I searched around and could not find an answer to this: Has anyone replaced the upper radiator hose on a gen 2 (the one on the drivers side that looks like a real pain to get to where it connects to the engine)?
Yeah that looks tough. Maybe loosen up the Inverter coolant reservoir enough to get to it. May have to take alot of stuff off so make it worth your time. Your in the pcv valve area and pretty close to replacing the plugs so if your in there catch those too. Go to techinfo.toyota.com and subscribe. You can get access to all the shop manuals on a per day charge. Print away.
I haven't replaced the radiator hoses. However I am wondering what makes you think the hose needs to be replaced. Do you see cracks, or is it not pliable when squeezed?
Just doing some maintenance on my '07 Prius since the engine water pump just went bad. Car has 180k miles now so also doing engine coolant, tensioner pulley, thermostat, serpentine belt. Uncertain when the inverter water pump was replaced (I think prior owner may have replaced it once), so doing the inverter pump, the inverter coolant, and transaxle fluid. Since I was dumping all the coolant, I picked up 2 radiator hoses. The shorter one on the passenger side looks ok to swap. The longer driver side hose looks impossible to get to the end at the engine. Being the hoses are likely 12 yrs old (seem fairly pliable), should I pursue replacing them? Wondering if I could somehow just loosen the inverter mounting to get some room to remove/connect the hose at the engine? Any suggestions? BTW, removing the inverter water pump was like some kind of puzzle getting it out of the engine bay cavity. Ended up fishing it out just in front of the inverter driver side front corner, near where the radiator hose connects.