Tedh1979 2005 Prius Project with multiple issues looking for help!

I'm definitely not disagreeing with you. As I've said many times on here that I am still learning about a part of that is learning about different problems of each generation. Some things are generation specific and come things are specific to the year of the Prius. I know that oil consumption issues are a big issue with earlier Gen 3 models along with multiple other problems that weren't listed on the Gen 2. My new engine for my Prius has 132K on it and therefore I hope I wont be dealing with oil consumption issues. Before the engine goes into the car, is there anything I can have my mechanic do to prevent or prolong this issue before installing the engine?

 

What steps can I take to check if the cooling system is functional with the current bad engine? Both the inverter coolant fluid and the regular coolant fluid are both pink and at the "full" level. With the power button pressed twice, I can hear the inverter running.

 

Actually $300 is expensive for a used Prius engine. I could've bought THREE engines for this price, in running condition. I paid extra for this engine for the grade being A and the miles being very low as well as a warranty.

 

Ok guys I have some Prius newbie questions for all of you. I have my Prius parts now, but it's time to order fluids. As many of you know, I buy and sell cars on a part-time basis. I know everyone has their favorite oil type and weight and brand. I always use Fully Synthetic oil in all of my personal cars and even cars that I flip. But I don't use an expensive brand. Walmart sells their "self branded" Fully Synthetic Oil called Super Tech and they even make Super Tech oil filters which I use. My OPINION is that cheap Fully Synthetic is better than expensive conventional oil. What I miss out on all the time though, is that in my area you can get an oil change with Valvoline conventional oil (up to 5 quarts) and a new oil filter and all the labor for $15 or less. Every month, some service center or even multiple service centers, advertise in a booklet that comes in the mail called that Mad Money Coupon Book. What I don't understand is that I call all of these places and say, "You're offering an oil change where you include the 5 quarts of oil and you include the filter and labor for $15, How about if I brought the oil or the oil and oil filter and you just need to provide the labor for the same $15?" Nobody will do this when they find out it is Fully Synthetic Oil. It puzzles me why I can't get a reasonable price on changing oil if I supply the oil and filter. The cheapest I've found is $24 if I supply everything. So if I supply 5 quarts of Full Synthetic and an oil filter for about $20-25 and then pay $24 for labor, that's a $50 oil change. That's not a good deal especially for someone that does this quite often. Therefore I usually change oil myself but my driveway is getting very messy due to oil changes and oil leaks and I'm planning to use concrete cleaner or muriatic acid and my gas pressure washer to clean the driveway soon, and then I'd like to start taking cars in and just having a mechanic change oil from here on out.

Can someone make the case for Full Synthetic VS conventional? And one of the reasons of course that I'm asking is because I want to know what is the best to put in the Prius? What weight, brand, conventional or full synthetic? I plan on taking very good care of the Prius once everything is working again. My mechanic is working on other vehicles for me right now that are more pressing, but the plan is to start the Prius in a few weeks. In the meantime I have purchased the engine, hybrid battery, plugs, gaskets, and wires. My daughter and I have been cleaning the heck out of the Prius. It's been fully vacuumed, carpet shampooed, and detailed on the inside. All the old tree leaves and debris have been cleaned and the car has been washed and waxed. The interior was much dirtier than I thought and now it looks so much better.

Next question, I have owned and flipped cars with green or orange antifreeze and of course now you can put Prestone yellow in either one of them. The Prius is my first car to take the pink coolant. Now Prestone has yellow antifreeze that they advertise as fully compatible with "ALL CARS". But then Prestone also sells a coolant in a small sized 1/2 gallon jug that says "For Toyota Vehicles" but it doesn't say it is PINK. I'm including pics from Walmart where coolant is a good price but are any of these coolants compatible or should I get something else?

And finally, while waiting while my other cars are being worked on, I want to remove the fog from my headlights. They aren't terrible for a 2005, but I want them to be clear. Before all of these headlight lens cleaning solutions hit the market, there used to be a cream that I purchased on eBay and it was cheap and it worked well. You applied the cream to the headlight, waited awhile, and then wiped the cream off with paper towels. And it did a great job and so of course it is no longer available. I've done the Mother's Headlight Restoration Kit and used a cordless drill and expensive cloth and sponge attachments and different types of cream, step 1, step 2, step 3. And it did not do a good job. I've used other similar products as well with average or less than average results. Recently I've seen a TV commercial for a product that you just wipe on and wipe off. It's a disposable napkin for $10 a piece. Does it work? See pic below. I am removing the hybrid battery later next week to return as a core charge and I plan to install the new hybrid battery next week as well. And then of course I'll pull the orange safety plug before the engine swap.

So please, comment on if any of these coolants will work or if I need to get Toyota antifreeze. Let me know about the best oil, weight, conventional or full synthetic. And finally, please comment if any of you have used the headlight restoration wipe as shown below or suggest a headlight restoration that actually works well and is easy to do. Thank you everyone!

 

I drove the 2018 Hyundai Ioniq that I mentioned in an earlier post. My brother-in-law is going to let me drive it for the weekend to see what I think. I was getting over 60MPG but I was driving like a Grandma. 59MPG is the average in the city. I can get it for $14,484 and I was offered $10K for my trade-in which is way more than fair. So that's only a $4000 car loan. But I have had bad luck with Hyundai, engines in particular, and suspension problems all with cars with low miles. Plus the Ioniq for $14,484 is just for that particular car. I don't like the paint color. I wish it had leather and was a limited, but the limited gets 54MPG instead of 59MPG. Free hybrid battery replacements for life. I'm on the fence. Hopefully after driving it for a few days I'll have a better idea. That is awesome that Walmart does headlight restores. I'll go that route. The RAV4 sounds amazing but is outside of my price range. Maybe a used one in the future.

