Is the Gen 3 unreliable?

Yeah the spark plugs are a sand-pounder. Still, it’s not the replacement interval, every 12 years or 120k miles (longer in US CARB States) is a good stretch.

The EGR, well, I don’t think Toyota saw that debacle coming, didn’t have ease of extraction as first priority. So here we are. It can be DIY’d, in a day or two, and it’s a well-trodden path now. Do it, or procrastinate til the head gasket starts showing failure symptoms.

The sand-pounder with the EGR is Toyota’s response. Especially for those that don’t have the wherewithal to DIY. Something to keep in mind when you’re next car-shopping.

With your miles, maybe jump the gun on the plugs a bit, and do the EGR as well? Has the engine coolant been changed (due at 100k miles or 10 years)? Doing plugs, engine coolant and EGR/intake cleaning all at the same time is a good strategy.

 

Well, I only have 288,800 miles on mine.
Original hybrid battery, head gasket......

You are dure to clean the EGR system. If you do this regulary, you will probably be fine.
ANY vehicles have problems. If you take care of it, it will last longer.

The will all break down sooner or later...

 

i think it's all about perspective. if it were a ford or chevy, you'd call it reliable. but that's why we buy toyotas

 

It's not like that.
You've found the ONE board on the Internet where people discuss their problems and repairs. Prius was one of the best-selling cars in America, so not surprising that, out of millions old, there are problems.
My Prius is 11 years old and has 170,000 miles. Never a problem. Never a breakdown. I replaced the brake pads and rotors last Spring. That was the FIRST brake job I've done on the car! And I did it early, before they were fully worn. There was a sale, so I bought the parts and installed them.
I've done all of the maintenance items myself. Most of them are very easy. The spark plugs are a pain, but considering the 12 year, 120,000 mile replacement interval, not that big a deal. Besides that, the procedure gives you the opportunity to clean up ALL of the cabin air intake, which gets pretty dirty over the years. Clean, fresh cabin air is worth the effort.


Last week, I did a spark plug replacement on a Subaru. If you think the Prius is a lot of work... holy smokes! Subaru uses a pancake engine, so the spark plugs come out the sides. That's no big deal, except that the engine is mounted between two frame rails, so the plugs have about two inches of clearance. You need to use one extension after another to get clearance. Then there's the Sienna minivans with the transverse V6 engines.... Or my BMW 6 cylinder, which needs a new valve cover gasket. Shop time for that is 6 to 8 hours, just to replace the valve cover. Oh, and the recommendation is to replace the entire valve cover, not just the gasket. New valve cover costs $500. PCV valve replacement? On my BMW, the PCV valve is built into the valve cover. $500, 6-8 hours labor. I bought a PCV for my Prius. It cost about $4 at the dealer.

 

didn't you clean the egr circuit? mine engine is already stuttering at low throttle with only 28,000 miles

 

You've put ten years and 105k on the car, apparently without a major fault, and you're calling it unreliable?

You're just approaching the first replacement interval for those spark plugs and saying the car is hard to maintain? Other late-model cars would be on their third set by now and they aren't any less easy to access.

 

I thought about selling because of the egr situation and head gasket issues. But Tampa hybrids cleaned my egr and cooler. All fluids and plugs replaced or changed. Toyota fixed my brake issue for free. Hoping to get another 1360000 miles.

 

I see where you're coming from. Miles mattered more than years on those old rigs; kind of the opposite of now. There are things I enjoy about simple 70s/80s cars myself.

There are risks in owning an older Prius, I cannot dispute that. But if almost everyone's first 10 years with the car is close to perfect, I won't use the word "unreliable" to describe one. If anything the opposite.

 

I had engine and trans changed for JDM all said n done .twas under 2300 installed . Seriously in SE USA. 27243. I did not install .

 

I agree that that's a very annoying and inconvenient feature, but you can solve that problem permanently by modifying the oil-change flap to make it easily removeable. Then you'd never have to lift the car so high again for oil changes.

Mine hasn't had any mechanical or electrical issues yet. Instead, body issues:
1) Rubber window trim seals disintegrated;
2) Drain passage for rainwater coming off the roof and hatch tends to become clogged behind the taillight, causing leakage into interior;
3) Clear-coat is falling off.

 

I change my own oil too. I've had to use ramps with every post-1981 car I've owned, never thought it was that big of a deal.

EDIT: I forgot my truck, I had a 90s Ford Ranger for a few years, I could do that one without ramps.

 

My Gen 1 was the easiest car ever. No lifting the car, lie down in front and reach up under the bumper for both the drain plug and the filter, done and done.

Going from that to Gen 3, I was dumbfounded by the difference.

 

While I never needed ramps for oil and filter changes on any previous car. On the Mazda, it wasn't even necessary to lie down or crawl underneath at all.

 

The gen 3 problem is a crapshoot, and we don’t know the odds.
Some folks have problems earlier than others, some never have problems, but we don’t have any numbers

 

My ford windstar blew the gasket at 80k

 

I would be thrilled if I had ten trouble free years. But I had almost all the issues between years 5 and 8. Crossed the ten year mark a year ago, now working on year twelve only because my 30k a year dropped to a few thousand in March 2020. It has cranked up now but I resisted paying a $10k real world new car markup for the last year. Luckily we are at MSRP today so we have a Rav4 hybrid next to the v. The dichotomy of owning a v is it is very nice car in almost all respects except reliability.