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Prius Gen1 - to buy or not to buy (2 dead modules)

Discussion in 'Generation 1 Prius Discussion' started by vk1, Jun 8, 2020.

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  1. ammdb

    ammdb Active Member

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2019
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    Location:
    Indianapolis
    Vehicle:
    Other Electric Vehicle
    Model:
    N/A
    - Spark plugs, yes.
    - Flush/replace inverter coolant, yes. (When Toyota worked on my car they didn't do such a good job bleeding the air, so I had to keep an eye on the reservoir for a couple of days, and added coolant a few times to get it back up to the fill line.)
    - Replace transmission oil and clean pan, yes. I haven't done this yet, but here's the post about it. Gen1 tranny service DO IT NOW! | PriusChat
    - Soak engine in sea-foam, no clue -- sounds sketchy

    (Disclaimer, I'm not a mechanic, just another gen-1 owner.)

    Also, clean throttle body.
    My IC engine wasn't running right, and stalled right after staring when cold. After a mechanic cleaned the throttle body it ran properly. This might help fix your misfire issue.
     
    #21 ammdb, Jul 12, 2020
  2. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 14, 2012
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    Location:
    Wellington, New Zealand
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
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    ... and after doing that disconnect the 12 V battery to return all the "learned" values in EMC (engine management computer) back to their inial base-line values.
     
    #22 dolj, Jul 13, 2020
  3. vk1

    vk1 New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2020
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    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Vehicle:
    2001 Prius
    Model:
    Base
    Thanks @dolj and @ammdb. I'll be sure to disconnect the 12v before and after. Based on @3prongpaul's post I bought four DENSO # 3324 Iridium LONG LIFE Spark Plugs -- SK16R11, anti-seize, and a torque wrench. Hope this addresses the misfire issue. The mechanic that did the battery work cleaned the throttle body already, and my friend looked at it and said it looked fairly clean. He also replaced one injector, and I did not ask which cylinder he replaced it on.

    Bernie from eLearnAid recommended I use Cataclean in the gas tank to right the catalytic converter. The car already passed the smog, but I would hate to have a bad cat. We will see!

    I'm not sure about the whole fluid snake oil solutions, but I'm hoping the seafoam soak helps with the misfire as well. I will try using Bernie's guide. It's basically taking out the plugs and soaking the pistons in seafoam to remove the debris in the rings. Can this be causing the misfire? Absolutely not... but maybe the excess oil in the chamber due to the debris on the rings is causing it? Here is the forum post for that: Seafoam Piston Soak | PriusChat

    For @ammdb when you took your car to get serviced at the dealer, how much did they charge you for the coolant?

    Eventually, I want to take it to the dealer and have someone look at the car and perform a visual inspection...

    [​IMG]
     
    #23 vk1, Jul 13, 2020
  4. dabard051

    dabard051 Tinkerer-in-Charge

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Rochester, NY USA
    Vehicle:
    2002 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    vk1, congrats, and welcome to the senior vehicle citizen's maintenance society.
    You seem to have done most of the hard stuff. Before you invest a lot more money in subsystem replacement, treat your car to new air filter, new cabin air filter (it's deep in the glove box; your nose will thank you) , half a tank of premium fuel and a 20oz bottle of Techron, then take a nice long ride. The techron and premium fuel plus continuous operation will clean out a lot of the crud that normally builds up in stop-and-go operation of the IC engine.
    If the air conditioned air smells funky, the evaporator coils may need cleaning. There is some stuff called FJC5914 (you may have to hunt around for it; not widely available) that you spray up through the AC drain hose (passenger side, under the car, near the sway bar). Read the directions; a bit tedious, but well worth it.
    <edit: i see this stuff was mentioned above, but I'll still mention it >
    There is some stuff called Cataclean which might help with the P0420 code for a while, but is not a permanent fix. Depends on driving habits and gasoline quality.
    Read the Cataclean directions. Carefully. Then read them again. Then do.
    Good luck with your new project.
     
    #24 dabard051, Jul 13, 2020
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2020
  5. ammdb

    ammdb Active Member

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2019
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    Location:
    Indianapolis
    Vehicle:
    Other Electric Vehicle
    Model:
    N/A
    I don't recall the cost. It was one of the few times I took the car to the dealer, and wanted it checked over and all the maintenance done before my kids took the car to college.

    I read the inverter pump could go out, causing damage to the inverter, and changing the coolant would help to prevent this.
     
    #25 ammdb, Jul 13, 2020
  6. vk1

    vk1 New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2020
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    2
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    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Vehicle:
    2001 Prius
    Model:
    Base
    I changed the sparkplugs, and learned quite a bit in the process, such as how to use a torque wrench, etc.

    It turns out the spark plugs were likely all originally changed by the mechanic. They were not Denso ones, so I put properly-gapped Denso plugs.

    Here are the old plugs:
    [​IMG]

    There was a lot of seafoam after I ran the engine without the plugs to get the excess liquid out. The engine ran fine after the soak, and lots of white smoke came out of the tailpipe. I wouldn't say there was a major effect on the problems I am having.

    The oil did show signs that it captured a lot of carbon deposits however. It's clear seafoam removes carbon deposits, but it's not clear that the misfires or other issues are caused by that at all.

    This did not fix any of the issues however. I decided to continue the thread here:
    2002 Prius, P0420, 37.4MPG, Misfires, High RPM | PriusChat
     
    #26 vk1, Aug 16, 2020
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