Hi there, wondering if I could some input from you guys! I own a 2008 and I recently hit 210,000 miles... This car has been AMAZING. Zero problems, just normal maintenance and tires... Lately I have been wondering if its getting time to sell... the car is starting to look a little "tired" cosmetically despite me keeping good wax on it and keeping it in the garage.. aside from that its a great car... Are there any repairs I should expect and in your opinion, is it getting time to sell? I have been told the Gen 2s can go to 350k without any major issues but im not sure if thats the norm... Also its been doing a couple strange things... occasionally when I start it the engine will idle really roughly and loudly and then after about a minute or two it runs smoothly.. also when coasting to a stop, battery fully charged, when I come to a stop the engine will rev in and out of a high idle. Just started doing that never did it before... Thoughts? Thanks!
Your experience of engine revving high is expected when battery SOC is high. ECU revs up the engine, without adding fuel, using MG1 to get battery charge level down. This is done to protect the battery. I too have a 2005 Prius with 355K miles on original battery. The same thing happens for me, a lot more often than it did previously as the miles go up. I think it is an indication of end of life for traction battery, but I have survived more than 75 K miles with similar conditions. I still do not have any battery related codes. But Dr. Prius app shows bank 1 and 14 near end of life. Hope it works for you similarly.
welcome! it might be time to go beyond normal maintenance. some things not listed in the maintenance schedule: throttle body cleaning and maf sensor, pcv, fuel injectors and etc. does she burn any oil?
Yes but I think its pretty minimal... its a touch low on the dipstick each oil change but has never gone to a point where I feel concerned... but yes, burns a little bit.
Trade it for what? Personally I’d start shopping around for a replacement traction battery and not worry about the cosmetics. I think that you get a pass on an eleven-year-old, garage-kept car that’s in good enough shape cosmetically that you BOTHER to keep a good coat of wax on. Besides....paid-for cars are more fun to drive.
Heck no don’t sell! Check out my 200,000mi “tune up” thread.. https://priuschat.com/threads/my-gen2-200-000-mi-“tune-up”-engine-clean.204980/ I have a link to all the YouTube videos I used and an Amazon shopping list for everything you need. Put about $300 in parts and do it yourself. If I can do it, you can do it! Save the mechanic costs and have some fun. Clean battery fan, pcv valve, change spark plugs (w/ overnight marvel mystery oil piston soak.. be sure to syphon off), clean throttle body, seafom spray through intake, change transmission fluid, oil change, change license bulbs, change hatch hydraulic lifts, syphon water out of battery compartment and seal leak.. there may be some others I missed here. MOST IMPORTANTLY.. Have you ever cleaned the battery cooling fan (in the far back right of your hatchback)? It’s a bit of a pain to get to, but VERY important to do. In the 10 years I’ve had my ‘08, no one ever mentioned it and I never knew it existed :-/. Mine was nasty to say the least. That may help your revving issue? Maybe your battery isn’t breathing right and it’s over heating trying to keep it cool? Go to my Amazon shopping list, grab some of the aqua blue punch clips and a 10 mm socket and have some fun! It’ll take you about an hour to an hour and a half to do (there’s a great step by step instruction video in the link at the top of my thread) .. Get that fan real clean.
I agree with a few contentions within this thread. It may be time to look at a few additional maintenance applications. And you may be getting warning signs of a failing Hybrid Battery. If I wanted to keep it, I'd just take it one step at a time. If you aren't a great DIY'er then you need a good Hybrid Mechanic or repair facility. I wouldn't worry about the Hybrid Battery, if it is the problem, you will eventually reach a tipping point and get codes...and know. Until then? I'd just keep going with it. Also... As nearly a 12 model year old Prius, with over 200,000 miles on it? I think it's perfectly legitimate to take these as early warning signs of upcoming needed maintenance, of the age of the vehicle, and make the decision to change now. If you're worried about the paint looking bad, the styling getting dated? Simply want change? You don't even really need an excuse. This is a fork in the road. I think either choice is perfectly OK. If you want to continue with the "long road" with the Prius? Then I would look at some of the maintenance recommendations already suggested. I'd find a repair facility that I trusted, and I'd go forward. Knowing that "maybe" it could get as expensive as Hybrid Battery replacement eventually. If I wanted change? Then I'd be happy about the reliability I did get for a long time. And I'd start investigating my NEXT vehicle.
The things I did are pretty easy to do. I am certainly not an experienced DIYr.. YouTube vids in the link in my post are all great step by step vids. Watch them all first while waiting for Amazon order, and then watch them again as you go. It doesn’t make sense to do it one step at the time because you’d have to take everything apart each time. Change the spark plugs (soak the crank case in MMO), change the pcv valve, toothbrush the throttle body and seafoam spray, clean MAF sensor as one project for sure. It’s a 2 day job.. but worth it to do it whlie everything is apart. Save time by getting it done al at once and save a ton of money by not paying a mechanic. I think I spent like $350 total for tools, parts and chemicals. Maybe get a mechanic to do the oil change and transmission fluid change at the end like I did. At the VERY least.. clean the battery cooling fan. It will help keep the battery longer. Here’s the video for that job. There’s another one in the play list in the thread. I can totally understand getting tired of driving the same car for 200,000+ mi. I went through that too. She’s got bad hood road rash and it’s a boring car to drive. I tell ya what though. If you do the work yourself, you’ll bond again.. lol. Maybe just do a battery can clean and see of that solves your problem.
That's a pretty good run. Now it's time to decide which you value more: zero problems/normal maintenance OR this specific car. I don't think you'll get both together for much longer.
We have 4 Gen2s (2004,2005, 2x 2006) in the family with varying milage. Here are a few irregular maintenance needs they required: ABS actuator replacement (happened to the 2005 at 140k miles) Timing chain replacement (happened to a 2006 at 120k miles) Hybrid battery servicing (happened to a 2006 at 120k miles) Inverter water pump replacement (happened to the 2004 at 160k miles)
Sorry I missed your question. I use Torque or Dr. Prius App with bluetooth OBDII adapter. Those show voltages and current and internal resistance for the 14 modules. I see 1 and 14 stay at low voltage in general, with much smaller change over the course of driving as compared to rest of the modules.
