Bought 2010 with 209K miles for $700

Bought a 2010 with 209k about a month ago for $700. It had been sitting in a fenced in lot used by a guy that buys and sells used tractors and other general construction equipment. I notice the car sitting in the lot about a year ago and drove by that lot almost daily wondering what was up with it. I finally saw the lot owner on site and stopped in. It belonged to a friend of his and we talked and we worked out a deal for $700. Turns out someone had run into the passenger side rear wheel area. The owner decided to use the insurance to buy a newer model and just had a tow truck take it to the lot. I was finally able to get a closer look and I could tell the rear wheel was sitting at an angle and there was body damage on the back door and behind the wheel well. I figured replace the axle and door and a little body work and hopefully that would be it. He didn’t know the mileage, thought it was over 100k. Battery was dead of course so I bought a battery and took a jack out to see if that rear wheel would spin. I was hoping I’d be able to drive it home. I only live about a mile from this lot. It spun so I put some air in the tires, put in the new battery and it cranked. Made some horrible noises for a few seconds but got quiet and seemed to run fine after a few more seconds. So I put it in gear and took a few careful laps around the lot and everything appeared to be good enough so my wife followed me home as I babied it home not going any faster then 35.

I bought my daughter a 2005 several and it looks and runs pretty rough so I figured I’d fix this 2010 up for her and give her an upgrade.

I looked around and found another gray 2010 in Atl and the guy had a perfect rear passenger door and very clean rear axle. He sold me both for $400. I installed the door and axle and finally got to take it out on the road for a real ride. Before that though I bought a Calista OBD and scanned it for codes. Wish I had kept better track of the codes but what I remember from the first read was only 2 codes. One had to do with the hybrid battery and can’t remember the other. But they seemed normal for a car that has been sitting for a year. So I took the car out for a real test drive. First thing i noticed was not much power but I didn’t find out until later that I did the entire test drive in Eco Mode. I also noticed when I gave it any throttle there was a loud sound that sounded like I stuck a plastic bat in a plastic fan. I guess you could call it a knocking but not a knocking like a knocking I’ve ever heard in any conventional car. As long as I babied the throttle the car accelerated slowly to whatever speed I was trying to get to without any knocking. It only seems to knock under torque. I got it up to 55 a few times and put probably 30 miles on it. I did check the oil dip stick before I left and the oil level was about midway between the marks. I’m sure the gas is old. I was able to add about 4 gallons of fresh gas into what was already in the tank. I tried to siphon out what was already in the tank but didn’t have any luck with the apparatus I was using. So I figured I’d would at least add some good gas in with what was already in there.

Forgot to mention, when I replaced the rear axle I had to take the brake lines loose. I ordered new rotors and pads for front and back and have only done the back so far. I tried for an hour to get the car into invalid mode without success. I watched the NutsAboutBolts video dozens of times and some other written instructions and did all of the steps exactly as viewed and read and just couldn’t get that light to flash. So I just decided to do the bleeding anyways. I did the rear bleed by attaching a bottle to the driver side rear bleed valve, putting something heavy on the brake peddle until I heard the pump kick on and loosened the bleed screw. I watched it pump fluid into the bottle with no air bubbles and closed off the bleed valve. Then I did the same on the passenger rear. Of course now the following lights are lit on the dash. BRAKE, ABS, Tire Pressure symbol,the symbol that is supposed to flash in invalid mode(isn’t that also a brake symbol) and on the left is the traction control symbol. The check engine light was on but not on yesterday also but not today The only code the calista is reading right now is P0401 using the Dr Prius app.

Hard to tell if the Hybrid Battery is bad or not. It seems to charge up to max very fast and then back to 2 Bars pretty quickly. Sounds like that may be a bad thing.

Since this car is something I’m giving my daughter I’m going to go full on and preventative. My plan is to do the head gasket whether it needs it or not, and while I’m in that deep go ahead and replace the PCV, take off and clean the EGR Cooler, intake manifold, throttle body. Going to buy a head gasket set and replace all gaskets and o-rings. New iridium spark plugs. Fresh coolant and oil. Finish the brake fluid flush. Install the oil catch can.
what else should I do while I’m in that far. I plan on doing this without pulling the engine like in the GM video. Then I’ll deal with the hybrid battery.

I’ve watched the GM video and several Nutz videos and I’m not intimidated. I’m mechanical and have rebuilt several engines.

 

thanks. I tried that exact sequence a number of times and no go. Is it possible that an existing code prevents you from getting into invalid mode. I’ve seen posts from a number of users not being able to get into Invalid Mode. ‍♂️

 

AC922F04-524D-49BE-9600-992863E37363 by Bobby2005GA posted May 28, 2021 at 2:41 PM

6C97D818-DBFA-46AA-9E9B-CFC8BCBD75FA by Bobby2005GA posted May 28, 2021 at 2:41 PM

 

Ok thanks. I’ll try that this evening and let you know. The brakes seemed to work fine when I test drive it. But the peddle did seem a little soft. Hard for me to know since this is the first time I’m driving this car. I’m not sure I have all of the air out of the system since I didn’t bleed the fronts but I didn’t do the front brakes/rotors yet. I had purchased a vacuum system to bleed the brakes but read several posts saying not to use a vacuum system on the Prius, especially not the back. I do want to flush all of the old brake fluid out so I did let quite a bit bleed out the two back bleeder valves into my vacuum bottle without applying any vacuum. The pump seemed to pump it thru without any help.

 

So what’s the deal with Techstream? Is it a $2000 investment? I mean I’ll probably use it just this once and then maybe once or twice a year if that much so not worth that type of investment. Is there anyone out there in this group in Georgia (USA) that I could rent it from for a short period? Or is there a cheaper alternative. I think my Calista OBD is limited to what I can do.