So my wife's and my Gen 3's need spark plugs and EGR cleaning, and I guess a once-over for all the little Prius services; fans, filters, coolant pumps, etc... She's put 40k miles (140k total) on her car in the last year, and I've put 8k miles on mine in 3 months (136k total). We live smack dab between Lynchburg, Charlottesville, and Richmond, and I'm not sure any of our local mechanics have specific Prius experience, and its so tight under the hood, I'm not sure I could really do anything more than the spark plugs at this point. Any recommendations for central VA mechanics?
I've just kept up with oil changes and it seems to be fine... if you find one, share on here! I've talked with both Hybrid Battery Pros Offers Hybrid Batteries in Ashland, VA in Ashland and https://www.macsservicecenter.com/ near Zion Crossroads, (They both advertize on the Dr. Prius app,) and they both seem good to go for hybrid system servicing but last I talked with them, they didn't really specialize on Prius engine mechanical stuff, at least for the preemptive servicing.
Any decent mechanic can do the engine services with the possible exception of cleaning the egr cooler. The alternative is to buy an egr cooler on ebay and spend the hours cleaning it yourself and just let the shop swap them. I would not change the water pumps until they need it. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sop=10&_nkw=2560137010+egr&_folent=34655964206&mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m44.l1150&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=5d18588dfd5d47bf9d7287ea5dcd6d6f&bu=43195734977&ut=RU&exe=0&ext=0&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20220905053900&segname=11021 The hv battery, brake booster or inverter is where many shops draw the line.
