2016 Prius Overheating no Coolant loss

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by DeRuosi, Apr 1, 2025.

  1. DeRuosi

    DeRuosi New Member

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    Four
    Hey, my personal car is a 2016 Prius and when I had bought it a couple weeks later it was overheating “bad head gaskets” and losing coolant so I did some stop leak and it solved the problem for a year. Then it was overheating and not losing coolant so I had it flushed the entire coolant line thinking I had plugged it up. Then I had it flushed a second time with blue devil. It still overheats. I also had the water pump replaced but I’m thinking it could be a weak or faulty knock off im not sure. Wasn’t sure if you had encountered this before, it has about 220k miles on it. I also get the Engine Oil Level low light and it’s not at all low. Thanks!
     
    #1 DeRuosi, Apr 1, 2025
  2. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

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    The only time I had a Prius overheat was due to air in the cooling system after a drain/refill. Your original loss of fluid was likely due to a leak in the Catalytic heat exchanged. This is a known problem in 2016-20176 Prii. A low cost fix is to bypass the heat exchanger.

    JeffD
     
    #2 jdenenberg, Apr 2, 2025 at 4:07 PM
  3. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    You should probably take it to a Prius specialty shop for a proper diagnostic.
    Stop leak is an emergency, temporary patch; not a permanent fix! The original issue needs fixing and also your entire cooling system may need replacement - depending on what's clogged and jammed up. If you continuously overheat the engine, you will damage it. That car only has a dummy lamp, meaning your at or above 240+ F. All that plastic will begin to melt, leak, and warp at those temperatures. Normal operating temperature is 180-195 F

    YMMV; Good Luck......
     
    #3 BiomedO1, Apr 2, 2025 at 7:12 PM
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2025 at 7:34 PM
  4. Boostgoose

    Boostgoose New Member

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    This
     
    #4 Boostgoose, Apr 3, 2025 at 3:18 AM
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