New to me 2012 Prius v, a few questions/repairs

Hey all I recently purchased a new to me 2012 Prius V 5 (56,000 miles), big upgrade from my previous no a/c, no power anything, manual tranny, previous ride. Loving it. On my first tank I got 42 mpg in coldish (30s-60s) weather with mostly highway driving. It need a little work though and I have a few questions.

My most pressing question is about the headlight washers. The drivers side headlight washer is broken. Specifically the little color matched blister is broken off. This causes it to spray forward instead of back onto the headlight like the passenger side one. I have the blister, but I cannot figure out if fixing this this means I will have to replace the whole sprayer unit (~$300) or if there is some subcomponent that connects sprayer and blister that I can get. I also can find no videos or documentation on how to work on the things. Anyone who has dealt with these and can advise me on doing so would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the book of questions below, read or don't as you like.

Other work I plan on doing: oil change and tire rotate (obv), tranny fluid change (still a little on the fence on this, why fix what isn't broken. But on the other hand I don't buy that the fluid is good for life, and for longevity it does make sense to replace it at least every once in a great while. I tend to like to do lots of stuff up front when buying used as I don't know the previous history), drivers side brake light change as the housing on the current one is smashed out over the signal bulb (still fully functional).

On operating the Prius:
1. Tire pressure. This is the 5 with the 17 inch wheels, a good mix of harsher and better handling than the too squishy normal wheels on another V I tested. I have read a lot of posts on tire pressures and know it can get pretty controversial, have not seen much on the V and specifically the 17 wheels though (just this thread). Toyota recommends 33 front, 32 rear, the tire have a MUCH higher max of 50. Tire rack recommends what is on the sidewall (the one problem I have with this is that Toyota cannot possibly anticipate the dramatic changes in tire technology that will occur over the possible lifetime of a car). Most on the forums seem to be 38 to 42 psi that I have read, anything new on this? Just experiment?
Tested rear after drive at ~36 recently, before reading that should leave psi at b pillar level, decided to wait till cold and have not yet got back around to messing with them. Not sure I want to make a whole lot harder, not interested in wearing out suspension faster in pursuit of ultimate mpg as I plan to run into ground, but would like to protect wheels from damage, get good braking, good handling and good mileage.
One issue I have noticed is tire spin on hard take off (run across two lanes, silly road designs), eco tires I guess, still seems silly to have traction trouble in dry with a not that powerful vehicle.
2. Auto Headlights: The V has auto headlights, pretty sweet, but in reading it looks like the LED's are not user serviceable, and the auto function even on the lowest setting seems to turn the headlights more that I would have done so on my own. Will this burn out the LED's eventually? Seems that not being user serviceable makes it likely an expensive replacement. Will it reduce mileage (old school headlights could take 1-2%)? In addition I cannot tell for sure but auto does not seem to use daylight setting for lights when appropriate. Maybe a bad habit to use this?
3. Software updates, and secret key words to weasel updates for head unit/system out of dealer (without paying tons of money)/get reverse beep turned down to single beep, when it is being serviced for recall this weekend?
Specifically there seems to be no way to reduce the number presets for the radio, there are to many using the wheel controls it's to easy to get lost. Have seen others post on how to reduce, but my head unit does not seem to have the option. Also sometimes my phone calls don't get picked up over bluetooth by the headunit, hoping updates might fix things up a bit.
4. Seat heater: love it, but it seems to start out strong, then down temp to almost imperceptible then then cycle back up to high. Understand it will try to keep from overheating, but can manually kick it back into high by switching off and on again. Is cycle normal/anything to adjust it?
5. Nav: How to update? Or is it not worth it and should just use google maps with traffic? I would do a head swap (sheesh entune is terrible, how it is supposed to be better than just using bluetooth?) and get android auto, but I would hate to loose the settings and mileage displays.
6. OBDII: Best cheap bluetooth OBDII device for monitoring? Best app? Best for being able to do things like change backup beep (scanttoolII)? (read you could do so with some of them and some of the phone apps available)? Best app? Best mount for monitoring and maps while driving in prius?

 

Oh I would also be curious if anyone has opinions on best placement for a bubble mirror on the mirrors to help mitigate the annoying lack of lane change visibility.

 

Awesome. I will give those pressures a try, thanks for the input.
Yes, in dry I seem to be able to spin the tires in power mode quite easily, its a tad frustrating. Perhaps something I will simply have to address when the next set of new tires are needed.

To bad, I cannot seem to find anything on the washers. Not convinced I would use them all that much either, but for now I am stuck with a black hole on the bumper until I can fix it.

Hmmm good to know on the LED's, maybe worth trying to be a bit more conservative in their use given I can find no information on their replacement (actually just found a thread stating that they are ~$800 each to replace, yikes, bit scary for a vehicle I planned to run until the wheels fall off).

 

Great to hear! Love all the extras, but have been worried about what they might cost long term to upkeep/repair/maintain.

 

Well I got the inverter software upgrade on by dealer Sunday. Talked to to the service and parts folks quite a bit. They were happily quite un-pushy and helpful. Also turned backup beep to single beep for me.
Software head/system upgrade would be ~$100, nav would be ~$275 :S. Wish I could find one of those usb upgrade drives, but they seem to maintain very tight control of them.
Washer is apparently only sold in two parts, the blister and the sprayer ($300). Let me talk to mechanic but had no suggestions. Later working on car with buddies, found we could pull the thing out and look at more closely and it looks like the top part of the sprayer is twist lock removable, so could conceivably replace just that big which is what had the plastic snap. Unfortunately no one seems to sell them separately. Going to try and look on ebay for something. If I can't find anything I may try to take it would and find the best plastics glue/concrete I can to join them. Maybe drill a small hole and use some twine as well.

I changed the oil (not the prettiest color coming out, fairly dark coffee) and filter, and the transmission fluid (more purple from dirtiness than red) thanks to the help of my giant of a buddy, the filter had been torqued on so only his massive strength could loosen it, ran into the same with what I presume was the factory tightened bolts on the tranny. Also rotated tires. Turned out don't need to front rotors or pads I bought :S, rotors cleaned up on some braking, front pads are maybe a bit past half life upon closer inspection.

On the somewhat concerning side I was able to put the whole 4 quarts of tranny fluid I purchased into the car without spillage out the fill hole. Manual specifies 3.6 quarts. Car was as level as could be reasonably be expected I believe, coolant in tanks looked quite level. Quite odd, not sure if I am low or high on fluid now.

In addition I put a whole 4 quarts of oil into the engine, slightly less than the 4.4qt specified with filter change, but about right on fill bubble (would prefer a bubble followed by a line like on my old ford), some streaks slightly above, will be checking again soon.

Engine is a bit quieter, and transitions between electric and ICE are smoother.
Interesting note, disconnection negative 12v battery terminal in prep for brake change cleared the maintenance light, did not expect that. It also somehow confused the rear hatch electronic release which refused to work until the car was driven for a short while.

 

I have not tested this to confirm my memory, but I am pretty certain on mine the headlight washer button is an on/off which turns the use of the headlight washer in conjunction with the windshield washer on and off. The headlight washer only goes off the first time you hit the washer fluid, if you do second wash it will not activate again for some time.

 

Thanks for the tip on checking the oil, had forgotten that, got used to filling the oil filter before install on Ford. I added the additional .4qt and its good.

Thanks, next rotation maybe I will disassemble, lube and check them out. And thanks for the heads up on the weird rears, I remember reading about that.

I believe you are right, still have not tested, I will try to remember to do so this evening. I think the washer button has to be on and headlights on, then when you activate windshield washers the headlight washers will go off as well.