Just Bought a 2013 Prius 248k miles & found out it has blown head gasket

You already have the Toyota diagnostics, why do you need another one?

248k miles is a lot of miles. You have to be careful not to go over the days allowed by law to get a refund, I think most places would be 3 days.

 

Unfortunately, another scam by one of those "buy here, pay here" lots taking advantage of those uninformed with lower income individuals with less income and resources.

They evidently cleared the codes, sold the car to an unsuspecting buyer. The check engine light needs a few miles (50 or so) to develop a history and to be activated. By that time, it too late for the buyer to find out he or she has been scammed.

 

Any 3rd gen Prius over 150k miles is a likely candidate for head gasket failure. It’s sad when the misfire code crops up, that owners are steered into (usually useless) expensive coil/plug replacement.

^ Yeah consider this ASAP.

 

Sorry to hear, not sure there's a path to fix it without dishing out quite a bit of cash.

However, given the current used car market values, I do wonder if fixing it to working condition you might be able to sell it without losing too much.

 

A lot of this is going to be local- as in get familiar with OK state vehicle laws, contact the attorney general etc. I don't know what protections the State of Oklahoma has enumerated for you but that's where to start.

If it works out that the car remains yours and you choose to fix the head gasket, take it somewhere other than Toyota. Lots of mechanics can replace head gaskets and there isn't anything special about the one in a Prius. It'll cost less getting it done at an independent shop.

 

Most likely the car was traded in and then sent to an auction. Most used car guys have no clue and just moved it. But trying to do a head gasket alone is not recommended considering the cylinder already had coolant in it.

Your best pathforward is a replacement engine. The 2010-15 Prius engines have several flaws, one being oil burning and the second being head gaskets. I wish there was a better way of warning people, several of us have been the sounding the alarm for years while others are simply fan boys about the car's issues.

For close to $7,000 the dealer would have installed a rebuilt engine. A head gasket job alone is more like $1500-$3500 depending on factors like remachined heads and new water pumps and the like. But at this stage a simple head gasket job alone may fail and force an engine. However if you shop around you can have a rebuilt engine for as low as $3500 in some areas. Tulsa or OKC should be one of those areas.

If you can get a refund do so immediately. A rebuilt engine is not the end of major maintenance for this car. $5k worth of master cylinder, pump and hybrid battery could and most likely will be in your future.

The head gasket issue is so common some hybrid shops do three a day. Early signs are cold start rattles which most ignore or blame on egr. This shop does almost nothing other than gen3 head gaskets and engine replacements.

 

Yeah consider this: would you have bought this car knowing what you know now? Not a chance, right?

There's a quasi-legal expression: "reasonal expectation". As in: you have a "reasonable expectation" when you buy a car, that it's gonna run ok, get you places, not immediately require heart-surgery.

 

The argument for reasonable expectation doesn’t really apply to a car with 248k. Maybe reasonable expectation is an engine overhaul

 

definitely a refund IF that's an option. I figured you would have looked into this already given the situation, these scam lots usually are good about one thing - it's yours once you drive off the lot.

 

That's right and when i talk to these people selling these cars and they're asking $9,000 for a car that has 257,000 Mi on it and they're retort is well the car was almost $30,000 brand new i'm like who cares about that that is nothing to do in the reality of today even with today's prices i see generation twos with 173,000 MI with the hybrid battery been dealt with meaning a green check or a rebuilt car and reasonably nice looking from the exterior if it's the cloth interior it has the normal wear and tear on it and they're getting 6500 to $8,000 for this car in the southeast united states right now a year and a half ago i paid $2,000

 

I just got done with this bud my recommendation would be go with the low mileage JDM asian takeout i bought an engine and transmission delivered to my door i don't remember 1186 or something like that probably the best thing i did with this car because having people work on it here is it costly parts are expensive and everything currently is expensive it cost me about $800 to get the engine and transmission in the car it didn't need anything the bolts put back in and it's sitting in the car and now it's running with no lights on and pretty much no problems if i would have rebuilt just the engine i would have had 3000 plus instead i got the engine and the transmission supposedly with 65k or less on it by the looks of it it looks like it even if it's got a hundred it's still a good deal mine had 220 230 whatever

 

Try this.

Then clean your EGR, intake manifold, and throttle body.