Don't know what to believe about ICE coolant change

don't go to minekey. shop more dealers and look around for a savvy hybrid mech, it aint that hard, but the engine coolant can be fussy.

 

There are NO Universal coolant, all vehicle stuff!

Each vehicle manufacture has different cooling requirements based on corrosion protection, service life, and other factors. These requirements get communicated to the coolant manufacture, who in turn manufactures the specific formulation for the vehicle manufacture. Yes, this will cost a little bit more than a "universal" coolant.

READ:

What are the Different Types of Antifreeze and Can I Mix Them?
Can you use universal antifreeze? — Ricks Free Auto Repair Advice Ricks Free Auto Repair Advice | Automotive Repair Tips and How-To
Universal Coolants: The Ultimate Answer?​

1) Meineke will MOST likely screw up the drain/fill. Even the dealership mess this up sometimes.
2) Call more shops (dealer/non-dealer) for pricing.
3) Search for discount service coupons online at various dealers and non-dealer shops.
4) Supply your own Toyota SLLC
5) You can always DIY.

 

Well for starters, any shop that says:

Upfront, before you've even booked, is being VERY cavalier with potential customers. I wouldn't bother arguing with them. And I would stick with Toyota Super Long Life Coolant. The Owner's Manual isn't insistent that you use it, but almost: their description of what an alternative should be will make your head spin:

Was it $1000, or $800? Either is robbery; don't really care. Try another dealership?

Or..., take a break, watch some videos, the DIY engine and inverter coolant change videos, by @NutzAboutBolts, here:

Nutz About Bolts Prius Maintenance Videos | PriusChat

And some reading:

 

Also, if you got anything on paper or email, with that $1000 (or $800) quote, maybe forward the info to Toyota USA; they might be interested. That might be wishful thinking though.

 

Buy a bottle of TSLLC, a turkey baster and find an empty gallon jug. Suck a baster full of fluid (or two) out of the reservoir, stick it in the empty jug. Refill the reservoir with the new SLLC. Do it every couple days until the empty gallon jug is full. You've now swapped out enough fluid to essentially refresh it. Dispose of the old fluid at a local disposal station, parts store, estc. Send me half of the 1k you saved. Sounds like a win-win to me.....

 

Those outrageous prices usually include a "flush", which in reality is nothing but running clear water through the system with a garden hose.
You might want to ask your dealer what they charge for a simple drain and re-fill......without the flush.

 

Also at your vehicles ago and mileage interval your ICE water pump is potentially suspect. Visually, check for the tell-tale signs of coolant leaking from the pump (pint crusted material near the pump, on the inside of the belt pulley, or a pink stripe of dried coolant on the underside of the hood/bonnet). Generally you can expect about 70,000 miles out of one ICE's water pumps before the seals start leaking. This information combined with the lack of coolant service your ICE has experienced will only contribute further to the ICE's water pump eventual failure. I only mention all this so that you are not caught off guard by whomever you have service the ICE's coolant if they were to notice any of the same indicators or others that I suggested above.

 

I would really hope they don't do that, for a couple of reasons:

1. It completely messes up the coolant percent, and makes it nigh impossible to restore, with Toyota Coolant already pre-mixed to 50% (55% in Canada).

2. Ethylene glycol very likely flushed into storm sewers.

 

It's not unusual to look around a shop and see a machine like this in the corner, which they'll be using to do the flush and fill. Skimming the instructions, it works by pumping in new coolant (not water), forcefully and in the reverse direction of normal flow, displacing the old coolant out of the system (and continuing until the new coolant runs clean, having carried away any rust and scale.



The machine manufacturers can even offer chemicals like this for use during the flush. Strangely, I haven't found anything (in the manual for the machine, or for the chemicals themselves) explaining what to do with them. I'm guessing they're just added to the new coolant going in; there's nothing in the manual about a 'flush' step that is separate. So then you've got the chemicals in there when you're done. (Maybe somebody else can find the instructions I didn't find.)

So the chemicals are supposed to be a "rust, scale and other contaminants" remover, and a "water pump lubricant and rust preventative." But these are essentially the same things Toyota already supplies in their SLLC coolant, and the ones Toyota puts in the SLLC are the right ones.

And there really shouldn't be much, if any, rust or scale in the system needing to be flushed out, as long as you keep up with coolant changes often enough that the preventatives built into the coolant have not lost effectiveness.

And that can be checked with a dip of a test strip.



If the strip shows it's time, I'd typically buy a couple jugs of SLLC at the dealer, drain my old into a bucket, refill with new, and take the bucket of old to the county waste station. Then I could go spend $800 on something fun, I guess.

 

The air bubbles are a concern with coolant change, but there are videos out there for nearly everything these days.

Caveats: I did review the video briefly and it seems to be accurate but I've never done this in a G2.
I would TOTALLY DIY this, and almost every other maintenance item with this car.

The G2 Prius is a real money saver at the pump.
DON'T give it back at the dealer....

 

Agree plenty of good how-to vids on da Youtube. reedjasond, and Luscious Garage are a couple channels to pull up and watch. Patrick Wong on PC has done meticulous How-To's especially on the ICE water pump. It was my go to reference when I did mine. Buy the Lisle No-Spill funnel it will aid greatly in removing any trapped air in the system. If you have an air compressor or access to an air compressor the Airlift as shown in the Luscious Garage vid is the hot ticket. A laptop loaded with Toyota's Techstream and a cloned mini VCI cable can be useful as well but not entirely necessary.

 

In my Gen 3, it seems like Toyota really succeeded in getting the air bleed process dialed in. I've got one of the early ones that does have the bleed valve at the highest hose point; apparently later in Gen 3 they decided the procedure worked well enough even without that.

The Gen 3 reservoir has a special "B" mark a bit above "MAX", and they seem to know to a science how much trapped air is going to come out, because you fill up to the B mark, run the engine through the prescribed bleed procedure, burp the hoses some, shut everything down, and see that the fluid level ended up right at MAX as exactly as if you set it there yourself.

The Gen 2 system is still a bit more fiddly. It has the old-style reservoir bottle which is only for overflow, instead of being a permanent part of the circulation the way it is in Gen 3 (known as a "degas" bottle, where the trapped gas naturally ends up as the coolant flows through it).

Gen 2 does have a bleed valve on top of the radiator at the car's left side, opened with a hex key. The OEM radiator has a nice hose nipple there too, so you can fit a little hose on it and direct the escaping coolant into a jug while bleeding. Some aftermarket radiators have the valve but no nipple, so the OEM rad was ever replaced with one of those, procedure is more like, open the valve and add coolant until it runs down the side of the radiator onto your shoes.

But with enough patience, the process is just a matter of following the directions, running the engine and heater and cycling the thermos as directed, shaking and squeezing hoses, and eventually you're not hearing the sound of flowing bubbles and it's pretty much done.

One other thing, because the Gen 2 overflow bottle isn't part of normal circulation, it's kind of a backwater; if you're going to test the coolant with a test strip, best to get it from the radiator neck.

 

Yeah, those first quotes were too crazy.