Research- Gen 1 Prius Longevity

While I have a 2009, the pastor of my wife's church has a 2001, it went 185,000 miles on the first battery and is at 230,000 miles now

 

I have a 2002 with 110K. Original battery. Hoping to see 150, at which time I may get a reinvolt and go for 200K.

 

We bought our 2001 Prius in 2001, it was the lots demo vehicle. It had 500 mile on it. We finally had to change the hybrid battery in late 2008. We currently ave 192,000 miles on ours. We did the suggested maintenance on ours, and have not had any probelms. I did have to change out the inverter a couple of months ago. I got an inverter with 50k miles and did it myself. It was a pretty easy instal. Other than that the car just runs great.

 

2002 Prius
145600 Miles
Overall MPG 48.7 Actual
Replcd 12 V Battery, Tires, Frint Brake Pads, Right rear Wheel Bearing.
All else Original.

Seedypea

 

2001 Prius
205,500 Miles
44.4 MPG these days

Still on original battery. Mostly city driving, garaged at work and at home. The most worn-out part is my steering wheel. Runs like a champ. Waiting to hit a quarter-million before getting another Prius.

 

We'll see how long my car lasts.

I bought it about a month or two ago with 173,000 miles on it.

It has about 176,000 miles on it now.

The battery was replaced by Toyota about a year ago, and the only thing wrong with it at this point is the engine light is on showing the catalytic converter needs to be replaced.

I'm crossing my fingers for about 4-5 years of use...

 

Now THAT is motivating.
My car and I are both inspired.

 

I have a 2002 prius, bought the car new

Car now has 194000 miles and runs great


Replaced sensor in steering column.

Both left and right wheel bearings replaced Left @ 184,000
right @ 192,000.

Currently have a whine coming from the rear Tires ?
bearings ?

I am waiting till the sound gets worse before I have Toyota look at it.


Great car.

Tom

ps i also put 97,000 on a 2005, then sold it and bought 2009, now 25,000

 

I own a 2001. It has 180,000. I bought it about a year ago and have put about 20,000 on it. The car had the hybrid battery already replaced as well as the ecu. According the the owner it sat a while without being started and when they went to start it wouldn't. Dealer said battery needed replaced so they did. After replacing the battery then it wouldn't run right so they replaced the ecu.
It averages 44 mpg.
It runs great, I haven't done much to it but I did replace the front pads and I recently put new tires on it. I plan on putting new struts and shocks on it soon and put a cd player in the little compartment under the radio.
I am kinda lucky, my brother is a mechanic and between the 2 of us I think we could do most anything to the car, but hopefully that doesn't have to happen until at least 280,000.
I have contemplated making the car a plug but can't justify it, maybe if I owned a brand new one.

 

My '01 is at 252k and still going strong!

 

I ordered my first 2001 Prius from Toyota in September 2000. It arrived in March 2001. Except for excessive tire wear problems that were solved with both front and rear wheel alignment, I had no major problems with it. It was wrecked in October 2003 at 55,000 miles. Fortunately a local Toyota Dealer had an identical car on the used lot with less than 17,000 miles. It now has 218,000 miles. The original hybrid battery failed at 197,000 in January 2009. I have the car serviced at 5000 miles intervals. I replaced the catalytic converter shortly before the battery replacement Other than damage from a couple of deer collisions replacement, the only other significant repair was replacing a wheel bearing in the left rear wheel. That was significant because a new wheel bearing came as an assembly with the rotation sensor costiing $350, plus $270 installation cost. The car runs as good now as it did when new. Last weekend I made two 190 mile trips out of town and it showed 47.9 mpg on one and 49.7 on the other. I am still running on the gas that I put in before the last trip and the gauge is down only four out of eleven marks. The odometer is nearing 250 miles.

I like the styling of the gen1 much better than any others. The only warning I would give to anyone considering buying a Gen 1 is that battery life is time dependent at around 8 years, and they should have had bigger wheels.

 

Yes, it can last 10 years but that would be far shorter than getting a Camry. I own a 2001 Prius (1st gen) and a 2010 Prius (3rd gen) and I can tell you that I would buy a Camry now. The battery went out in the Prius 2001 at 170,000 miles (about 9 years use) and the catalytic converter is going out. I had to replace the transmission and engine computer; Toyota paid for half the cost in the transmission. Don't use the braking gear often, be/c that is hard on the transmission. Toyota did right on the warranty. I regret buying the 2010 Prius be/c there are blind spots all over it, and if the life of the battery isn't much longer than the first Prius, I can expect it to last 10 years as compared with a Camry 15-20 years. The longevity of a non hybrid Camry alone makes up for the savings in gas. In other words no real savings in gas if I have to replace the Prius. Otherwise it drives comfortably. Does anyone have a good idea of how much longer the life of the battery on a 2010 Prius would be?

 

I wouldn't expect X number of years on any car. There's no way to factor it 100%. I had a non hybrid 2004 Camry die on me a month ago. It would have cost the value of the car to get fixed (there were major engine problems and it just had 78,000 miles on it). So I traded in the salvage for a Prius. At least the Prius has a longer warranty for the battery....for ICE systems, it's 60,000 miles (it's as if they know that's the magical number for not having to cover much wear). All things considered, it sounds like the traction battery is the most iffy object (be it longevity or getting a replacement). At least Toyota is going out of their way offering a higher warranty on that.

