What did you do to ur Gen III Prius today????

It's a hybrid.
It burns gas and rubber!

 

It was raped (CAT stolen) and now she’s back and recovering after $3,400 expense on OEM replacement.

 

Wow! Burn baby burn! (sorry about that, I was trying to respond to the burn out OP)

 

@Montgomery you mean this one? What did you do to ur Gen III Prius today???? | Page 956 | PriusChat
I found this youtube short that day - here's another burn baby of a different color.

 

Swapped the magnetic blade on the oem water pump with one purchased online after two aisins failed in less than 12 months. now no more high temperatures!

 

I thought AISIN was just as good as the original Toyota pump....
Guess if I ever change my water pump, I'll pay the premium for the 'real' one for peace of mind /

 

I thought the same, then read about bad knock off's circulating. Once I can confirm the seller of the part I installed to the OEM pump is still able to procure then, my thought is if you haven't replaced it, get the magnet propeller and old on to it in your car in case you are on the road and end up needing a water pump replacement or someone else you know with a Prius does.

 

A lot of the Toyota parts are made by Aisin....

 

I finished the install of my new head unit and my dash cam recently. Now that I've lived with it for a few weeks I really dig the wireless Android Auto, such a great user experience. I'm thinking of grabbing one of the steering wheels that have the phone control buttons with it as well and adding that functionality to my wheel controls, so I'll keep an eye out for a deal to do the swap.



The head unit replacement came about because the BLU Logic bluetooth system took a dump and made it so nothing worked. At first I just removed the module and was using the factory stereo, but then decided to do the upgrade shortly thereafter.

 

Where did you get the magnet propeller from?

 

I just replaced the thermocouple/thermistor in the hybrid battery pack, probably due to my "rough" handling. My 07 Prius has 626K miles and counting.

 

ebay seller, its just.. he doesn't sell them anymore and Im waiting to see if he can get more. The current ones on ebay don't match

 

My wife Friday evening



My brother in law Saturday evening.



Paint doesn't match but otherwise a pretty good job for five hours at his house.
Wife happy so I'm happy too.

 

These water pumps do not look like the same as the aisin pump I put on my car. Mine has the toyota logo grinded off and a aisin logo below.

 

Sigh. Hit black ice in the dark and whacked a curb. Firestone says I need: inner tie rod, lower ball joint, hub wheel bearing, wheel and tire. Well over $1500.

Seriously looking at selling this '11 "immediately" (before my upcoming engine swap at Hybrid Pit Stop)... so the question becomes:

Will it pay to do these repairs? I know I can get the parts cheaper than their quote, and I have an ASE Mech friend happy to help...

 

The prius is not a hard car to work on.
Whatever you do to one side I would do to both and then get a alignment.
Inner tie rod $60 for both.
(outer tie rods should be replaced too if you are doing this service as you need a alignment after doing these $60)
lower ball joint $60 for both
Wheel bearing $120 for both
Replace the axle nut when you replace the bearing. New nuts will save you the headache of ruining your axle threads. $5 each
You would need an alignment after this service. $85 at 714 tires in OC.

Wheel and tire can probably find a used wheel for $50 and a tire for $150 or so installed.

Parts probably would be about $700 with alignment. I would do this repair with your mechanic friend or I can also help if you are local to south orange county, I have done all these services multiple times. If you need parts I have a used OEM inner tie rod 24k miles and a used front wheel bearing with apx 10-15k miles on it I would let go for a steal. And I also have two new wheel bearings.

You can rent a inner tie rod removal tool at oreilleys and also a ball joint removal fork. For the tie rods I just take the nut off and turn it over and smack the nut and bolt til the ball joint comes out. If you need brakes do this with the wheel bearing service. To remove the ball joint without removing the bearing I would recommend a long 19mm 6 point box end wrench. You can’t get the castle nut on the ball joint off with a 12 point wrench it will round the nut off. I use this tekton 19mm for ball joints and I don’t have to remove the CV nut and move the axle but if you’re replacing the wheel bearing too take out the bearing and then you can use a socket on the ball joint. If you can’t get the inner tie rod off of the outer toe rod you can grind or cut off the end of the outer toe rod and just remove the inner with the tool and replace it.

After you change tie rods you need an alignment. Ball joints affect alignment too so replace both if you replace one.

If you want to save money you can probably replace only one wheel bearing but the rest I would do the same for both sides or else the car may not handle evenly.

 

Those CHEAP $120 a pair wheel bearings won't last but a few thousand miles.
So you'll be doing them again, and again, and again.
Unless you only drive 2-3 thousand miles a year...
The same for the cheap ball joints and tie rod ends....

Some things, it doesn't pay to go cheap. Even if you're doing the work yourslelf.
Because your time should be worth something. And you'll be replacing parts instead of
spending time making money or spending time with your family or something else productive...

 

Long ago I purchased lifetime alignments at Firestone ($110 on sale at the time). Easily worth it
I trust my ASE-cert'd friend on parts quality. Almost done w/ that. Not doing "Economy" at RockAuto... might actually go for discounted OEM. Several dealerships have nice prices.

Best deal on my fave tires today (Conti TrueContact Tour 91T)? Walmart online believe it or not! $107 shipped FedEx to my door arriving Friday

Sadly, our amazing wheel repair place here evaluated and said the wheel can't be properly repaired due to it being a wobble at the hub level. Yeah, they could make it "look" right but would eat up tires at freeway speeds. No thanks. Looking for a reasonable deal on that.

Interesting thought about doing both sides together. We'll take a look at that.

Gotta get this done soon... then we drive 1k+ miles from CO to Buena Park to get the engine replaced at Hybrid Pit Stop -- literally HALF the cost of doing a lesser job here in CO!

 

CVT fluid change

 

I supposed is why they went bad so fast. hmm