Repair questions - 2011 Prius 245k miles

What problems are you trying to solve?

 

If this were my car, I would try to find out if it's any good before pouring money into it.

1. I would definitely clean the EGR circuit, cooler, intake manifold. That's just basically labor and free of replacement parts
2. Swap over your good battery modules to this car (what are you going to do with the gen2?)

That should be good enough to drive for a while until you figure out if this is a good car or a lemon (see how much oil it burns)

You can spend money on the inverter pump, water pump, coolant changes, transaxle fluid change, spark plugs, and all the good maintenance items later. You'll eventually need to start replacing parts as this car has a good amount of mileage on there.

 

A 3rd gen head gasket issue won't just suddenly happen without warning. I think if it hasn't happened yet, you can pretty much just clean the EGR circuit, cooler, intake, change water pump and coolant, those items alone should be fairly easy and should prevent the dreaded gasket failure. Your friend with the Jeep, he can help do all that stuff right? Then you'll have a pretty decent car to drive around until the brake actuator fails (this can happen to both gen 2 and 3)

 

Don't think about pulling the engine until it actually fails. The 2015 won't be any better, you won't notice the difference....you'll notice you have a $3000 hole in your wallet for doing a swap. 2010-2015 engine basically the same, modified piston rings blah blah blah won't do anything but save you a quart or 2 of oil

 

I have a 2010 and the engine isn’t as bad as they make it sound. I just monitor my oil level. The water pump replacement is easy I got my water pump on ebay from japan for like $145. No need to replace the egr valve. I would clean it and make sure you clean the intake good too through the egr ports. Replace the manifold gaskets, i like the fel pro manifold gasket set for prius. Replace the pcv too, I would go OEM on the pcv valve.

 

The updated pistons and rings slows the oil blow by, which reduces burned oil going through
the egr valve and cooler and through passages in the intake manifold which means less chance of
clogging the cooler creating excessive back pressure which causes head gasket failure and
less burned oil going through the catalitic coverter cause the very expensive part to fail... but blah blah blah

 

Here is the part number for the EGR kit.
04004-58137
It includes the gaskets and egr pipe gasket but doesn’t include the pcv valve. That’s separate but cheap.

 

I used to think that, but there turns out to be a way these EGR valves can go bad, mashed ski-jump syndrome, which I would recommend checking for if you will be working around the valve anyway.

I used to think it was rare, because the first time I heard of it was from ozmatt, who had been driving really hard uphill on a really hot day.

But then somebody else reported it, and then I saw my own valve had it.

If yours has the problem, if you are a very determined DIYer you might fix it up with a hot bent butter knife the way ozmatt did, but the less hard-core way is to replace the valve.

I believe this problem will show up in your EGR flow test result, so if you've checked that and the number's ok, you probably don't need to check for this. But if you have a lower flow test number that makes you want to clean the cooler and stuff, be sure to also check for this condition of the valve.

 

I searched that part number, found it, but there’s no description. What exactly is in that kit? EGR valve for instance? Most of the EGR gaskets are metal, very durable, apart from connection at intake manifold.

I’ll be doing our EGR again soon, since I’m doing the spark plugs, and will have the wipers/cowl off. I’ve opted to replace all the intake manifold gaskets (including aforementioned EGR connection). More’n likely the last time I’ll be in there, with our low usage, so I thought what the heck.

Got them through Amayama for about $15 CDN. With roughly $15 for shipping, $30 all-in.

 

Toyota had a TSB regarding the replacement of this valve, if it's bad, they will replace it. I got mine replaced free of charge when my car exhibited symptoms described in the TSB

 

The TSB is no longer valid after 150k miles.

 

TSBs are just technical service bulletins; they explain something that gets figured out about the car after it went in production. A TSB doesn't have time or mileage limits; it's just knowledge, and it stays knowledge unless some other TSB comes out later with better knowledge. A TSB might describe how to do some sort of repair, but it doesn't say that anybody is going to do it for you for free.

Then, there are service campaigns, like recalls or warranty extensions. A warranty extension campaign can say that, up until so many miles or so many years, we'll do the repair described in such-and-such TSB for free. After the time or mileage limit, the service campaign doesn't promise you anything for free anymore, but the TSB is still a perfectly valid notice about a problem and how to fix it, if you want it fixed.

That's what happened here: T-SB-0027-16 is the service bulletin that tells you about a kit containing an updated EGR valve, and an updated ECM calibration to be flashed, and service campaign ZF3 was the warranty extension that said up to 10 years or 150k miles, they'll do that for free.

So if you're above 10 years or 150k miles, the ZF3 warranty extension won't make anything free for you, but the TSB still tells you the EGR kit and ECM calibration to install, if you want the fix.

 

I've read there are benefits of just replacing the EGR valve, especially since yours is pretty gunked up. The cooler itself can be cleaned out using a pressure washer, that for me was the best method in spraying all the carbon out of there (after a good soaking)

 

A pressure washer, and oven cleaner for the cooler. Wire brush the valve and spray
brake/carb cleaner down the piston side.

Spray the oven cleaner in the cooler, both ends, (wear Rubber gloves) and let it sit for 30
minutes or so, then pressure wash it out. It will be messy!

Depending on how bad it is, it may take a few times, but it will CLEAN the cooler.