100,000 Mile Servic...

Oil and filter change, tire rotation, visual brake inspection, and engine coolant change.
Excerpt from your Warranty & Maintenance Booklet:

 

I’d run to another dealer or find an independent shop tomoerform the service if not inclined to perform the service yourself .

It is around Easter and they have bills due based on that quote.

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

engine and inverter fluid aint cheap, will be interesting to see what you can find for better pricing.

i think my guy would be similar.

 

I find as a good rule-of thumb for pricing, as an excercise, consider if you were to do the service yourself, the effort and expense. Obviously the dealership has tough/smart mechanics, full lifts, experience, but all that stuff doesn't grow on trees. They have a lot of things to contend with: business license, retail location, equipment, wages, and on and on.

Personally, doing that exercise:

1. Oil and filter change: I do this with bulk Toyota 0W20, and dealership purchased filter and drain bolt replacement washer. For access I would chock the rear wheels, raise the front and settle it onto safety stands and remove the engine under-cover. From start to finish, at least an hour, more like two, since I dawdle.

2. Tire rotation: To do this I partially loosen all lug nuts, chock the rear wheels, raise the front and settle onto safety stands, raise the rear and settle onto safety stands, remove wheels (sometimes sledge hammer wack on the back required to break them loose...), visually inspect brakes, inspect all tire tread, clean and dress the hubs with a very light application of anti-seize compound, sreinstall wheels in new locations, install lug nuts loose, lower car and torque all lug nuts. From start to finish, at least two hours.

3. Engine coolant change: Haven't as yet done this on the Prius. Maybe watch the @NutzAboutBolts video on this, pinned at top of third gen maintenance forum. I've done coolant changes on previous cars. Some thoughts:

Draining the radiator is easy, but engine drain bolt access is tricky. The latter might be a waste of time, from what I've read here, but since the Repair Manual says to do it, I think I would least try, the first time. Engine drain bolt (actually just a sort of spigot) is around the back of the engine, visible from below, and hopefully reachable, if you remove the aluminum underpanel just aft of the engine underpanel. Also, I read some time back here, that removiing one of the hoses on the exhaust coolant heating system will drain more coolant.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Judging considering the first-time hassles of trying different drain locations, and from from watching @NutzAboutBolts video, the need to put the car in maintenance mode after adding new coolant, and do protracted warm up idling, topping up and monitoring level at the reservoir, I'd probably fritter away 3~4 hours on this.

Summing up, if I wanted to avoid the above, pay professionals a fair wage (not loss-leader amounts, where they low-ball you with a basic service, then hard sell on extras, and pad the bill with "shop supply" and various extras), it'd be something like this:

Oil and filter change: $90 (USD)
Tire rotation: $60 (at least, this is a back breaker...)
Engine coolant change: $200

In total, around $350, maybe round up to $400.

Forgot, my costs break-down, all prices in CDN dollars:



And again, hours, for me, to do items one through three: close to a full eight hour day. And a sore back...

 

what happen to the inverter fluid?

 

i pay $90. for oil change, $20. for tire rotation, but he doesn't torque them, so i have to break them at home and retighten, so i don't get stuck in an emergency

a thorough inspection, properly done, has to be with something

 

If you read through the schedule real careful, follow the footnotes, it's 10 years or 100K miles for the engine coolant, but another 5 years or 50K miles for the inverter fluid. From thereon, it's 5 years or 50K miles for both.

 

Aren't there torque sticks for impact wrenches? Are they effective? Maybe @NutzAboutBolts knows; I think he was using them in one of his videos, likely the tire rotation one.

If he's going fast and not cleaning the hubs and dressing with a little anti-seize, you might also find the wheels stuck on. This is more common with alloy rims, dissimilar metals maybe. You take all the lug nuts off, and: nothing happens, lol. It's really solidly glued on there.

My trick for removing them (at home, in garage with tools at hand) is to leave one lug nut in very loose, at twelve oclock, put a short section of 4/4 timber against the base of the tire at the inside face (the wheel just clear of the slab), then wack the the timber with a sledge hammer.

An on the road trick: put all the lug nuts on, slightly loose, then lower the car, hopefully will the car weight will break the bond. If not, bounce that corner up/down, pushing. If still nothing, drive it an few feet back and forth, hopefully works.

 

Both of these on a Gen3 are drain and fills and require very little skill but some tools.

Having done the inverter coolant yesterday while doing an oil change, the oil change was more difficult.

But i paired the inverter loop change with a preventatively replaced inverter water pump .

A bit fiddly but it was done without pulling the inverter and done in under 2 hours.

 

not much point to comparing diy to shop charges. best you can do is shop around for qualified prices

part of what drives the price up is the reluctance of many shops to work on hybrids, or screwing up the job because they don't read instructions. (maybe they can't read)

leaving a limited supply of qualified shops.

 

There are a fair bit of qualified shops in the greater Long Beach Area to work on hybrids. So that won’t be a barrier to getting the work done.

 

what do you think a realistic price will be?

 

Billable time for the inverter fluid swap should be no more than an hour then add a half quart of fluid to the bill. Engine loop can be done in tandemas well as the engine oil, so the hours should overlap (or I would hope since it is all in the same area and they should have plenty of drain equipment available).

Not sure how much north of $500 we are talking, but if I heard a bill north of $300 I’d be shopping around.

 

The inverter coolant (in the States) isn't due for another 5 years or 50K miles. FWIW, the Canadian schedule makes no distinction, says to change 'em both at 100K or 10 years.

And yet...: there's this sticker on the side of our inverter coolant reservoir: