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Clarification on maintenance items

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Zach Kapphan, Aug 22, 2024.

  1. Zach Kapphan

    Zach Kapphan New Member

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    Vehicle:
    2014 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    III
    I am new to this forum as a member but have gotten lots of great tidbits when needed over the years. My wifes car is a 2014 Prius V gen 3. its a great car and we love it. its over 100K miles and we are noticing some typical things that wear. I'm about to delve into shocks and struts but more importantly i'm getting into changing important fluids. I change the oil and filter every 5000 miles so that's not an issue but I want to do all the other fluids. is it my understanding that the only fluids that need changing like the oil is the transmission fluid and the inverter fluid? I figure I'd do both at the same time while I have the lower panel off. remedyiing the weak headlights is going to be my next big investigation, haha. thanks for your insight
     
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  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    You can get a maintenance schedule at Toyota.com/owner
    Engine coolant and some recommend brake fluid.
    Don’t overlook egr circuit cleaning, very important at your mileage
     
  3. Andy Pants

    Andy Pants New Member

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    Vehicle:
    2015 Prius
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    Four
    Things that I would change at your mileage/age:
    Engine coolant
    Inverter coolant
    Transmission fluid
    Brake fluid
    Spark plugs
    Clean EGR circuit

    As far as the headlights go I changed ours out with LED and now we can actually see more than 15 feet in front of us at night lol
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    Reading between the lines, sounds like you intend to DIY all these? Which is good; just stay on your toes, research each service. There’s various links in my signature (on a phone turn it landscape to see signatures(.

    Using @Andy Pants laundry list, some related repair manual excerpts attached (note, these are from the Gen 3 hatchback repair manual, but I believe almost 100% applicable to the Prius v as well).

    Also, if you haven't found it already, pinned at the top of the Gen 3 Prius Maintenance Forum, there's a thread that rounds up @NutzAboutBolts maintenance videos. They're mostly spot-on, with a few exceptions:

    Nutz About Bolts Prius Maintenance Videos | PriusChat

    Exceptions:

    1. Spark plug torque spec is 15 lb/ft, with clean/dry threads, contrary to video (note, this video is excellent, showing the sand-pounding amount of wrenching, just to get to the spark plugs.
    2. Hybrid battery fan cleaning does NOT require rear seat removal, contrary to video: there is one bolt behind the seat, and it can be accessed with an extension, through the gap between seat and back)

    Also attached, spreadsheet/pdf format summary of the Toyota USA maintenance schedule. I've stuck to the book with this. It does not mention some items, brake fluid change and transaxle fluid change in particular. That's not to say they're not worthwhile; I'm just trying to make a readible-at-a-glance summary of the official Toyota schedule. Note too, it's for Gen 3 Prius hatchback, but as far as I know, identical to the Prius v schedule.

    I'd second the need for EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) cleaning. It's new to gen 3 (and the Prius v), and in hindsight woefully underdesigned and tested, prone to clog up with carbon, and in my opinion, the main cause for head gasket failures that are rife with the gen 3 (and v). Optimum would be to clean the full system, including the intake manifold (has EGR passages) every 50k miles.

    Can't recall if it's been mentioned above, but the 3rd gen water pump (aka engine coolant pump) has proven prone to fail, relatively slowly and without a lot of warning, "somewhere after" 100k miles. The most prudent course I think would be to replace it every 100K miles. Slightly more risky, every 150K. I would change the adjacent thermostat as well. There have been counterfeit pumps, so be careful. Toyota's pumps are made by Aisin, and when not being sold by dealership have Aisin part no WPT-190. If you can find a genuine one of those it should be equal to the Toyota branded pump, and cheaper. I'd recommend Amayama as a source for these. I don't know conclusively, but the few $100's of things I've bought from them so far have been as advertised.
     
    #4 Mendel Leisk, Aug 23, 2024
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2024
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