The Car Care Nut uncovers an exhaust pre-heater leak

Good news and bad news here. Good news is if he hasn't seen one since they were released six years ago, it's really not common. Bad news is, it's still happening on a six year old car. I was hoping that since mine was never changed, that I was probably in the clear after six years, guess not ​

 

We get a 15 year 150K mile warranty, in a CARB state. Standard Federal emissions is 8 years 80K miles here in the states.
You may want to check Canadian laws with regards to emissions system warranty related to PZEV - it may be covered

Hope this helps...

 

The car care nut should spend more time on Prius chat

 

I sent a message to Toyota Canada about the warranty period of the exhaust heat exchanger Saturday. I'm waiting for their reply.

 

Or maybe I shouldn't so I wouldn't be worrying as much lol. My front neighbor has a 2018 Prius. When I asked her about her experience before buying my Prime, she didn't say a word about this, only greath things. I bet she has no ideas.

 

We're just hearing about the 2016 & 2017 issues for the past year. Hopefully a 3nd party exhaust system manufacturer will create a universal exhaust gas heat exchanger replacement, in the near future. That would avoid the need to replace the CAT - a very costly fix. The other option is to bypass the exhaust gas heat exchanger. Not sure if that's going to be illegal, depends on your local EPA laws

 

Are you sure? From what I've read, they fixed it in 2020 because of issues happening earlier and with vehicles still under their base warranty.

 

I only know of what's reported on this site and most mechanics was misdiagnosing it as a gen3 head gasket issue - even dealerships. The NHTSA doesn't break this down in their reports. Toyota has a TSB out on this, surprised the "car care nut" didn't know this.

 

Funny, he mentions having seen the issue before in Gen 3 but not remembering it right away.

I've really never seen much on PriusChat about Gen 3 EHRS exchangers leaking. Gen 3 did have them, but they just never seemed to spring leaks much. Makes me wonder what was different about the Gen 4 ones.

 

Probably, cheaper, thinner, lighter metal more prone to rust and degradation.
Toyota is on the hook for 15 years or 150K miles in CARB states; just feel sorry for the out of warranty people. They'll have to sell the car out of state or bypass the system and hope the smog guy doesn't catch it.

 

ignorance is bliss?
i feel the same way over on the bolt forums. you read about issues and start to worry.
of course, i read about gen 3 head gaskets for years, and then mine blew

 

Ccn should do an autopsy on the heat exchanger to see why it failed. Maybe even compare it to the new version to try and see what they improved.

 

Yes very interesting video....so many signs of a bad head gasket.

That heat exchanger in my wife's 2017 Prius gets looked at every 6-months when I change her oil. So far, so good....not a drop of coolant is being consumed anywhere.

 

I asked him to post the repair video so we DIY'ers can get some tips in case we ever need to to the job. I priced out the part and looks to be around $800-950 but didn't check overseas where things are sometimes cheaper for OEM.

 

the worst part of these problems is that toyota doesn't do a thorough investigation until a crisis point is reached.
then, when they do figure it out, they don't tell the dealers, or the dealers can't read. probably the latter

 

T-SB-0135-19 The whole time I’m watching the first part of the video I kept thinking “is this an old video? And realizing it’s in his new shop I was a little disappointed! This is NOT a new problem. T-SB-0135-19 and a redesigned heat exchanger was introduced. Now, never changing your coolant won’t prevent it from happening to the new design, but otherwise later ones shouldn’t be seeing it.

 

I would be shocked if you were to ever see a problem with it considering your very conscience preventive maintenance.

 

T-SB-0135-19