Prius C Transmission Fluid

There's always washing & waxing it... again. It gives you something to do, and the results are usually very rewarding. Lots of great tips on how to do detail cleaning out there.

Make some fun youtubes about it and pretty soon they're paying for your cleaning supplies.

 

So my ATF now has 30k miles on it, it was changed at 36k and 86k miles and the car has 116k miles on it.
Id this were your car, you'd probably run it at least 50k miles more?
Both ATF changes were done by a Toyota dealership in PA.
The owner had an extended warranty on it or something.

The chances of it having the wrong type of ATF in it may be about 1 in 1,000,000.

 

Yes.

 

I have ran my Prius C with the original transaxle fluid up to 112,700 miles, no issues, though i will change it soon. I think you could change it every 100,000 miles and it will be fine.

 

Most people say change it after 30k miles and then forget about it. Initial break-in fluid should be changed and after that it didn't provide any benefits to the reports.
That being said, I'm at 130k miles on the original, still no issues.

 

Due to the mechanical simplicity of the planetary gear set, there is hardly anything that could go wrong on it, and if something goes wrong, i think the ICE engine or the car itself will be long gone. I'm talking here about the Prius C, which seems to be the most reliable Prius ever made.

 

I'm frugal so hate spending big bucks on anything...including car maintenance. So, about 40 years ago, I started learning how to do my own....started with oil changes and minor repairs and now it would be easier to list what I can't do than what I can.
Anyway, like anything, it depends. Do you want to be a Toyota owner with a car with 300,000 miles or are you going to trade it in or sell it after 5 years? If you're going to a long term owner, and don't want to spend the big bucks (replacing engine, replacing transmission, fixing a bad head gasket, etc.) try this schedule: (I also own a Tundra so some thing don't apply to Prius, like the power steering fluid or Lube job)
FWIW, maintenance on a Prius is light-years easier then on a Tundra!!

Oil/Filter : Every 6-months
Air Filter : As Needed (check every 6-months)
Cabin Air : Every 12-months (Charcoal)
Radiator Coolant : Every 5-years
Hybrid Coolant : Every 5-years
CVT/AT Tranny : Every 6-years
Power Steering Fluid : Every 4-years/50,000 miles (Not Hybrids)
Front/Rear DIffs : Every 3-years
Transfer Case : Every 3-years
Lube : Every 12-months
Spark Plugs : Every 10-years
Brake Fluid: Flushed Every 4-years/50,000 miles
Throttle Body Cleaned: Every 25,000 Miles
MAF Sensor Cleaned : Every 25,000 Miles
Tire Rotation : Every 5,000 Miles

 

Yeah, I'm just going off the results that people in the forum have sent out and had tested. This car is ridiculously reliable... except that dang hybrid battery. But even then... it's not bad for every 150-200k miles. Still cheaper than my old saturn.

 

Yeah the hybrid battery is the concern, at least for someone like me who does not has a job yet, sadly it seems like the Prius C hybrid battery does not lasts as long as the one in the big Prius, but that might be because the hybrid battery cooling fan on the Prius C clogs up first with dust and hair due to it being lower in the floor, thus causing the hybrid battery to overheat.

Your Prius C still has the original hybrid battery?

 

Mine does.... but it tripped the dreaded p0a80 code last week... I cleared the codes and am waiting on it to return. So far so good... but I have been saving just in case.
I've noticed a slight decline in mpgs over the last few months so I was prepared for it. But I still don't wanna.

 

Do you have a scanner? you could check the hybrid battery voltage difference with the hybrid assistant application, to tell if some modules are going bad or not. But from that code, you shall prepare already, seems like the battery is leaving soon.