I own a 2017 Toyota Prius touring IV Unfortunately at only 70k miles the engine blew up I didn't know what caused it initially but after Toyota investigated they told me their was no fluid in the reservoir. Just 24 hrs prior to this happening, I had taken my car to a former Valvoline, express type oil change drive thru svc center. The tech checked off that he checked the coolant and it was fine. So of course Toyota blamed me for letting it run w/no coolant in it. I had it towed to another shop that specializes in Toyotas. After investigating the problem he told me the engine is blown because no coolant in one of the reservoirs. This is the first time after owning this car for the last 6 years, was I made aware their are two coolant reservoirs' Its very likely that the tech at the oil change svc center didn't know about the two tanks either. He probably only checked one. Now what can I do with a 2017 Prius 70k miles & a blown engine.
You can put the blame back on Toyota for building such a crappy car. The car should not need any coolant if it didn't LEAK. I would ask Toyota to cover the repair, contact their corporate office for assistance
This generation (2016-2022) is known to develop a coolant leak in the heat exchanger in the exhaust pipe. Beginning in this generation, the coolant is routed through the exhaust pipe to help it warm up faster. This leak is hard to notice because the coolant does not drip on the ground, but instead is burned up in the exhaust. This issue has been discussed, including the remedy from Toyota, on this Forum for quite some time; but, none of this helps you now. As far as what you can do now, (1) contact your insurance for any coverage, (2) contact any salvage yards or auctions (COPART.COM) that will take the car, (3) have your engine rebuilt, (4) investigate an engine swap with a rebuilt or salvage engine.
This is one very good reason to avoid those fast lube places. And good luck with getting Toyota to cover damage to the vehicle because you failed to read the manual. You may have legal recourse concerning the lube joint.
According to the previous post, reading the manual would not have told me how to fix a problem I didn't even know I had. The coolant had not leaked anywhere under my car or I would have noticed it. Secondly, their weren't any warning lights coming on. Lastly, the car never overheated. The coolant was just an item on the check list at the oil change place. I wasn't having any problems with the car as far as I knew and as far as the report the oil change company provided everything checked out ok. The next day the cars engine blows! I honestly don't see how I can be responsible for any negligence. I did everything I could have done as far as anyone other than maybe an ASE Certified Hybrid Mechanic could possibly see.
there is only one reservoir for engine coolant. toyota is helping a lot of people with this repair cost because of the defect
True, however in the Gen 4 (at least (I have no problem admitting that I don’t know that much about other Generations)), there are Two, (yep, count them, there are two), coolant reservoirs, that are readily visible, and for those ignorant of what they are Toyota publishes a manual to help them with that. However, they do have to read it to be enlightened. So the odds of them being on PriusChat diminishes by the moment.
He didn’t trust Valvoline. Check the original post. Minor point but it goes to the reading ability point.
The previous generation, Gen 3 (2010-2015), also routed coolant through an exhaust heat exchanger for faster warmup. Though its heat exchanger is at a different point along the pipe, and didn't seem to have this problem. It had clogging EGR coolers instead, also leading to engine damage.
Different how? Gen 3's is after both catalytic converters and before the resonator. Is that not where Gen 4's is?
Oops, my bad. I somehow conflated this with where the EGR gas return is taken from, which was moved downstream.
Well, the Gen 3 and Gen 4 heat exchangers do look rather different. They seem to have a different supplier or just a different design. And somehow, the Gen 4 one seems to be much more prone to factory defects making it leak than the Gen 3 one was.
I have a 2017 prius with 190K miles, engine light came on, took it into my Toyota shop, came back with FOUND COOLANT IN CYLINDER. RECOMMEND REPLACING ENGINE. see below for more info: INSPECTED FOR CHECK ENGINE LIGHT ON FOUND P030200 CYL 2 MISFIRE AND P030027 CYLINDER MISFIRE SIGNAL RATE OF CHANGE ABOVE THRESHOLD. REMOVED PLUG ALSO NOTICED COOLANT RESERVOIR HAS NO COOLANT, INSPECTED INSIDE CYLINDER #2 AND FOUND COOLANT IN CYLINDER. RECOMMEND REPLACING ENGINE. For maintenance, I have always used the Toyota dealer. We changed oil every 10K miles w/synthetic. Toyota recommends getting your 2017 Toyota Prius oil & filter changed every 3,000-5,000 miles for conventional oil. Synthetic oil frequently should be changed every 7,500 - 10,000 miles.
