New Owner - a few questions

Did you check underneat the hidden trunk? There's a hidden trunk under the hidden trunk for the spare tire. But it really is supposed to be inside the hidden trunk and not the spare tire trunk. See if there's a cover... there should be moldings for the pieces in the hidden trunk.

 

Just go back to the dealer. You should have no problem from them getting the tire tools and your warrenty information.

 

your Prius does have special tires in a sense, but what your mechanic said is shaky at best. rotating the tires simply means swaping the tires front to back on each side. that is all no rocket science there.

your tires are special low rolling resistance tires, but they really need no special treatment and any tire shop should have no problem doing the rotation.

it might be easier for who ever does the oil change to take care of that. i usually have tires rotated and oil changed at the same time.

as far as the cost of the tires, they are not really that much more expensive than any other new set of tires. also if you check out john1701A's site, he details other options for tire choices. most are about the same or even a bit more in price.

 

Congrats, on your new PRIUS... you will love it forever... even after the grin goes away...

my salesman gave me a pouch that had the manuals as well as the tire stuff included.. look there... I had nothing in the glove box... in the arm rest was a pad of valet instructions...

Heinrick... better than Wolfgang or Gunther, I guess... how come the Germans work on Japanese cars... I'll leave the answer to the' last comic standing'...

always check the oil on the dip stick ... it is hard to read Toyota took a short cut with the marks (I believe)... there are two bumps.. full and need to fill.. LOOK now... always check yourself when you have the car serviced.. rule of thumb on every other car I owned change oil at 3500 miles... rotate tires every other time... so I guess I'd agree rotating every 5000 miles... there are a lot of posts on what is a BETTER tire to replace the stock ones with... both here and on yahoo Prius-2G... ( my thought is to run the ones that came on the car)... but that said, presures are very important... check them as well...( buy a gauge!!! and use it)

As for the tire tools... I thought I saw them in the tray above the spare or in the area with the spare... TRUTH.. salesman pulled back the mat showed me the tray and the spare... I have never looked there again.. my story, I have a AAA card or Toyota Road Side assistance..they can change the tire..

Hope this helps...

The big questions... did you name the car??? what color?? where are you from?? did you pay more than MSRP?? how long did you wait??? :lol:

Bob Andersen

 

This is balony!!! Extra-strong sidewalls to support the battery's weight??? As cars go, the Prius (including its battery) is a relatively light car. The tires support the full weight of the car, regardless of whether a battery is part of that weight. And the weight of a car is not supported by the sidewalls, it's supported by the air pressure inside the tires. And while it is important to rotate the tires on any car, any place that rotates tires can do it. There is nothing special about rotating the tires on the Prius.

There are two possibilities:

1. Heinrich is incompetent; or

2. He is so contemptuous of you that he is making fun of you by lying intentionally. (Maybe because you are a woman, or maybe he treats everyone that way.)

You can have service (including warranty work) done at any Toyota dealer where the service staff are trained for the Prius. You do not have to go to the dealer where you bought the car. I would suggest staying away from Heinrich.

As for the oil capacity, it should be in the owner's manual. I don't have mine in front of me. But you could show that to him. However, I doubt it's worth it, unless you want to give him a bit of his own back. I'd just stay away from him.

 

it's not a matter of money or time... over fill is BAD for the motor.. the oil, because it is new will be hard to see... if the car has been parked overnight you should see the oil correctly on the stick wihout wiping it off and re-sticking... but you should re-stick it and read it again to be sure... if you are not sure of how to do this... run the car past a quick lube place... I am sure the kids would love to see a Prius and show you how to check, both the oil and air at the same time...

 

bob is right, any overfill is bad...keep in mind that the full mark has a safety factor built in. you can be a few milimeters below the full mark and be ok. anything above, no matter how small is robbing you of mileage and not providing you with even a small amount of benefit.

with all the stories of overfill being so common, i am tempted to tell my service guy to put in 3 quarts and let me top off the crankcase. i guess i will give them one chance to get it right, but my car will not leave the station until i check it. taking out overfill from the crankcase is a messy job and tough to get right.

 

I agree with Daniel, i think the Prius Mechanic gave you a lot of baloney. It's 3.9 qts. not litre. In the owner manual they give you the different quanities, qt. litre and something else i can't remember offhand. If you rotate the tires every 5,000 miles you'll spend more then buying a new set of tires anyway. I usually rotate the tires just before it snows to put the best ones on the front. I would scout around for another Toyota dealer to do the work on your car.

 

PS I forgot to mention that when I brought my Prius in for it's first service they introduced me to the head Prius technician, Mike, and he agreed that it was important not to overfill the oil that it could back up into the intake manifold and cause a no start condition, and he said that there's nothing really special about the tires, he said just keep regular ol changes and if anything special has to be done like service bulletins ect. they catch it when changing the oil

 

bring it down to ft wayne and the dealer i have will treat you right...you are being fed a bunch of baloney up there in the region..

 

> ...details other options for tire choices

That webpage is the next scheduled for a complete rewrite, to update CLASSIC content and add our findings for the HSD Prius. Stay tuned.

 

> any overfill is bad

Our society grew up believing the posted speed LIMIT was actually the required speed to travel, not a maximum.

So naturally, as the decades progressed, more and more people accepted the belief that traveling "a little bit" faster than that was no big deal. After all, other people were doing it.

Well, now so many people are exceeding the speed LIMIT that other feels a substantial amount above isn't really a safety problem.

No wonder we've lost perspective. Any overfill is bad, period. That "full" mark on the dipstick is the upper-limit. Below that is good. In fact, in the middle is perfectly fine. It isn't actually until the level drops close to "add" at the bottom that you should become concerned.

Don't allow oil to be wasted or the potential for engine damage. Get in the habit of making sure the oil level is a little below the "full" mark, not above.

 

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Not trying to bash or beeing a wise guy, but nowadays it's considered better to have the best tires on the back. At least in this part of the world. Yes, it's hard to believe, but I saw a really convincing demonstration once. It's tricky to explain this in english but at least I will try. They used a small model car with rubber front wheels and less sticky back wheels on a treadmill (sp?). In the exact moment when speed was reduced the model car spun 180 degrees, pivot point was between the front wheels. When repeated with best tires rear the car was stable. This is a result of forces changing from front end pulling the car to back end pushing the car.
Of course forward grip when accelerating is better if the best tires are on the front.
All the above is of course more relevant in slippery road conditions.

/Paj

 

Where to have the tires with the better tread really depends on the type of driver you are.

If you are like me, who takes advantage of the front-wheel drive by accelerating to recover from a skid, you want those tires in front.

If you are the type that tries to ride out a skid or always hits the brakes, having them in back does offer an advantage.

But realistically, you should strive to avoid uneven wear in the first place by rotating routinely.

 

considering that your front tires do the steering and therefore traction is more critical, for front AND rear wheel drive vehicles, having the better tires on the front is the way to go.

however, if there is a visible difference between the front and rear tires, you need to be rotating them much more often

 

I put the best tires in the front so i don't get stuck in the snow LOL. However I'm conservative si I replace the tires front or back early, especially before winter

 

My solution is to buy new tires before I lose traction in any tire. That way I never have any tire that is less than optimum. Costs a bit more, but not nearly as much as getting in an accident and winding up in the hospital, not to mention the pain. And of course rotate as needed.