Hello everyone, I posted a while back regarding the purchase of tools, thanks to everyone who replied to that thread. I finally have acquired everything I need and will start my major maintenance this Thursday. I will be performing the following (preventative) maintenance items (which I don't think have ever been done on this car) on my 2010 Prius with 216K miles on it: 1. Inverter & Engine Coolant Drain/Refill 2. Transmission Fluid Drain/Refill 3. Change Spark Plugs 4. Clean Throttle Body 5. Replace PCV Valve 6. Clean EGR pipe/cooler/valve 7. Clean Intake Manifold I was just wondering what would be the most efficient order to tackle these items in? I don't need to use this car until next week. Thanks!
Just to minimize the number of times you need to remove things, group thus: Since the wipers and cowl come off: 3. Change Spark Plugs 6. Clean EGR pipe/cooler/valve Since the intake manifold comes off: 4. Clean Throttle Body 5. Replace PCV Valve 7. Clean Intake Manifold (Consider installing an Oil Catch Can too) (Note, you do not need to disconnect throttle body coolant lines for this. Just disconnect TB and lift it off and out of the way.) This you might want to do in conjunction with the Plugs and EGR. The EGR has coolant lines, and the drain bolt for engine coolant is round back, more accessible with cowl off: 1. Inverter & Engine Coolant Drain/Refill This you can do any time you've got the car up, say for an oil change, although it should be raised AND level: 2. Transmission Fluid Drain/Refill
Thank you! I noticed that in the nutz and boltz EGR cleaning video some coolant spills out when disconnecting the the EGR, would it be easier to just drain all the coolant before starting that? I don't have any of those pinch clamps right now.
Pinching the hoses is (mostly) pointless, since when you pull the hoses off the the egr cooler the main source of coolant is above, in the coolers: clamped hoses or not, it all pours out of the cooler, lol. You definitely could drain the coolant first, that would resolve the problem. What I did when cleaning the EGR, since I was not planning to change the engine coolant: drain about 2 liters from the radiator drain tap into a clean container (preferably marked with a 2 liter line).. This is enough to drop the coolant level below the EGR cooler and a bit beyond it's connecting hoses. Then when you pull the hoses off nothing comes out. Just be careful when removing the cooler, there's a little coolant trapped in a back corner. Tip it out into your container as well. After you're done, everything reinstalled, leave the coolant bleed bolt open (it's at the very top, above the cooler), and slowly pour the drained coolant back into the reservoir. Squeezing the big radiator hoses a bit as you go might help. When coolant starts coming out of the bleed bolt, close it, and carry on pouring coolant into the reservoir. It should end up slightly high, and with a couple of days driving will be back to normal.
1. Inverter & Engine Coolant Drain/Refill 2. Transmission Fluid Drain/Refill Very independent of other repairs, do when you are waiting for something to do. 3. Change Spark Plugs 5. Replace PCV Valve 6. Clean EGR pipe/cooler/valve All these will be easier/possible if you remove the windshield wipers and their tray. Do them together. 4. Clean Throttle Body 7. Clean Intake Manifold If you search, you will find many threads by unhappy owners who 'thought' they should do these, wait for symptoms of bad running.
UGHH. Worse mistake ever. I was tightening the second ignition coil bolt after replacing the spark plug and the bolt snapped!! Now it's stuck in the engine block and I'm trying to figure out how to get it out. Any suggestions to get it out would be appreciated!
If it didn't bottom out it shouldn't be very tight. It looks like it is protruding a little and I assume you tried gripping it with something and tried turning it. Next, I would get a small sharp chisel and try backing it out with it. Another way is taking a Dremel tool with a cut off wheel and grind a slot in it for a screwdriver and back it out. A little nick in the surrounding aluminum shouldn't be a problem.
Success! So the bolt was bottomed out and was on there pretty tight since it snapped just as I reached the maximum torque value. Thanks for the dremel suggestion, I had to go buy a premium metal cutting wheel for it because my regular one wasn't as precise. The bolt itself was pretty narrow so I didn't have much room for error but I was able to back it out with a flat head screwdriver like you suggested. Thanks again! Now I just have to find the replacement part number for the screw.
Item #2 here: Ignition System for 2010 Toyota Prius | Toyota Parts Did you see the spec'd torque for that bolt somewhere, and miss that it was inch/pound units, not foot/pounds? Someone did that a few years back. Good rule of thumb: if it's a small, "locater" bolt, non-critical, just one-hand it with a ratchet wrench, gripping the ratchet near it's centroid. They don't need much torque.
Thank you for the quick reply kind sir. I also appreciate the advice. I'm usually pretty good at DIY stuff (fixing iPhones etc), but I've never done DIY car maintenance besides the very basics of checking oil levels and tire pressure. I saw on the Nutz and Boltz spark plug video that the torque is listed as 8 ft/lbs so I set my torque wrench the lowest it could go i.e. 10 ft/lbs. Stupid mistake Next time I'll just hand tighten the non-criticals like you suggest. Thanks!
I'm having a hard time finding the torque for that bolt, in the Repair Manual. I did find the very similar MAP sensor hold--down bolt spec, it's 62 inch/pounds. Dividing by 12 to get foot/pounds, that'd be 5 foot/pounds. Yeah things like that, just one hand it, snugging it firmly. I'd like to get a screw driver with 3/8" drive bit on it, they're strangely hard to find in Canada. They're good for stuff like that.
What torque wrench did you used? 1/4? Or 3/8? I’m assuming it’s the 3/8 torque wrench since the lowest you could go was 10 ft. Lbs. For low torque value bolts, I would use the 1/4 torque wrench since they’re meant for low torque bolts so you don’t accidentally strip them.
Hi there! I used a 3/8 torque wrench. I THINK I may have used an extension with the torque wrench when I was tightening ignition coil bolt and I'm reading that this may throw off the torque values. I'm going to try not to use the extensions next time.
I would use a 1/4 torque wrench. I know I didn’t put it in the description but I will put it in so no one gets confused, whoops. But for those small bolts, hand tighten with the tool should be sufficient, just don’t over tighten it since they’re fragile. And always use a 1/4 ratchet to prevent over tightening the small bolts. It happens to the best of us
Something non critical about that bolt I would just take it to the hardware store and get one and maybe a flat washer.
My repair manual shows 7 ft.-lb tightening torque for the little bolts that secure the ignition coil assemblies. It is great that the OP was able to remove the broken part of the bolt. Another possibility might have been to drill a hole into the stud and use a small Easy-Out to remove the stud, if it had broken below the surface of the valve cover.
