2012 Prius 3 maintenance suggestions.

Drain and fill (change) the transaxle fluid if you plan on keeping the car for a while. Correct fluid is ATF WS.

There are several threads on this site discussing the need and procedure. Almost as simple as an oil change if you have the means of lifting and leveling the car, 10mm hex wrench, funnel and 3 ft of 3/8 inch tubing, and 2 aluminum crush washers for the drain and fill bolts.

 

i would just go with the o/m recommendations. do you have the service history? if not, probably change the oil and filter, look at the cabin and air filters. rotate the tyres and inspect fluid levels, brakes and etc.

 

Well the -first- thing you should do is go to your Toyota dealer and ask the service dept. to print you out a maintenance report. It will tell you what -has- been done. Take your VIN #. That will give you a valid starting point. Then peruse the owners manual re "required" maintenance.

To do oil changes you will need a filter wrench, a very large socket device. Online is the least expensive place to buy one. It's a cartridge type filter, and you have to unscrew the "can", a composite thing that holds the cartridge. The filter comes with a new "O" ring for it. You should also buy a few (five or so) plastic push-pins that are used to fasten the oil change door on the undertray. They get jammed with grit and can break when you try to remove them. You need to lift the car about 18" min. to get under there and open that door. I built ramps for that out of wood.

I would not recommend trying to change the coolant yourself. To do it properly you need to turn on and off pumps and valves with the Toyota tech tool.

Cabin filter is easy. It's behind the glove box. Just empty the glove box, depress the sides in to release the "catches", unhook the damper and let it hang down. It pulls off the hinges if you want to remove it. Then you can see the filter on the air plenum. It pulls out. Inspect inside for leaves etc.

Brake fluid change is something many people ignore, but it should be changed. Some leave it for 5 years, some change it every 2. Again, dealer job. Tech tool required.

-DO- closely inspect the "boots" on the drive shafts when you are under there. There are four. Hunt them down and use your fingers to check for tears in the pleats. If you catch it early enough it will save replacing the CV joint.

I use white lithium spray grease on the hinges and latches.

That's about all there is for routine maintenance as I recall.

 

Notice bisco says "look" at the filters. I would do that up front, they may be fine. I'd be more concerned with engine filter than cabin too. If cabin filter is just a bit grubby try blowing it out.

 

David, few comments:

1. Personally I prefer to take the whole cover off. It goes surprisingly fast, there's 6 bolts near the front, and about 10 plastic push-in fasteners. The local flap at the oil pan can be loosened and bent back at a hinge point, but Toyota has spec'd a thin/brittle plastic, so I gave up on that. Also, removal of the whole panel is pretty much necessity if you want a good view of the drive shafts (as you mentioned). The repair manual recommends removing the entire panel, fwiw.

2. Whenever I remove the panel for an oil change, and that's been 10 times now, I take the handful of plastic fasteners in the house, rinse them out thoroughly in hot soapy water, then shake the water off them. I've yet to need to replace one. The fasteners are interchangeable, EXCEPT for two at the oil flap door. At least on our car, the center pins on those are a distinct grey colour. I marked them, and the surrounding panel, with a white marker, basically as reminder. They're also obviously bigger than the rest.

3. Purely editorial: did you mean to say 8", not 18"?

More oil change tips:

a) A paint can opener tool is very handy with the plastic fastener removal. As well as a slim blade screw driver, for some circumstances. The paint can tool looks like this:




(You may need to file the blade corners slightly narrower)

b) The drain bolt washers I get at the dealership have a purplish coating on both sides. This makes them very prone to glue onto the oil pan when you unscrew the drain bolt. I'd suggest to back out the drain bolt a couple of turns, then break the washer loose with a slim, flat blade screw driver (and maybe a hammer), then remove the bolt (and washer) the rest of the way.

c) The first time you deal with someone else's handywork, you MAY encounter over torqued drain bolt or filter housing. Be sure to get a solid oil filter socket. The dimensions are 64.5 mm inside face-to-face, 14 face. They're available from the dealership I would think, and there's several types on the 'net. FWIW, I'm using a standard Honda oil filter socket, it's exactly the same size, works fine.

Also very handy is a quality "breaker bar" style wrench, something around 18" long, makes removal very easy and uneventful. That is if it's been properly torqued the previous time (18 lb/ft). If it's severely over-torqued, the sudden jolts of an impact wrench may be helpful, but cross that bridge when you come to it.

You'll notice in the attachment from the Repair Manual, they go on about a little clip beside the oil filter housing, as well as some complicated instruction regarding unscrewing the cap to a certain orientation, then tipping to drain the oil, then proceeding. In my experience the clip does nothing, and does not get in the way. And when unscrewing the housing, just go slow when it's nearly free, let the oil drain a bit, no big deal.

The drain bolt torque spec is 27 lb/ft, and filter housing is 18.

d) When refilling with oil, I would suggest to put in the spec'd quantity. With oil filter change, that's 4.2 liters, 4.4 (US) quarts. Don't rely on the dipstick at this point, it'll be very difficult to read. Maybe just eyeball to confirm there IS oil on it, but just leave it for a day or two, to colour up a bit, and then check carefully, flipping it over, looking at both sides. For some reason, maybe due to curves in the dipstick tube, it's very smear-prone.

 

Modern coolant is very long lived -- no need to change it early unless the system has been compromised. When you do -- use only Toyota fluid -- or the Aisin OE coolant (they make it). It's cheap and you don't want to mix.

Same with the trans -- Toyota or Aisin WS

The brake fluid is Dot3 it's not as susepatbel to water intrusion as the 4e -- it is fine in a closed system for upwards of 5 years. (one that has never been touched) I always do a simple flush when I change pads .. with the Prius this can be an extended interval granted.

 

Yeldogt, have you flushed brake fluid on Prius yet? If so how'd that go? I've heard it'll trigger warnings, especially without techstream.

 

Due to some responses here, I had the dealership do the brake fluid flush for me. Too much at stake if I mess up. (Actually, I have the dealership do everything for me because I'm getting too old to crawl under my car. But the brake fluid flush was, is and always will be a little too dangerous for me).

For the OP, take a good look at the color of your brake fluid, not just the level. I'm told that the reddish color means it's time to get it changed. Heck, just compare it to the color of new brake fluid.

Mike

 

No. We have two Prius and now a Lexus CT -- even the higher mile Prius still has almost 1/2 the pad surface at 122k. Rears are a bit more. That one will be 4 years old in January. I'm not touching the brake system -- It's best to leave it alone. At the five year mark I will have the brakes serviced -- that will included replacing both sets of Pads and the fluid. Currently the rotors are almost "as new" . If I do the fluid and both sets of pads -- unless something else would fail .. that service will take the car out until the end of it's expected life.The Prius does need a scan tool -- and my dealer does what looks like an old school push through vs using a power bleeder. Modern brake systems have enough fluid in the reservoir to account for the extra needed as the pad wear and the piston moves closer to the rotor -- you don't need to top it up ....leave it alone.

On a conventional system with DOT3 -- I always have the service tech open the bleeder and take some fluid out when the pads are replaced -- this gets out any water that may have settled in the line. There are few places for any intrusion -- with the DOT3 .. best to leave alone.

 

the 1st thing I did when I got my used Prius was to make sure all the recalls and specially the inverter recall was done.