Has anyone ever heard of a Prius trans axle going bad? That's apparently what is going on with my 2008 with 86k miles on it. My mechanic plus techs at two local dealers (Downtown Oakland where they charged me $327 and kept my car for two days and One Toyota where the service manager charged me nothing and just did a short road test) all agree: there is something wrong with my trans axle. The One Toyota guy surmises that the chain in the trans axle has stretched or gotten loose and is hitting the housing as I accelerate. My dilemma is that my car is out of warranty and I certainly can't afford the ~$7,500 repair job. The car still runs, but the wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh noise keeps getting louder. There is no error code or check engine light. I guess I could trade it in but I still owe money on the car. Do I have a shot at getting Toyota to pay? No one I've talked to so far has ever heard of a Prius trans axle going bad. I could play that up, and also play up the fact that I'm a young woman and would hate for my Toyota, which I love, to leave me stranded on the side of the road because my transaxle fell out. Advice?
I don't know; that just feels like giving up. I want to stick it to "the man." There really is no reason my trans axle should have failed. It's not like I drive like a cop or something.
A little late for your situation, but: Toyota really downplays transaxle fluid changes. With 3rd gen the US schedule never calls for a fluid change. In Canada, the one schedule for all their vehicles is basically unreadable: it's not clear what they're saying, might be the same... Anyway, might be worth looking into the service history, see if the fluid was ever changed.
I'm essentially the original owner - I bought it from my mom after she bought it at the end of her three-year lease. It had 38k miles on it then and had never had the trans axle fluid changed. I have only done oil changes and tire rotations every 5k miles. One set of new tires at around 60k miles. New rear struts at around 75k-80k miles. The first stealer I took it to this week (Downtown Oakland) drained the fluid as part of the investigation into The Noise. There was nothing unusual about the fluid, apparently, and the fluid draining was also recommended by the regional service guy after they filed a case with Toyota.
There are several posts that you can find on PriusChat regarding failed transaxles. There aren't very many failures and it appears your car has logged one of the few. In your transaxle's case it sounds like the failure is mechanical in nature, perhaps a failed bearing - vs. an electrical failure such as a burnt out stator winding in one of the two motor-generator units. It sounds like you can drive the car as-is for now. When the transaxle deteriorates further to the point where it needs to be replaced, I agree with the suggestion that you should obtain and install a used transaxle from a salvage yard. It won't hurt for you to contact the Toyota Customer Experience Center to see if they can help, but that likely will be an exercise in futility - at best they may arrange a discounted repair price, like $4K instead of $7.5K.
Happily you are not very far from an independent Prius mechanic with an excellent reputation, Luscious Garage at 475 9th St. in SF. They may be able to resolve this for much less than $7.5k.
Take a look at Luscious Garage | Blog | Gen 2 Prius (2004-2009) Transmission Failure, P0AA6, P0A92, P0A7A Another shop worth considering is Art's Automotive in Berkeley.
I've never personally done business with either, but given how many Priuses Luscious Garage works on, they should be able to diagnose what's wrong and how much. I concur w/Patrick's post. I really hope Toyota's willing to give you a significant break on the cost as it's way too early for the transaxle to fail.
