I have a 2012 Prius with 170,000klm. The battery life is showing 61% on the Dr Prius life expectancy test (I know it cannot be totally accurate) I will probably have to replace the Hybrid battery soon, which I don't mind doing. But I am concerned about the head gasket problem with Gen 3's. I have no evidence of a problem yet, but I don't want to keep this car, change out the battery with the possibility of the head gasket going. Is the head gasket issue inevitable for all Gen 3's. I love this car, but it is getting to the mileage and age that the sell now or drive it forever decision has to be made. Any advice on this?
it is not inevitable, but it is a risk. have you cleaned the egr circuit? changed the oil every 5k? we can't tell you the odds, because we mostly see complaints. there are tons of gen 3 on the roads, and we have no idea how many failed hg's. one thing we do know is that toyota updated the pistons and rings in mid 2014
I have had the car since 2016 and over the last year started to double down on the oil changes. Had a scope of the cylinders, no scoring, which is good. But the rings for the Gen 3's just plan bad. I have done some fuel treatment 505 CRO and will be doing it for my oil next oil change. I have not cleaned/replaced the EGR or blown out the cleaner, but planning something in the summer. Just wondering about when I do have to change the battery, $3500 and the possibility of hg problems...? Yikes......
Is it consuming much oil? Not all do. If not, if you clean out the intake manifold EGR passages, if you clean out the EGR cooler (if testing shows it needs it), and if you're not seeing symptoms yet, I'd guess your best gamble is to carry on. I am. Some examples go considerably farther than yours has without head gasket trouble.
Inevitable? No. Likely around 250,000 km? Yes. The 505 CRO will do more damage than it could possibly help. Particularly with the variable valve timing. Regardless of what Scotty says. It may have been useful in the old days when he actually was making a living wrenching. If the 505 is in the oil, change it with new oil asap.
My 2010 has 300K now bought at 165. The only reason I believe it's made it to 300K without any events and I mean any is because the car stays on the road It's a delivery vehicle like Uber eats and all that nonsense The car stays on the road It might be parked for 5 hours a night or something and then boom back on the road all day 5 hours again the next night boom repeat every day 6 days at least a week and I believe this has something to do with how this car has held up My 2013 persona needed an engine at 180,000 had gasket blown center girdle broken engine pretty much destroyed. Replace the transmission and the engine with JDM stuff and only had about 2650 in that maybe $2,800 installed in the car running that doesn't seem too bad to me I couldn't have bought anything for that another junky Gen 3 that needed more work so it was kind of a no-brainer to fix it and then I put a rebuilt battery in the persona while I was getting the new engine and transmission up and running We noticed the battery was completely frosted and corroded on all the bus bars and nuts We got to rebuilt battery from the hybrid doctor in Virginia for about $650 drop that in the car with the new engine battery and all of it we've put about 50,000 mi on it and it's running like a brand new one.
Don't force yourself into a false decision here. And don't kid yourself about how long cars last. The real calculation is sell now vs spend a bunch of money to keep it going another 8-12 years. Because statistically at that point you will be done with this car, and you'll likely have a need for another one. Nearly nobody keeps a Prius going past 20 years. None of us can predict how much trouble a given car is going to have, but we can guess a lot from patterns. So take this as extremely generalized advice: If things are getting better for you in the sense of being able to absorb random repair bills, keep the car. There's a chance you won't need to pay them, and right now you have decent odds to play. On the other hand if you find yourself increasingly needing the security of fixed costs, then now is a decent time to start looking for a replacement car. Not saying you need to urgently change cars or anything, but with availability and prices moving back to normal you'll have good opportunities soon.
Clean the full EGR circuit, including intake manifold, ASAP. See first 2 links in my signature*. 170k kms, it needs it. * on a phone? Turn it landscape to see signatures.
