dealer suggested maintainance package

1. You already provided a reasonable answer for this one.

2. Yes, although the dealer price per plug will be more like $12 or so, but you have the right idea. The plugs are supposed to be replaced at 120K miles - sooner if you notice engine misfire problems.

3. Since your car has 95K miles, the engine coolant does need to be drained and replaced. The correct coolant is Toyota Super Long Life Coolant which is already premixed with 50% distilled water. An independent shop not experienced with Prius may have trouble with this one due to the presence of the coolant heat recovery system pump and canister, so I suggest that you have a Toyota dealer do this maintenance. If you are not satisfied with the quoted price, call around and see if you can find another dealer that can offer a lower price. Note that the coolant alone will cost ~$42 or so (two gallons needed.)

4. All that is required here is to remove the air cleaner housing, spray some throttle body cleaner on a clean cloth or paper towel, then use that to clean off the black deposits within the throttle body interior and on the throttle plate. You can twist the spring-loaded throttle plate shaft to open up the throttle plate when the car is IG-OFF, so that you can clean the edges and bottom of the plate. This is a pretty easy DIY job (as is #2, for that matter.)

 

Actually, I advise against following that particular procedure for two reasons:

1. You should use the minimum amount of throttle body cleaner for the job so that the contaminated cleaner (containing dirt particles) does not enter the throttle shaft motor assembly. This is achieved by spraying the cleaner on a cloth or paper towel vs. spraying the cleaner directly into the throttle body. A recent Toyota TSB on this subject recommends this minimalist approach, see:
http://priuschat.com/forums/generat...0-09-copy-sought-p3191-p3101-error-codes.html

2. By spraying the throttle body cleaner into the throttle body, you run some risk of contaminating the mass air flow sensor. By first removing the air cleaner housing (which the MAF sensor is mounted upon) there is no way that you could contaminate that sensor while cleaning the throttle body.

 

Now that's interesting. Low coolant level is usually caused by an aging engine water pump, where fluid leaks (weeps) past the seal. It's rarely enough to leave a puddle on the ground, unless the engine pump fails catastrophically. And diluted? Have you been adding water or something other than Super Long Life? It may just be that the test strip was misinterpreted. Regardless, it is worth tracking down the source of the coolant loss, and then, if a repair is needed (e.g. new engine water pump, leaky gasket etc.), then the coolant exchange is automatically part of the repair.

If you aren't in it for the long run with your car, then ignore the spark plugs.

 

1. Yea you can do them yourself for alot cheaper.
2. Yes but make sure you trust the shop, their can be big problems if done wrong, might be worth the extra money to have dealer do it, if you trust them. If done wrong threads could be stripped out in the head.
3. If they replaced the water pump, why in the hell would they give the car back to you low on coolant? Or is this the other coolant that does not go to the same pump they replaced?
5. Waste of time i think unless your having problems, also maybe someone else can comment on this, but can this be caused by overfilling the ICE oil?

 

*cleaning throttle body and mass air flow sensor

15 minute repair. very common problem i've had with numerous gen. 1 priuses and an easy fix for the lay person. it will cost you under $10 to clean throttle body and mass air flow sensor. throttle cleaner = $5, maf sensor cleaner = $5, use old toothbrush to scrub inside throttle body while rocking the spring back and forth. the details are on here (prius chat) so just search and you'll see the specifics. you don't need toyota for this one.

 

so i took my prius in for the Waterpump recall, and of course after they did that they came up with a list of things they really "recommend" I like to know which one of these are legit, and which are not
my 2005 prius is at 95K miles, mostly highway miles. I don't plan to keep this car for 5 more years or anything like that.

1. cabin filter and air filter. $100. (i can buy these for 10 bucks each and change them easily.)
Yes you can.

2. spark plugs replacements : $200, (i figure i can buy 4 plugs for $40, and get a auto shop to install them for something less than $160 right? )
Do it yourself. It takes about 30min. And plugs are less than $10 a piece.

3. coolant low and diluted, thus they want me to do a "fluid exchange service for $130 ( figure i can just get some antifreeze and top it off? with perhaps 40/60 mix to combat the dilutedness)
I had them just replace mine when they did the recall on one of the pumps.

4. carbon build up on throttle body plate, they want to do a complete fuel air induction service for $150.
is this even necessary?
I have always taken the throttle body off my other cars to clean them. I found that to be the easiest way to get it clean. I have not looked closely at the prius, so that might not be the easiest solution. But i would avoid spraying too much of that stuff in there. If you do clean it, I would do when you are about to change your oil to get that crap out of there as soon as you can.

 

If you spray too much carb cleaner into the throttle body, the car will run rough for a few miles. Not exactly the end of the world, but easy to avoid by spraying the carb cleaner on a toothbrush that you use to scrub the throttle plate, then by spraying some cleaner on a clean rag to wipe the throat of the throttle body and the plate. You rotate the throttle plate manually by turning the spring that lies just outside the throttle body.

The MAF should not be cleaned with carb cleaner because it leaves a film. I remove the MAF from the throttle body (a couple of screws and an electric connection) and put in in a zip-lock baggie with isopropyl alcohol. I hold the MAF and swish the alcohol into the MAF. It comes out spiffy clean.

Your first time will take 15 minutes, subsequent cleanings all of 5 minutes.

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The only dealer 'recommended' service lilryan mentioned that I would hesitate to DIY is coolant exchange for the ICE circuit. Getting all the air out is important and not easy. I'll probably invest in a vacum device for the job, that will cost close to what a dealer charges. At least subsequent exchanges will be much cheaper. I suggest changing out the ICE coolant pump at the same time as the coolant exchange, whether done at the dealer or DIY. Note that the recall was for the inverter coolant pump, which is a separate circuit.

Track down the tutorial for coolant exchanges by Pat Wong. You have to know a couple of tricks to do it right. Lastly, the dealership is full of shit when they say the coolant is 'diluted.' As if they would know. If the reservoir is low then just top it off and keep an eye on the level in case there is a leak, and follow Toyota recc's for exchanges.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I was not suggesting he do this himself. I did not realize it was a seperate circuit. How often should this system be serviced. I have not touched mine since i have owned the car. The car has 135xxx on it now and I bought it with 110xxx. I assume it has never been serviced.