Don't Buy a 3rd Gen Prius! - Blown headgasket at 233k

Like the original poster, I want to roll the entire odometer on this vehicle before the entire car rolls over.

 

And it will, with a new head gasket.

 

I also like how they hang around jawing, after applying the form-in-place gasket (are we talking about the same thing?): the clock is ticking, lol.

Maybe Toyota exaggerates, but they recommend to have the cover back on by FIP application +3 minutes, and all bolts torqued by +15 minutes.

Sniping aside, a lot of good tips in the video, by guys that have done a few.

 

Well if you do a search you will also see there are plenty of Gen 3’s that have gone 300k miles with no major problems. Toyota builds some of the best cars out there and getting to 230k plus miles, with very little cost for repairs is amazing.

 

Egr cooler causes most hg problems I think

You must clean it every 100k km

 

Have you had it since new? 233k is a respectable age. I would not complain if my car reaches that. Still 117k and some 10 years to go then.

 

You say you’re all about maintenance, so when did you swap out:

• engine water pump?
• Inverter water pump?
• Thermostat replacement?
• Egr circuit cleanse?
• Hv battery maintenance?
• Trans axle fluid drain and fill?

Some of the above apply to non hybrid cars and would have been required to be done well before 233 k miles. Every car has quirks and things that need to be done to it for it to last.

Before we got the wife’s 2017 RX450h, we had a 98 4runner with 263k miles when we sold it.

But it had valve cover leaks and I had to replace one of the rear axle seals. It didn’t burn oil, but there were things that I did off the maintenance schedule and still got good life out of the car.

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

We need to know if you cleaned the EGR cooler, intake manifold and valve. This seems to always be the culprit. Also, how much oil was she drinking at the time it blew?

 

Yep I agree with bisco " ... times are changing"

 

There's a little more prep involved, but not bad. You'll want to pull off the wipers, their motors/linkage and the metal cowl below, the engine underpanel, and the plastic panelling in the front passenger wheel well. And of course drain coolant.

 

Boom—you will likely find your cooler and valve blocked. There lies your head gasket likely failure.

 

And Toyota's pretty quiet on the subject.

They have a too-little-too-late TSB on the subject, with the phrase "While the majority of vehicles will not experience this problem...".

 

He didn’t respond to my reply regarding to maintenance. Just wondering if even with proper maintenance, will the head gasket go bad to the bone.

 

Long as car is out of warranty and no one will die or safety is not jeopardy, they ain’t budging.

 

Other than coolant replacements, maintenance has zero impact on this issue. Oil changes will not affect the lifespan of the headgasket.

The EGR issue is heavily debatable. I don’t want to sidetrack this discussion too much more than it already has...

 

Try Oxi-Clean soaks, use the hottest tap water you can get, dissolve powdered Oxi as much as possible, cork one end of the cooler, fill it with the solution and let soak about an hour. It'll work on the carbon, bubble it off. Rinse and repeat about 1/2 dozen times.