remember using a hydrometer to check the specific gravity in the cells of the old wet batteries - can't do that with sealed AGM units.

And no, it never gets that low here in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California.

 

The water pump is a common failure on these cars. Look for a very, very faint pink crust on the inside of the water pump pulley.

The left axle seal is also another weak point of this car. Did they also mention that?