The Hidden Cost of Owning a Hybrid (ABS by Pine Hollow Diagnostics Video)

Too long. Didn't finish. But I did get to the part where it said there was a recall for the failed part. Did he send it to Toyota to get it fixed?

 

edit :: rj explained above while I watched......
Over all IMO most repair videos that are not specific to a model and sometime even a model trim and a currently needed repair, are usually pretty dry in content. Scan tools are another part of the videos that can be really dry to people watching that don't own either a fairly high grade tool and / or someone without the same or similar tool used in the video. But, scan tools are starting to change and finding the right one for any job at hand, that is affordable, is the holy grail of auto repair, unless a dealer supplies the tools to a mechanic free of charge.
I've even heard a honda shop complain to me how expensive it is keeping their scan tools up to date. go figger!

 

One minor complaint, he talks about the fuel savings being wiped out by the cost of brake repair. He doesn't mention how many brake jobs (pads/rotors) that didn't have to be done over those 200,000+ miles. That alone doesn't cover the brake booster job but it does impact the cost calculation.

Using his figures of 45 mpg for the Prius compared to 35 mpg for a conventional vehicle, the fuel saving would be about 1300 gallons x $3.00+ per gallon for a savings of $4,000 or more. Add the pad/rotor savings and you are still ahead $1,000 to $2,000 with the Prius.

If you have to replace the booster and the hybrid battery that's another story but then you would be able to drive another 200,000+

BTW, the brake booster pump was replaced under the service program on my 2010 Prius at 5 years/45,000 miles so I should be good to go for a long time.

 

Spoiler: he was successful, after replacing the booster and leaving the old pump/accumulator in place.

That's because he gave the correct description of the problem the car was having (at 2:30 in the video), and could confirm that by the hissing sound at 7:38 and the fluid level changes at 7:50 and the good recommendation at 8:30 to use a stethoscope and clearly hear the hissing internal leak in the booster assembly (not the pump/accumulator). He also uses the live graph of the pressure sensor (9:00) and further confirms that, yes, the problem in this car is the internal fluid leak within the booster assembly.

So it's funny that back at 4:34 he spends all that time reading the wrong recall—the D0H one, where the metal accumulator bellows would crack and release nitrogen into the system. If I had a nickel for every time somebody on PriusChat mixes those two completely different failures up!

#2 asked about returning the failed part for recall service, but of course that wouldn't apply because the part concerned in the recall was not replaced. (The customer bought both parts, but the mechanic only installed the booster, and left the pump/accumulator alone.) And the customer's car was outside of the VIN range for having the defective accumulator.

There was some talk around 5:40 about the customer's replacement part having come from a car whose VIN was covered in the recall, but the mechanic is talking there about the booster/actuator, which was not the recalled part.

He didn't mention whether the customer-purchased pump/accumulator came from the same donor car. It's moot because the mechanic never installed that part, but otherwise it would have been worth checking. In this case, we did get a good enough view of it back at 3:57 to see (by the label orientation) that it was not one of the bad ones.



So there are a lot of good points in the video, but it's too bad he showed an unrelated recall, and did not show the ZJB service campaign, which is the one that does apply to the problem he repaired.

 

SO......the title of his video, and of this thread.......sounds like the assertion is that ALL hybrids have similar design defects that will wipe out any savings on fuel.
This one example is NOT proof of that theory.
Indeed, similar non-hybrid models produced about the same time have an even chance of having similar design problems.

His "scientific" methods are seriously lacking and do NOT prove conclusion stated at all.

 

And thus it's been this way for decades now, with every BS hidden cost scientific expert. These kinds - they rack Em Up. Priuschat knocks 'em down.
.

 

He was sloppy with the bleeding. He should route the hose UP so any air goes up
after stopping the bleeding so you can see any air that may still be in the system.

Hopefully the brakes are good and safe.
He should resolve the water leak at the battery now.....

 

That, and I really wouldn't recommend opening the valve and then going to the driver's seat to fuss with the pedal.

If you have no helper, set the snow brush on the pedal (hey! he uses the same brake pedal tool I do!), then go around and open, then close, the bleed valve.

In the parts of the procedure where the pump is driving the fluid (the rears, and the second pass over the fronts), it comes out fast, and you can be sucking air at the reservoir before you know it.

 

I thought there were several good things about the video. I'll say them again ....

He gave the correct description of the problem the car was having (at 2:30 in the video), and could confirm that by the hissing sound at 7:38 and the fluid level changes at 7:50 and the good recommendation at 8:30 to use a stethoscope and clearly hear the hissing internal leak in the booster assembly (not the pump/accumulator). He also uses the live graph of the pressure sensor (9:00) and further confirms that, yes, the problem in this car is the internal fluid leak within the booster assembly.

All of that is an excellent demonstration of how to recognize and diagnose the kind of brake problem that results from an internal fluid leak inside the brake booster (the subject of service campaign ZJB).

On all of that, the video was great.

The only unfortunate thing was that he didn't describe campaign ZJB (which would have been relevant), and instead he spent time on the D0H recall, which is for a completely different problem that this customer did not have. But lots of posters on PriusChat also get those two very different things mixed up.

 

Take any 2000+ plus model car that loses the tranmission and what would that cost?
How many of them would be in as good condition at 200,000+ miles as the Prius?
Certain parts do cost more. As it is with any car.

Most complain when they don't understand how to fix something or it doesn't work
they way "they" think is should work.

 

yep. Many car owners would be happy to swap their maintenance costs with Prius costs. I know for fact that driving Prius is definately more affordable than for example Volvo. Alone the transmission oil changes during car lifecycle cost as much as brake booster. And that’s just maintenance.. Wait until something actually breaks

By the way, when does Prius timing chain&tensioner need replacement?

 

I guess when they are worn out!
I imagine you would check it when you are going to replace the failed head gasket?

 

Wow. The owner of the Prius in the video must have been driving with a blown head gasket for 80,000 miles and didn't even know it.

 

Therefore, because you can't prove it didn't blow a head gasket at 150k, just go ahead and chalk it up as another 150k head gasket, right?

 

So many Gen3 Prius out there and closing 125-150K that there’s gonna be an avalance of HG jobs next year. But i dont think so. I don’t think it’s statistically possible (even for Toyota) to have them headgaskets fail within such narrow mileage range. There should have been substantial amount of HG fails before 100k miles already..hence used Prius Gen3 should have been worthless for many years already. But that has not happened. Market know