For Sale 2001 Prius 185,xxx miles (rust free, recently replaced HV batt, runs good)

Unfortunately, shops often use this symptom/repair as a $$ maker. Since the day your car was built, back in 2001, the AC system has been "leaking" refrigerant because industry has yet to design a perfect mechanical seal. Sometimes all it takes is to add a little R134a back into the system and it works fine again. Some cars may actually have a small leak, which may require a small addition each year. $12 for a can of R134a is easier on the pocket than $1500 for someone to replace the evaporator. I had a 1994 F150 that I had to add a 12 ounce can every spring (started at $5 a can), for its last ~9 years. There are catastrophic failures, there are big leaks, small leaks and miniscule leaks. Not all leaks require component replacement, but all leaks will eventually result in refrigerant needing to be added. If you like the car, and the AC is the only reason you're selling it, I'd do a little more investigating. I've owned many previously owned Gen 2s (currently 4) and I've had to top off the refrigerant in every single one after purchasing, but only ONCE per car.

Here's how I look at it
If your kitchen faucet dripped one drop per day, would you pay a plumber $600 to replace it?
If you have to add air to your front driver side tire once a year, would you run to the shop and get new tires?

 

I'm with Truth Seeker. The car should have at least 50,000m left, probably a lot more, and the evaporator isn't that hard to replace, even if it does need it. You don't have to remove the AC unit from under the dash. And there are plenty of used evaporators in the SoCal scrap yards - they're not a maintenance item that usually wears out. It's cost me a $200 and a few hours of easy work to fix that. Shop would charge less than a thousand. Hard to find a car for that will last 50k miles for $1000.

 

Wow, quite a pic, LOL. But you don't have to do all that to swap in a new evaporator. I can send you the service manual directions. It slides out of the AC unit - you don't have to take the AC unit out. Disclaimer: I've not done that job personally. I do have a car with most of the dash off and the AC unit easily accessible, if you want a used evap. I'd let you have it for an hour's labor to take it off and send it to you. Swap it in, recharge and you're on the road.

Thanks for the offier, but I'm not really getting any more cars from so far away unless I can drive them home. I used to already be on the road in my bus and could pick up cars along the way for no cost. Driving to my truck to CA and back to get a car ain't worth it.

Be aware of the very soft market for Gen1s in CA because of the expense of the cats and the likeliness that they'll be stolen. If I were you, I'd swap in an aftermarket cat, use the $500 you'd net after selling the OEM cat to fix the AC, then get the car to any state that doesn't require CARB cats and sell it there. CARB states are CA, WA, CO and NY, IIRC.

 

I've bought a couple with shields, and stolen cats. Just looking at them, how easily they'd been cut away, maybe adding another 30-45 seconds to the 1.5 minute theft, they seemed pretty silly.

The other problem with the cars, though, is that nobody wants to insure them, and if you have one insured, the slightest claim gets them totaled. You can replace the cat and spend on the cat shield, but lose the car a week later because someone nicks you in a parking lot. That exactly describes a car I bought in LA - a parking lot dent the size of a half dollar got it totaled. Only 85k miles, beautiful in every way.

Rather than the shield, if I wanted to have one of these cars in CA (the other CARB states don't have the crime problem), I'd mfg a second exhaust assembly using an aftermarket cat and use that system as my daily driver. Any thief instantly knows it's worthless, and if some idiot does steal it, it's a $150 repair. Then, when you need to pass smog test, just swap your OEM exhaust back in (4 bolts and $10 for 2 rubber hangers). Those bolts are a PITA the first time, especially the rear because they're road rusty, but after doing the swap, you'll figure out the ratchet combo to reach the front bolts and the rears will be easy with the rust off.

I got several spare assemblies (resonator and back pipe to the rear connection - the part left after theft) that, again you're welcome to. Just buy a $100 cat off Ebay and never worry about shields again.

 

following your adventure with an '01 Prius, a some opinions/thoughts.
(1) A/C not working. Invest a few dollars for an A/C recharge kit (R134a) which contains a UV tracer and additional chemicals to plug very small leaks. That may be enough to restore A/C function. If the leak is severe, that's a whole different story, but try the low-cost repair option first. Or have a shop do it.
(2) HV battery.
<edit #2> I see that you replaced the HV battery in 2002. Missed that first time through....but here's what I wrote, anyway.
Because your saga indicates that the car sat a lot, doing an inspection of the innards of the HV battery module may be in order.... even if the repair records show the HV battery was replaced in 2014. There is a thread in PriusChat which discusses in excruciating detail one of the risks of the HV battery in elderly Prii (and likely, any elderly hybrid/plug-in vehicle):
The battery fires at ECU sense connector thread | PriusChat
If you are technically competent, replacing the sense wire harness in the HV battery is not difficult; one just needs to be VERY CAREFUL and this may help with your HV battery issues (along with cleaning the copper bus bar connectors in the non-sense harness as well, and inspecting carefully all the pins on the HV battery ECU).
(3) insurance. Yup, these cars are 'totalled' because the benefit-to-cost for repair is less than the current market value of a 25-year-old vehicle to the run-of-the-mill auto user population. I don't carry damage insurance; only the mandated liability and bodily injury. I treat the car as a disposable item (but I also have lots of repair capability). (keeping my Prius running is my hobby; others call it an obsession). That may not fit your lifestyle choices, but I offer it an an option.
(4) the occasional CEL for misfire in cylinder #1 Inspect the plug and see if there is any fouling. Your comments say plugs, coils and MAF sensor have been replaced, andyou still get the CEL, so it sounds like there's still an issue with the engine even with new parts. Even tho you're in SoCal, there MIGHT be an issue with water in the gas - every Gen I I have seen needed to have the fuel fill pipe replaced due to corrosion and subsequent water infiltration into the gas.
A recent post: drain the gas tank? | PriusChat
and a rusted/corroded/broken fuel fill pipe is a "classic" Classic Prius problem. It's easy to check, too.
Or, it MIGHT be indication of a failing head gasket. A plug inspection may provide a clue.

(5) (edit) weird smell - there is a cabin air filter behind the glove box that almost nobody ever checks. You get to it by emoptying the glove box, giving the knobs on either side a half turn, pulling the knobs out, dropping the glove box door almost to the cabin floor, and reaching in to extract a white plastic carrier and the cabin air filter.
If that's not clean, replace it. I also give it a shot with disinfectant aerosol spray like Lysol when I put a new filter in or when I clean it.

(6) Weird smell #2: There is a little hose which runs, on the passenger side, from the A/C evaporator box to a drain hole in the floorboards. It's visible if you remove the passenger side kick panel by the door and roll back the rug; it runs along side the center console. That hose may be clogged and you may have debris/mold/nastiness built up in the evaporator box. Mine seems to clog up very easily; I have to inspect it every spring. There are cleaner kits available which push disinfectant foam up into the evaporator box (you have to ask for them at places like AutoZone or Advance Auto or O'Reilly, because they are NOT on the regular retail store floor) for maybe $20 which can deal with a mouldy evaporator coil. Or a repair shopscan do the job, too.

A thread from PriusChat on the topic (a Gen 3 thread, but applicable to Gen I):
Evaporator cleaning/deodorizing DIY. | PriusChat

Just my 2 cents. Good luck with your '01, however you decide to manage it.

 

Followup to my long-winded point #4 (previous post)

PriusChat discussion of possible head gasket issue, with symptoms that sound like yours:

2001 prius(blown head gasket) | PriusChat

The proposed fix is $20 worth of K-seal; read and follow the directions (see the discussion in the link).

Good luck going forward!