Common issues over 100k miles?

Actually, the 12V battery and tires are very minor repair expenses when you consider what else your car could easily need at your odometer reading:

1. Front struts/rear shocks
2. Transaxle
3. Inverter
4. MFD
5. Air conditioner compressor
6. Traction battery

My major tip would be to keep up with the published maintenance schedule and make sure that the 90K/100K mile service items were performed. Also, replace the transaxle ATF now if that was not done in the last 60K miles. Check the engine oil level periodically when refueling and do not allow it to drop below the lower dimple on the dipstick.

Check the engine coolant pump and replace if the bearing shows signs of coolant seepage. Replace the serpentine drive belt now, regardless of whether the pump needs to be replaced.

 

Hopefully, at 100k your Prius won't be experiencing any of the numbered items. Depending on how it's been driven, you can probably get up to 50k more out of the suspension parts (#1). The inverter pump is always a potential point of failure on these cars though, I have been making a point to check for turbulence in the reservoir of my Prius in Ready mode at least once per week now. I would definitely second replacing transaxle fluid; I actually had all the coolants changed and new spark plugs done for my 100k service less than a year ago.

As far as traction batteries, inverters, and transaxles, we have many Prii on this forum at way higher mileage without issues yet. Hope yours (and mine!) join that club!

 

If the tires wear quickly, perhaps the alignment needs to be checked.

 

Also.. The recommended tire pressure can cause too much tire wear on the outer edges. I set mine to 40/ 38 when I bought mine used. It had worn out original tires at 34,000 miles. My current set is almost in need of replacement at 89,000 miles.

 

Use your Dip stick!!! Castrol Sythetic oil and premium oil filter every ten thousand miles! 367000 and counting!

 

oh and dont disparage your tires soft as they are generate energy i know $400 every 30,000 is alot .o1333/mile but your savings of $2.00 / galon every 40miles leaves you with $1.99/mile for this that and the other thing.

 

Expensive 12V battery expense is an understatement. I was once faced w/ a transaxle repair, and had to contemplate my options: repair ($2.5K used vs $4K new) or sell to buy a used/new car. Fortunately, service advisor got it covered under CARB warranty w/o any codes being generated.

Exactly how many miles do you drive a year? If 30,000+ miles/year, then I guess an annual set of tires wouldn't be unreasonable. Consider buying a lifetime tire alignment. Here are some chains that sell it (LINK). Anything and everything can cause your tires to get out of alignment (pot holes, hitting a curb for whatever reason, speed bumps, driving over solid road debris, etc). If you get an alignment package, maybe get the car realigned every 3-4 months?

Consider increasing tire pressure to 40PSI front/38PSI rear, or 42/40.

Replace your struts now. Is your car bottoming out? Do you see any hopscotch marks on the tires? If no, you will be like me: surprised, as I was not seeing those tell-tale signs, yet the struts had failed. When I replaced my struts (front and rear) at 127K miles, I was surprised how badly worn the struts were. NEW rear struts took 7 seconds to rise from a complete compression to full extension. The old struts" one took 3min:15sec, the other I stopped timing. NEW fronts took 7 seconds to rise from a complete compression to full extension. Old front left took 18sec. Old front right took 57sec. After this, I believe the strut manufactures claim of 50,000 miles replacement interval to maintain optimum suspension characteristics.

Make sure your mechanic does not overfill the engine oil. Nearly all places that use a bulk gun oil dispenser, everyone seems to overfill.