My new Prius Gen 1

The brakes are really weak & the brake and abs lites are on as well as the little triangle. & an audible tone. Not too worried, used brake booster pumps and accumulators seem to be readily available on Ebay.

I think she had it diagnosed. I'm going to get the laptop and the techstream stuff fired up tomorrow to see what's showing. And to check the battery condition. It ran better today after getting pounded on the interstate for 8 hr. than it did yesterday after 18 months of inactivity. I got the car with the idea of making it a parts car. For now, it's status is promoted to a fixer upper. Gotta get it cleaned up first, tho. It needs gas, good to replace the old stale gas. Repairs and some normal maintenance will bring it back.

I didn't completely expect it to start so easily yesterday. I brought an electric winch to pull it on the dolly. It wasn't needed. Whew!

 

One more thing to check I guess. Pretty sure it's the pump and accumulator, tho. Brakes are pretty stiff, but they don't have any bite. And all the warning lamps and chimes are on. I'm going to go ahead and order one, anyhow. Found a nice lower mileage one for a decent price.

Other stuff. washed up and is pretty straight and clean silver. The traction battery, according to tech stream, is very good high cell is 15.42, low is 15.22. Believe it or not, the 12v has come back from total & long discharge to above 12v. I'll keep my charger on it pumping 3-4 amps into it for a day or two and see how it goes. Batteries were a major concern and so far are not a factor. Fluids look clean and topped up.

Mileage is 200,620. Interior is soiled but should clean up. Without disclosing the exact price (not polite) I can say I've got about $800 in it.

Funny thing, there are locking lugnuts on the wheels. She did include the key to get them off (whew!) but why would anyone lock those wheels and tires on to the little, inexpensive looking car?

I'm in puttering mode today. My eyes are really tired and my lower back aches from all the miles. Did I mention I picked up a screw in one of the truck tires and had to change it in the parking lot of the motel? However, my 22 year old Dodge Dakota did a wonderful job!

 

I was really relieved to find the key in the console box. A verbal "THANKS!" even. I washed it today, Linda, it's a nice car!

 

I wish they had a recall for the brake booster pump & accumulator.

 

Do you have the appropriate manuals? You can get Bishko copies of the factory manuals @ Rockauto for about $103, minus the 5% and plus shipping. I haven't checked my manuals, but I imagine it's going to be medium difficult to do. If you don't already have Techstream already, you should be getting that as well. Mine cost $25 for the cable & pirated software, plus $36 for a nice, ancient XP laptop. Seems like whatever you do on a Prius, you should disconnect the 12v & the HV batteries. There's a master disconnect for the HV battery in the trunk, leftside on the back end of the battery.

I found a nice brake booster & accumulator assembly on Ebay for $90, btw. Much lower mileage at 100,000 miles or so. Should be here on Friday, guess what I'm doing (in 90* weather!) this weekend. And I know it's gonna be medium difficult & time intensive.

 

Progress (and spending money.) My booster pump should be delivered tomorrow. Kinda waiting til it shows up to start disassembling stuff. Keeping it somewhat mobile. But doing other stuff like detailing work, etc. I may start the initial disassembly today, tho. Really feeling impatient actually drive the little thing. And I ordered a cloned GPS dvd that's supposed to be the newest/last update that will work on the 1st Gen. Car is probably fairly rare, having a dealer installed, OEM GPS system. Seems to work but I have no idea if the system is at all useful.

I put some new wipers on yesterday, Anco Hybrid wipers. Very sleek and aerodynamic on closeout from Rockauto for $7 a pair. (-5%, plus shipping.) They look nice, and the windshield on the 02 looks to be relatively new. Also getting new spark plugs, Autolite Iridium XP3924, $3.95 each and a $2.50 each rebate. There are a lot of stickers on the car between the state of Texas and the previous owners. Heat gun today to soften them and then razor blade them off.

And checking the fluids, the inverter coolant seems pretty low, so I bought some Toyota SLLC coolant full strength from Amazon for about $33 per gallon. They also sell the diluted stuff, but I hate paying for distilled water from Japan. & a pair of Wix oil filters, too.

 

Been slow on this forum lately, so I thought I'd update on the progress.

The booster pump I bought on Ebay wasn't a booster pump after all, it was a brake actuator (brake pedal attaches to it.) Nice one, too, probably worth twice what I paid for it. The seller took it back and issued a refund, no fuss. Even paid for the return postage. Kudos to Nordstrom (no kidding!) car parts in S Dakota.

I got a booster pump in a local yard for $24.95 plus tax. It's in and the brake are bled. All the symbols and shrill chime are gone and the brakes are good. I need to do a brake pad job, but that's minor. Oh, and I replaced the wheel locks with normal lugnuts.

Some stuff, the thing needs a good cleaning and to have the seats and carpet shampooed. So far I haven't found any $100 bills or even any change. But the center dash is pristine, uncracked and no scratches. The car needs a front bumper cover. Maybe I'll go out to the junkyard today and get the one off the 02 that's there.

I've put a hundred or so miles on the car, trying to get the readiness monitors to clear & yesterday they all cleared except the evap monitor, which smog check doesn't require. Unfortunately the car set a code for a bank one catalyst insufficiency, so it's back to the drawing board. I have a couple of Denso O2 sensors on the way from Amazon. And I'll see if that takes care of the problem. My buds at Midas (who are good guys here!) are going to do a courtesy inspection tomorrow the see if the cat is okay. If it isn't, I'll spend the money for a new (aftermarket) cat and installation. The cat is way up in there to try to get to, so is the upstream O2 sensor. So I'll have them do the work if need be. I suspect that both are accessible from up top.

The car has a working GPS, so I bought the last update (2013?) DVDs, there are 2. I tossed the 02 version in the trash.

Driving the car, it runs good but the best it will do on mpg is about 43. New air filter, getting a set of new iridium plugs today. Tomorrow is the last day on my three day permit. But they only charge a dollar for another. The car seems to be okay, the batteries are normal, the exhaust is pretty loud, so one way or another a new muffler is in the cards. I noticed a leaky strut, too. I haven't started on checking that out. So far, Linda L.'s little project car is better than expected. I couldn't be happier.

 

Thanks, it turns out that Evap is the one readiness monitor that doesn't trip the smog testers computer.

I ordered a cat & new muffler yesterday from Rockauto. The guy at Midas okay'd them installing it and my new O2 sensors for an hour of labor, $100. Impressive! If I had a lift, I could do the work myself, but it's just a little tough trying to do it in the carport. The parts are on the way.

On another note, the previous owners "mechanic" installed the spark plugs without using antisieze cream. While I'm waiting for the exhaust, I have to soak the plugs in PB blaster. It's a no-no to install spark plugs into an aluminum head without antisieze! Gotta do it before getting the new cat, so the PB blaster has a chance to burn off.

 

There's a reason some people call them Stealerships. My last experience was at a Chevy dealer with my old 89 Tracker. It would hunt for an idle 1200 to 1900 rpms. You would think that nothing can get by a dealer, but they're just people, too. And a lot of the stuff that lazy or bad mechanics do never come back to bite them on the butt, you would think that Denso plugs would come pre-buttered with antisieze cream.

Plugs are done, tho. Couldn't find the PB Blaster can, so I bathed them in WD40 and enough sneaked down between the threads to lube the plugs. New plugs got the copper butter, by damn.