Engine/Inverter Coolant Service Cost

I'm not sure reasonable cost and dealership can be used in the same sentence

But kidding aside, I paid $192.00 for engine and inverter coolant replacement last November at my dealer. I'm not sure how involved the inverter replacement might be, so can't really judge if it's reasonable, but it does seem a bit high.

 

Watch @NutzAboutBolts videos (pinned at top of 3rd gen maintenance forum), he does both the engine and coolant changes. This'll give you an idea of the complexity, and even if you're not into DIY you'll appreciate how long it should take the dealership. I would guesstimate $100 plus cost of coolant.

Note too: your (US) schedule says:



But if you go to that footnote "3", there's this:



Sneaky, but what it's saying, is that the engine coolant is to be changed at 100K miles or 10 years, but the inverter coolant you can leave till 150K miles or 15 years. Also, subsequent changes for both, are at 50K miles or 5 years.

FWIW, the Canadian printed schedule make no distinction, says to change both at 160K km's (100K miles) or 10 years, and subsequent changes are per the US schedule. And just to confuse matters further, there's this sticker on the side of our inverter coolant reservoir:

 

For both, that seems pretty reasonable. I wonder if they would access and open the engine block drain? That would probably necessitate removal of the cowl (see @NutzAboutBolts spark plug video). Probably not, and by all reports, it's somewhat a waste of time, hardly anything drains?

 

Yeah verify. Also, you could postpone the inverter coolant change? Here's some info if you go with your mechanic:

 

Has some one changed coolant for Prius C? I only drained about 1 gallon coolant from my 2012 Prius C (including the radiator, the inverter, and the reservoir). I know that some coolant still remains in the engine block, but this is still way less than the total coolant capacity. Is this normal? How much did you drain from your Prius C?