New 2 Me Prius V

@Georgie-Hussel where's Richmond BTW. We've got one within Greater Vancouver, and Google says there's 30 in the States. Virginia?

It's not so I can come pitch eggs at your windows lol, just helps responders.

 

You are CONFUSED>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> And apparently don't read many posts on here................

 

Give the guy a break Tim; opening jitters.

 

Ok

 

Odds are you did get jipped. But not because of a missing Advanced Technology Package, which did not come standard and were a healthy additional cost back then. Plus they did not work nearly as good as today’s atp systems - which are still marginal.

The features of a v5 and the optional “Packages” (P) bottom right

The real concerns are:

It is a bad design engine. The engine burns oil and has excessive liquid build up in the intake manifold. Flawed piston ring design was updated in mid 2014. Oil / condensate mix in the intake along with blowby fed to the cylinders via low tension rings and the egr creates carbon and preignition. Egr intake is before the cat on these years; gen4 egr intake is after the cat and therefore much cleaner. Thermal cycling is also a problem for the cylinders due to stop start and poor coolant passage design. Cylinder insulators and revised coolant passages remedied uneven temps in gen4.

Generally these factors create a head warpage or gasket leak that allows the coolant into the cylinder, particularly after a complete cool off. The coolant may or may not temporarily foul the plug. At first the engine heats up and stops the coolant loss before it is really noticeable except for startup rattling. The plug starts firing and the engine runs fine, typically for the rest of the day. People incorrectly think it is plugs, coils, injectors or clogged egr, even though it runs fine after a few seconds, wasting time and money. Heads must be machined with a head gasket job.

Occasionally the startup rattling and short duration coolant fouling may bend the connecting rod slightly. This is often unnoticed during a head gasket repair, leading to a second failure a few miles later when the rod goes. Or the rattling is masked with a sealer allowing more time for the bent rod to break.

The engine to transaxle damper is just that, a short term slippage mechanism when the engine rpms are not exactly matched by the electric motors through the planetary gears. This slippage is the startup rattling you hear with a head gasket leak. There is no mechanical disconnect like you get with a clutch or torque converter.

The best solution to keep a 2010-2014 Prius running long term after a head gasket fail is to rebuild a used engine with revised pistons and rings, remachine the head, clean the egr cooler and then change oil after 5k miles rather than 10k.

By the way, a later model spin on oil filter housing will bolt on. A high quality oil catch can with sintered bronze filter is optional on the pcv line but only if the owner can be counted on to empty it. The pcv intake was also revised on gen4.

Bottom line: This engine is a bad design starting with low tension rings, a bad egr design, a poor cylinder coolant strategy, a pcv intake too low on the block, 10f-40f thermal cycling many times during a drive cycle particularly in stop and go or when excessively "idling", aggravated by the parts cannon and block sealers

 

rjparker, thank you for the detailed review of Prius V's problems.
I sold my 2013 Prius C for this bag of issues and very much regret it.

How does Toyota get away with it? Any consumer protection laws that would apply in this case?
These are rhetorical questions.
I was a die-hard toyota fan for their reliability until I bought this pos.

P.S. OP, very soon the lack of features you inquired about will be the least of your worries with this car.