I pick up my 2010 Prius 3 Thursday. I'm nervous and excited. I'll get better pics once I clean her up and personalize a bit. This forum has helped so much already. I've been reading through posts to help me decide the best car to go with in my price range and what to look for. This 2010 was a one owner with 104k miles and kept current on all scheduled maintenance. I've had horror stories with used cars recently and I really need a car that will renew my faith so to speak. Looking forward to learning more! I think my first stop will be the Toyota dealership since I'm buying it from a Mercedes-Benz dealership. I feel like I need a walk-through!
Welcome to PriusChat! You'll find lots of knowledgeable folk here, and most of them are only too happy to share their extensive knowledge and experience with others!
Congrats and welcome. Hopefully, your Toyota dealer will know something about the Prius. From what I've read here, most do not. Looks like a great color if you'll be driving around in Lexington. Not a perfect match, but fairly close.
Welcome! If you need a walkthrough, feel free to ask here. Did you get 2 key fobs with the car? IF not, your first priority should be to purchase a new one. It is much easier and less expensive to program a fob when you have a working one. In addition to the normal scheduled maintenance, there are a couple of other preventative maintenance items recommended here, especially if you are a do-it-yourself person. Changing the coolants in the two systems is a good item to add. Some people here have added an oil catch can to the engine to avoid cold engine knock and expensive engine repairs later. For those who have more maintenance funds, the Prolong battery reconditioning system from Hybrid Automotive is excellent for extending the life of the large traction battery.
Thanks so much. My first mistake I made already. The listing at the dealership had it advertised as a 3. Once I realized I was missing some features I looked up the VIN number again and realized it was actually a two. Oh well. I still think I got a decent deal on it. One thing I will be calling the dealership on though is that the air bag off light is on. Is this a common issue?
When we test drove it there was no indication that anything was wrong. However, when we got home my husband noticed that it said passenger airbag off when he was sitting in the seat with his seat belt on. The seat belt warning does not go on when the passenger belt is undone. This leads me to believe that the weight sensor is not working. Thankfully the dealership will be having it brought to their Toyota affiliate to look at and hopefully service. Fingers crossed.
There are procedures in the Repair Manual for checking and recalibrating the Occupant Classification System. It's more than a simple weight sensor, it's intended to be able to distinguish between female/male/child/luggage in the passenger seat, and control the airbags accordingly. It uses a few strain gauges near where the seat mounts. It can be un-calibrated if the seat's been removed and reinstalled. It can also be fooled by objects behind or under the seat leaning or bearing against it. The system seems to have classified your husband as luggage. Have you checked to make sure he isn't luggage? -Chap
Sadly it's more grey than the blue shown under the dealer light. It's winter grey. My dad is a big UK fan so I'm sure I'll have something representing UK at some point lol.
The seatbelt warning can be customized, and a previous owner may have elected to turn it off. A dealership, or even anyone with a ScanGauge or similar OBDII-port monitor-programmer, can turn it back on. But the passenger airbag indicator should still function correctly, that display is not customizable.
It ended up being the seat belt buckle switch. An easy fix had I known what the issue was at the time. Glad it's fixed and my passengers will be safe now in the event of an accident. I've attached a diagram of the sensors that I found.
I don't know if you heard about the 2010 model having oil consumption issues after 100k miles. It probably doesn't happen to all of the 2010's but it seems to me that 2010 is more likely to have this issue than all other Prius model years. If you're planning on keeping the 2010 it would probably be a good idea to check the oil level whenever you fuel up your car, in fact if you haven't checked it yet now would be a good time, just make sure the car has been off for at least a few hours before you check it. If the oil on the stick is low I'd return the car to the dealer immediately if I were you before your warranty runs out. I have some links to threads made about the 2010's issue with oil consumption but I need a few more posts before I can post links and I need to wait like a day as well. I hope your 010 doesn't have this issue.
Welcome to PriusChat! Here is a shorter user guide to get you started before you dig into the huge owners manual from Toyota John's Stuff - Toyota Prius User-Guide I hope you enjoy your Prius as much as I have mine.
