Hello, New To The Forum. Need Help With Fluid Maintenance Schdule

You are in luck!

A Prius c does not have a rear differential or a transfer case. The power steering is 100% electric; there is no fluid to check or change.

There is a front differential, which is lubricated by ATF shared with the rest of the transmission. Toyota has not published a replacement guideline for it, because it doesn't get anywhere near as stressed or contaminated as the ATF in a traditional automatic transmission.

Some people do it anyway, but plenty of these cars have made it through full careers with the factory ATF in them. If you bother to change it, insist on the real 'Toyota WS' fluid: you do not want something that eats the insulation off the electric motor windings in there.

Also there are no belts to change, so you're good there. Do check the tires, including the date stamps.

Brake fluid should be changed periodically, and due to the sophisticated nature of the Prius brake system this is not an easy task- best left to dealer or an experienced hybrid mechanic.

I would advise you to purchase a good diagnostic scanner to use with this car. Many of them will only scan part of the car, and an incomplete report is sometimes worse than useless. The Autel AP200 and AP2500 are good choices for full compatibility at a reasonable price.

Welcome and good luck!

 

One thing that's a little subtle: every 5k Toyota USA say visually inspect brakes, which presumably happens in the course of tire rotation. However, every 30k, they omit that, and instead say to inspect "Brake linings/drums and brake pads/discs". I would take that to mean do a thorough brake inspection every 30K.

Something else, that goes beyond "subtle", verges on contradictory: at 100K they say to change "engine/inverter" coolant, with a footnote "3". Read footnote 3 and it says (bold added by me):

"Initial engine coolant replacement at 100,000 miles/120 months. Replace every 50,000 miles/60 months thereafter. Initial inverter coolant replacement at 150,000 miles/180 months. Replace every 50,000 miles/60 months thereafter."

FWIW, Toyota Canada says to replace both at ~100K miles (160K kms) or 10 years, whichever comes first. They also say to replace brake fluid at ~30K miles (18K kms) or tri-yearly.

BTW, you can download pdf format of both the Owner's Manual and Warranty And Maintenance Booklet, from Toyota Tech Info, under the "Manuals" tab.

What I found a useful exercise is to convert the event-by-event schedule to a a row-and-column format, say in a spreadsheet. I'll attach the US third gen Prius schedule, might actually be identical, and if not probably just needs minor edit.

 

Here's a summary of the maintenance guidelines: Toyota USA recommends a visual brake inspection every 5,000 miles, usually done during tire rotations. However, every 30,000 miles, they advise a thorough brake inspection, including checking brake linings, drums, pads, and discs.

At 100,000 miles, Toyota USA suggests changing the engine and inverter coolant. The footnote specifies that engine coolant should be replaced every 50,000 miles after the initial change at 100,000 miles, and inverter coolant every 50,000 miles after its initial replacement at 150,000 miles. In contrast, Toyota Canada recommends replacing both coolants at around 100,000 miles or 10 years and changing brake fluid every 30,000 miles or every three years.

For convenience, you might find it helpful to organize the maintenance schedule into a spreadsheet format. I’ll attach the US third-gen Prius schedule for reference.

 

* You nailed it.

 

You should have these links as well:

Owner info

Toyota Service Information

 

I've noticed this with a few Japanese car brands- the manual lists an inspection interval, but no test criteria.

But there is sort of an expectation there that if you don't like what you find during the inspection, you should do something about it.

I find that it is helpful to have a reminder of how often to check a given thing, even if I'm not given test criteria to apply when doing the check.

 

Honda’s pretty good about this, at least they were. Shop Manual would have a section that corresponded to the maintenance schedule, with relatively clear/concise instructions. Hopefully not past tense though.

 

An example of Toyota's ham-fisted approach, in the 3rd Gen Prius Repair Manual: there's a section on spark plugs, which has everything BUT the spark plug torque value. I finally found that, perhaps a 1000 pages away, lumped in with the valve cover. Attached pdf I cobbled is that spark plug section in the main, plus the far-flung valve cover page, tacked on at the end.