Inverter Coolant replacement at 100k?

I would just do it now because your car is about 16 years old! i changed mine at 70k because it was 15 years old. I am one who errs on the side of caution tho

 

Even at the dealer the cost is just north of $100. Why would you not do it?

 

Maybe due to (confusing) 3rd gen US schedule. It says quite plainly to change both at 100K miles, but there's a reference to sub-note 3, and that note more-or-less contradicts the previous, saying delay inverter coolant change to 150K miles.

FWIW my Canadian 3rd gen schedule says to change both engiine and inverter coolant at 100K miles. Then to muddy the issue, there's a sticker on the side of the inverter coolant reservoir, saying don't change till 150,000 miles (yes, miles, even though we're supposedly kms up here). I emailed Toyota Canada and they said stick to 100K for both.

I looked at the second gen Toyota USA Warranty and Maintenance Booklet, and it says 100K miles for both. Dutch Uncle time, you should crack that book, read through it carefully, rather than rely on dealership and internet opinion. If it's missing, you can download from Toyota Tech Info, for one.

Also worth mention, the service interval (for both inverter and engine coolant) is 100K miles OR 10 years, whichever comes first.

 

I am curious as to what they do to monitor the health of the coolant!

 

I'll play devil's advocate here ;-)

How many miles/years, in real number (not "forever" or "as long as possible") do we expect cars to last?

Does anyone know of hard statistical evidence that changing ANY fluids as opposed to never changing any fluids has actually prolonged the life of cars?

In order not to taint the pool I'll wait and see if/what responses I get before giving my own opinions/experience.

Thanks to all for posting on PriusChat. Because of y'all this is an awesome resource and I for one learn something from PC every single day!

Aloha

 

I would love to know too! My toyota dealer wouldn’t even change my inverter coolant for me, and I had to do it myself

 

They use test strips to monitor the PH levels.


iPhone ?

 

My local Toyota dealer who is often very inexpensive on its various service fees, recommend 50k after 150k. They often have service specials on coolant changes. For people who don’t or can’t do it themselves, spending a bit more than $100 every 50k miles to me is cheap.

 

I can't personally point you to published statistical analyses. Have you asked a reference librarian at an engineering libe?

If "ANY fluids" includes motor oil, my sense would be the evidence is fairly convincing on that.

My anecdotal experience on the oil topic includes going through a rough patch where I skipped a few oil change intervals in a row (on the first and last car I ever bought new, which I was quite fond of), and later found it to be burning oil so severely that an engine replacement was needed, for which I used a not-very-well-vetted shop, which did not refill the transmission with gear oil, which I noticed some miles into my drive home from the shop (it was a manual), and after which the car was stolen and stripped of the engine (which I suspect, but cannot prove, was connected to the shop that had done my engine replacement, and may have allowed them to increase profit by installing the same engine for multiple customers). So in that case, the failure to change oil on schedule did start a strongly-linked chain of events ending the life of that car.

I haven't skipped oil changes in my vehicles since that one. My current vehicle is above 150,000 miles with no significant oil use, and my previous vehicle was in a collision at around 238,000 miles with no significant oil use.

On the topic of coolant, in my earlier adulthood I have had to replace pinholed aluminum (including radiators and heater cores), mostly from the years before I quite understood the importance of the anticorrosion properties of coolant mixes and how those properties fade over time. I was lucky to have to do those jobs on vehicles where the engine compartment had plenty of room around the radiator, and especially easy heater core replacement. (Ever changed a heater core on a Ford Ranger or Bronco II? It's a treat: you slip two hoses off from the engine compartment side, reach under the glove box, take out two screws and a cover, and pull; there you are with the core in your hand.)

If I ever need to replace the radiator in my current Gen 3 Prius, I won't enjoy it at all, and if the heater core goes, it will require dismantling the entire instrument panel (and possibly evacuating the A/C; I'm not sure if that can be avoided). If that were something I had to pay shop labor rates for, it could well end the economic life of the car.

If aluminum oxide muck is allowed to form in the inverter cooling system of a Prius, it can interfere with the cooling flow through the inverter. That also could threaten the economic lifespan of the car.



I will admit that for both coolant and brake fluid, I am not above using test strips and going a longer interval if the strips are happy (I have some convenient test strips that do coolant on one end and brake fluid on the other). I skipped a coolant change a couple summers ago and delayed it to this year when I did the EGR cooler, for example.

On oil changes, I've read about doing oil analyses, but it's never something I've personally done; I just change the stuff, right on schedule.

 

Changed mine at 50000 miles when I bought it new. Have replaced mine a total of 3 times each time the car got better mileage. It’s easy.

The inverter is the hardest working device on this Car. This high tech electronics box works so hard it has its own very large coolant system.
Many reports of clogged coolant inverter coolant systems on a g2
From lack of maintenance.

super easy to change and bleed use Toyota LLC. I also used a bottle of Redline Water Wetter in each change. It’s a really good coolant additive and works fantastic in all coolant loops.

Check it now.
put the car in ready open the inverter reservoir and look at the coolant behavior. Mine looks like it’s boiling it has so much pump flow,
Yours will be hardly moving.

use the search forums link up top and search Inverter there will be hundreds of posts many many posts of how to do it and bleed it.

lastly take the cars maintenance schedule book and throw it out the window
Your car is 16 years old everything needs to be replaced.

I did my inverter and trans fluid change at the same time car was in the air. Both super easy.