just got a 2010 Prius - need advice

If you're not am ASE Certified mechanic willing to replace the engine and hy rid battery, sell it now while it still works

 

The days of this car being bullet proof are soo long gone.

 

Bulletproof.
Brought back memories.))

 

I don't know how close the motors are, but you could switch the electrical connections
and then try the washer again, it if sprays out the back, you know it's the pump.
You can also put a meter on the connector, have your son try the washer, with the car in
ready mode. If you get 12 volts, you know it's the motor...
Cleaning the egr pipe is a waste of time if you are not going to clean the cooler, and the
3 holes for the egr gases on the intake manifold...

 

There is no dip stick for the transmission, only a drain plug and a refill plug underneath.

 

not completely: it gives you some idea, and might get you motivated, to “push on”.

 

The EGR will still get carbon-clogged, and in my opinion, that is what is causing head gaskets to blow.

More frequent oil changes "may" help mitigate the piston ring clogging and ensuing runaway oil consumption. The ultimate cure for that is to replace either the piston/rings, or the complete short block.

FWIW, for one reason or another I've done very frequent oil changes on our '10 (has the "low-tension" piston rings), since new purchase in November 2010. Odometer's currently at a mere 101K kms, and so far no discernable oil consumption, at least going the by the dipstick.

I've also done two EGR cleanings. The first was at 71K kms, and there was significant carbon build-up. No where near the conditions people are reporting, say when cleaning at 100~150K miles, but that's fine by me.

 

It does happen regardless of egr cleanings and oil changes on 10k intervals. They may delay the problem if no oil burning exists and frequent engine coolant changes occur.

Recommended oil change intervals was part of the problem. Toyota went from 5k intervals on gen2 to 10k miles on gen3 and then changed people’s habits by doing the first two free.

The engines burn no noticeable oil when the rings are good; my egr flowed freely for over 100k miles with no oil burning. By 150k miles it was burning oil and the egr cooler, valve and intake was getting gummed up. After oil burning starts there is no turning back without a rebuild with revised rings and pistons. Toyota had a TSB and provided free rings and pistons if you burned more than a quart in ~1200 miles.

There are also revised intakes, egr valves and ecu software for gen3. With all of that proactive recommendations from Toyota, they still do not recommend egr system cleaning or replacement before it codes.

 

Keeping the oil changed regularly should help avoid the high oil consumption that occurs with coked-up rings. On my 2010, the maintenance reminder comes on every 5000 miles. I think it was originally 10,000 miles but there might have been an update to reprogram it at some point. ??

It's not proven what causes the HG to blow in these cars. My guess is it is related to the electric water pump, either poor programming or reduced performance as the pump ages. The EGR theory doesn't make sense to me because I don't know of any other model of car where EGR clogging leads to blown head gaskets. But it's a good idea IMO to keep the EGR passages clean anyway.

 

Yeah, I think both people and corporations do things for reasons. Toyota's motivation in this matter seems a marriage of dodging responsibility and spending as little as possible. I do think the highlighted statement could be easily and successfully challenged in a court of law:


The 240,000 km limit mentioned in the above converts to 150,000 miles.

Somewhat similar to how they "stand behind" the 3rd gen's low-tension piston rings, for 60K miles...

 

Looks like. Attached is all the windshield washer section from Repair Manual. Mercifully, the motor access is near the front. Looks like two motors, one for front, one for rear, can both be accessed through passenger side front wheel well. You do need to at least partially open up the wheel well liner.

While doing that, I would check for timing chain cover oil leaks; it's right there.

 

Four lines of text below what you highlighted, I read "The specific condition covered by this program is a sticking EGR valve due to excess carbon build-up."

So, to challenge "the majority of vehicles will not experience this condition", you'll need to show the court of law your evidence that the majority of vehicles do experience a sticking EGR valve due to excess carbon build-up.

Have you heard about enough sticking EGR valves due to excess carbon build-up to make that claim?

 

Ah, they're being cagey too. Touche.

 

The oil tsb is attached above. The coolant theory is it gets acidic and eats away at the gasket. The only other coherent theory is thermal cycling of the hybrid engine is the only thing that definitely separates this engine with hg issues from Corollas with the same engine using a standard Otto cycle continuously running engine. There are wide temperature fluctuations in stop and go or “idling” situations in the gen3 Prius design. A design that was dramatically changed for gen4 1.8’s especially in their cylinder wall cooling strategy.

Bottom line is when a severe shake does occur on startup and clears quickly be very proactive and don’t blame it on plugs, coils, injectors or a stuck egr. Some suggest a preemptive hg change.

 

It could be just a coincidence, that:

1. 4th Gen EGR, connecting downstream of the catalytic converter, and with significantly greater cross sectional area, stays more-or-less clean, past 300k miles.

2. 4th Gen head gasket failures are much less frequent, and usually tied to exhaust heat recovery system coolant leaks.

And accordingly we go with gasket masters theory, about thermal cycling.

 

I'm sure it's also just a coincidence that 1. and 2.—supportive of your favored theory—were the only pieces of information you chose to supply there.