Newbie. Need advice on buying a used prius.

Because the 2nd gen has a bladder in the gas tank. In cold weather, the bag is cold and does not fully expand because it is stiff. 36mpg hwy drove it hard? Are you carrying a lot of weight? In the winter cars in general don't do so well. 36mpg is low. What weight motor oil is in the car?

Snow tires are not low rolling resistance, low tire pressure, driving on snow, longer warm up times, cold air is dense (creates more drag on car) engine stays on longer to keep temp for engine and in car, winter gas is 2% less efficient than summer gas, batteries do not work as great when cold. Yes, you need new spark plugs.

In my gen3 I drive 80mph 45mpg avg and 65mph 52 mpg with mix of city driving in the winter and have gotten 58.8 in the fall with no ac/heat on 30mph avg speed with people honking at me. As for filling up 8 gallons on empty, not too bad. When my light flashes, I fill up 8.8~10gal.

 

I was going to say that but I did not know whether they had the bladder in Canada too. @Tideland Prius would know.

 

Sometimes I don't look and see where the post is coming from and I don't know if they do or not. Good question and thanks.

 

I have had quiet a few cars myself. 23~25 lost count. So the class and brains come with experience. There are a lot of good people here. The dodge/ford forums are full of hoonigans with sticks poking at the problem, when the problem is clearly circled. I have two vehicles now and keep trying to hold myself back from buying more. I don't have the space and really don't want to pay for extra unnecessary insurance. I personnally think you should only have to pay for one plate and one form of insurance for all the cars you own and drive, I can't drive two cars at the same time Craigslist is full of broken misfit toys(cars) and I just want to buy them cheap and fix to keep. I have done all my own work and have registered and creeped on just about every forum and youtube page. The information is out there but hard to get a straight answer sometimes. There are a lot of experts that do not work on cars throwing opinions around. I love to hear opinions, but without proof, links, documents or pics, I call shens. I have also worked with a lot of mechanics, if they are slow and you bring your car in. Your car will have the most expensive repair because they will find/make-up worst case scenario claims as to why everything needs to be fixed/replaced. Go into a shop when they are slammed, they may fix it quick and misdiagnose problem and you'll be back. Resetting a cel can make the code go away for some miles but can pop up in a couple of miles. I see cars as decaying junk just waiting to break so I stay prepared for anything. I guess I am not surprised anymore with what happens. Every car manufacturer is going to have an electric car in the lineup in 5~8 years, so exciting.

 

Misfires may be either spark plugs or the coils on the plugs. Switching coils around can help troubleshoot that.

 

Might be time to do a compression test and or leak down test on #1

SIDE NOTE see your from Montreal, in the spring and late summer i spend a lot of time in Napierville, ever been there? The drag strip and so on.

 

I can't see the bottom of your Screenshot for some reason. I am missing the number of misfires on number 2 cylinder.

Here is a list from the internet of possible causes of misfires.


This may be due to a vacuum leak,
but it can also becaused by dirty fuel injectors,
a weak fuel pump (low fuel pressure) or a faulty fuel pressure regulator.
It can also be caused my ignition misfire due to worn or fouled spark plugs,
bad spark plug wires,
or weak ignition coil.

From this list you can eliminate some of them because you changed the spark plug and the coil on plug eliminates several more.
If it is only one cylinder you can eliminates weak fuel pump and pressure regulator.
From what I see it looks like dirty fuel injector or a vacuum leak is left.

Vacuum leaks can be checked in several ways, visual inspection is always a good start, some use brake clean and spray around the areas for a possible leak but is flammable, so is using a propane torch. The safest way is with a smoke machine where smoke is introduced to the engine while it is off and you find the leak by following the smoke trail. Check on youtube for these methods.

Checking fuel injectors can be done with some special tools or you can replace one or all of them. I haven't changed one on a Prius so I
cant' tell you how hard it is.

The special tools I am referring to is a pressure gauge and a fuel injector tester. Doing it this way makes sure all fuel injectors are putting out the same amount of fuel. If one is dirty or clogged you can find it this way. A dirty or clogged injector can cause a misfire.

Have you tried fuel injector cleaner in your gas tank?

Like mentioned above a compression test might help.

Some others here may chime in with their ideas.

 

No but it might be a symptom.......of something like worn or stuck rings on that cylinder causing it to "pump" a lot of oil.

Then.....did you just change ONE plug ? From the looks of it, they ALL need to be changed.
And there is a chance that you didn't properly identify "cylinder 1".

 

I would look at a Corolla, a Fit, or a Civic. They are all fine, reliable cars which in my opinion are much simpler to maintain, and less subject to complicated hybrid related problems. I would avoid cars with body rot and/or oil burning. Get a good mechanic to help you.

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My immediate questions would be:

What are you trying to accomplish? The Prius is designed as a low emission economical car. Much of that design relates to the engine modified for an Atkinson cycle. Why use parts from similar, but different engines?