 

The Prius introduced a number of technologies new to the automotive world:

• power traction batteries - the RC hobby world has been dealing with smaller scale versions of power batteries for a lot longer than hybrid 'gear heads.' That is why the most cost-effective, smart chargers come from the RC world. In fact, the best references for NiMH battery health, status and practices still comes from the model RC world.
• torque and position sensors - although computer operated accelerator inputs to engines became more common with fuel injection, our 2001 Echo still ran a cable and the throttle plate sensor did double duty as the accelerator input. Still, the Prius included torque sensors for the steering.
• suite of computers - the car runs with computers in the loop. Traditional 'shade tree' mechanic skills need to master these new parts and that can be a steep learning curve.
• power motors and drivers - common in some factories, they are new to our world. Fortunately, the RC hobby world has paved the way.

If someone is looking for the same failure mechanisms, maintenance practices, and operational modes that date back to the earliest autos, over 100 years ago, then by all means, stay with that technology. But if one wants excellence, the cutting edge, go with the Prius and work to minimize the risk.

We just have to learn and master the new technologies by borrowing from those who have been dealing with them before . . . the RC hobby world, industrial engineers, and non-automotive technologists.

Bob Wilson

 

Allow me to add my story of my 2002 Prius. I bought her within 2 weeks of being able to walk on the lot and pick them out in May of 2002 with just 13 miles on her. I loved this car. My Prius now has 91400 miles on her but she's parked in the driveway. I have yet to determine what to do with her. Up until she was about 7-3/4 years old, she was the love of my life. I never had a lick of trouble with her. Did regular maintenance every 5000 miles religiously. Even did more than the basic recommended. All good til December 2009, replaced the rack&pinion assembly and ECU $2800. June 2010 had the brakes done, replaced a door lock actuator, refinished the headlight covers, $800. July 2010 replaced 2 ECUs for the hybrid system $2700. September 2010, diagnosed that she needs new Hybrid Battery Pack... estimate = $4200. Sadly, I've drawn the line. I cannot afford to have them replaced and given the amount of money I've put back into the car for all the ECUs and things I've had done in less than a year's time, I stood at a crossroads. I hate to give her up. I have since purchased another used car to get around. So, I love my Prius, I am sad to have to draw the line, but I just simply cannot put that large $$$ into her to get her back in shape. I am also not completely convinced that it's the Hybrid Battery pack as the battery warning light is not on (just the generic red car) and no other indication of the batteries not holding a charge is present. Car drives fine, ICE shuts off after initial start which I am thinking indicates that the computers all believe the batteries are charged. I wish there was a way to know if this is absolutely the right diagnosis, or if the Toyota dealership I've been dealing with is just not in the mood to continue to figure it all out. And here I am... indecisive... But I don't need two cars... And I can't really sell it and get a reasonable value out of it with the warning lights on. Can't keep it and get it to pass inspection with the warning lights on either.

 

Let me propose some options:

• buy a scangauge (~$175 plus adapter) - w2co, vincent1449p and I have collaborated on how to use a scangauge to read hybrid vehicle and battery codes and values. You can use this on your other car to improve driving and mileage. Depending upon the car, you might even be able to pull additional XGAUGE values.
• rent Graham miniscanner ($150 rental deposit and $15/mo., full month rental) - I have two, one coming back. This will read out the HV, battery and engine codes as well as about 50 other engineering data points.
• Auto Enginuity ($400+your laptop+adapter), TechStream Lite ($1,200-$1,500+your laptop) - a little much for a simple diagnosis.
• Over-the-counter scanners . . . junk because they don't know the Prius ECUs and codes.

You may want to check for a sticky throttle plate. This can cause engine stopping as you've described.

Bob Wilson

 

I am so not technical enough I guess. I don't have the confidence to even begin to know how to use and diagnose anything on this car. I'm just so overwhelmed. I just can't believe that the battery pack could be the problem and it's just a gut feeling. I could be really wrong or just really unwilling to believe it... I don't know... I just kind of thought that if it was really the battery pack that 1) the BATTERY warning light would be the one on the screen, 2) the consumption screen might show a problem, and 3) I would have experienced some symptom somewhere in my car that wasn't a normal thing.

The engine stopping wasn't something that I thought was a problem. When I start it and drive it around, after it has been running for whatever time required (recharging the batteries after it's been sitting), the ICE does shut off as it always has, as needed. The car drives just fine. I have seen no indication of any symptoms except the warning lights on the screen/dash. I considered continuing to drive it for now, even just back and forth to work daily, but I am hesitant as I don't know if that would worsen the problem that it thinks it has, or worse yet, strand me on the side of the road, either with or without my kids.

I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions and before this is all over, I will likely just have to try something for the principle that I don't think this is a nightmare of a car by any stretch of the imagination. She's a great little car and I've always had such good luck with her. I just don't have the $$$ nor the technical knowledge and skill to do anything about it.

Thanks again for your suggestions. :cheer2: I may have to run them by my husband and have him talk to his more technically inclined buddies to see what they all think.

Laura

 

Hi Laura,

Please don't sell yourself short.

Our Prius has a collection of small computers that connect just under the dash board, to the left of the steering wheel column. If you reach down, you can touch and find the connector.

The scanners connect to the car at this point and ask the computers "What error codes did you save?" We then look them up in our maintenance manuals or even via Google and this tells us what is right or wrong.

You'll find there are a lot of helpful Prius owners here willing to share their expertise. Certainly, invite your husband to join us but this really is something I know you can handle.

Bob Wilson

 

Laura, I see you are in Texas. I live in Arlington, TX. If you are around in this metroplex, I might could come by and have a look at the car for you.