My oil spills on my driveway are due to a Town and Country leaking a huge amount of oil with no warning. It is getting fixed as we speak. And then the Prius had a hole in the engine that I didn't know about so that lead to a huge spill as well. I'm decently clean on changing oil, but sometimes a little gets on the driveway. I have had two people say 5W-30 and you've said 0W-20. I know opinions differ on oil to use for cars. Even my current car, the company changed the recommended oil weight and therefore it's hard to remember what to even put in it.

I ordered Toyota coolant since it lasts a long time anyways. I like Synthetic oil better, but the price to put it in a car makes it double the price. So that's why I am on the fence about Full Synthetic VS Conventional.

 

I understand it is on the cap. And yes I have the Toyota owners manual and the Haynes repair manual and they contradict each other. On my current vehicle, a 2011 Hyundai Sonata Limited Turbo, came with a oil cap that says "5W-30" but when I went to the Hyundai dealer one day for an oil change, they did the oil change and I saw on my invoice that they put in 10W-40. I told them to drain it before I drive it, and put in the correct fluid. I was told that Hyundai changed their recommendation but they refuse to give me an oil cap with the correct listing on it. I have taken the car to multiple places to get oil changes. Walmart puts 5W-30 in it. Hyundai puts 10W-40 in it, Jiffy Lube puts 10W-30 in it. I had to read many posts to figure out what was the best. It was explained that the Hyundai engine was knocking and having oil consumption issues. People were using wildly different oil weights. Looking today, the Castrol website says 5W-30, AutoZone says 5W-40, Hyundai says 10W-40. I was then told if my engine wasn't knocking, to stick to the 5W-30. So I decided to switch to Full Synthetic 5W-30. That leads to another argument. A Full Synthetic oil change is supposed to last much longer than a conventional oil change. AutoZone sells a Full Synthetic oil and filter that is advertised as an "annual" oil change. AutoZone and Walmart both say that I could go up to 10,000 miles on a Full Synthetic Oil Change. Some others say 7500 miles. Hyundai says 6000 miles because they are aware of engine issues. I decided I would do Full Synthetic every 6000 miles, but at 3000 miles I was almost bone dry on oil. My car uses about 1 quart of oil every 700-750 miles. And the car has less than 70K on it. Hyundai blamed my issues on me because I chose to use the oil recommended on the cap, 5W-30 and I went Full Synthetic. Hyundai service said if I were to have always used 10W-40 conventional from them, I wouldn't have an oil consumption issue. I am calling BS. I have taken my car into my mechanic and there is nothing "wrong" with the car, it is just having an oil consumption issue. My car is having a Turbo Waste Gate issue which may make the oil consumption worse, but once adjusted, the car will still consume oil. My Turbo Waste Gate issue is effecting my gas MPG to get poor results and poor performance. The mechanic is going to adjust the waste gate rod which should make this issue better again, because this car has had this problem with the Turbo Waste Gate 4 times since I've owned it. I bought it with 41K and it is just shy of 70K, so the Turbo Waste Gate issue has been very problematic, but the oil consumption issue is a whole other issue and I am being blamed for using the oil recommended on the cap. That is why I am really interested, especially in Prius vehicles with high mileages, what oil are people using to get 300K?

 

@VFerdman I'm not trying to make it complicated, I'm just trying to make sure it is right. And sometimes there are more than one right way to do things. I want to go with the way to achieve the best results. I do complicate things during research so that I can achieve the best answer by popular vote. I work hard during the day, but at night I have no problem sitting down and spending extra time to make sure I do the best thing possible.

On cars that I sell, I obviously don't care as much. I don't spend time researching like I am for a Prius. I want to learn about Hybrid cars. I have the Ioniq sitting in my driveway. I am under no pressure to buy it. I do think it's nice. There are definitely some advantages over the Prius. But my last two personal vehicles have been Hyundai vehicles and they have put a sour taste in my mouth. My brother-in-law is the sales manager there and would like to change my opinion of Hyundai, but it is hard to erase the past. I bought a brand new 2012 Elantra and it got hit by lightning and was never reliable after that. It constantly would shut off and therefore would lose steering and acceleration right in the middle of traffic. But that wasn't the main issue. The car engine always knocked from day one and I was told it was "normal". The engine blew at 38K despite dealer oil changes every 3,000 miles. Now my Sonata Turbo eats a quart of oil every 700-750 miles which makes using Full Synthetic very expensive.

You have said something helpful tonight that nobody has mentioned. You are using a "high mileage" oil and are getting less oil consumption. I've always used either conventional or synthetic. I've never tried the high mileage oil. I found a thread about oil recommendations, brand, weight, type, etc. Most people use Mobil 1. I think the majority of people from what I read also use 5W-30. But there are multiple posts from people that also use 0W-20. A couple posts say the dealer recommends 0W-20. That is confusing. And then there are some that make no sense. 0W-30 and 5W-40. And again most people use Mobil 1 but some people really go all out. Royal Purple? I know how much that stuff costs! I used to own a 1988 Jaguar XJ6. It used 12 quarts of oil and a very weird weight. I could only get it ordered from Royal Purple. It was almost a $200 oil change that I did myself. Yeah it ran as quiet as any engine I've ever heard, but that's crazy. The other thing that is weird to read is how often people change their oil. While 5000 miles is recommended, some do it every 2500 miles and one post if from a user that uses an expensive oil and only changes it every 17,500 miles.

I think I am going to do Mobil 1 high mileage and change it every 5000 miles. Here is the thread where so many people disagree on what oil to use on the Prius. Maybe some people live in a certain climate and therefore 0W-20 may be recommended there? In my state, we get hot Summers and very cold Winters. Oil type recommendation. | PriusChat