2010 Prius 100,000 Mile Preventative maintenance Items

So I may be a fool, but I just bought a beautiful 2010 Prius with 100,000 miles (160,000 kms) on it, knowing fully the risk involved. I'm a bit afraid to drive it much as everything I read scares me about driving a Prius past 120,000 miles without cleaning the EGR system. Here is my plan of action on it before I start driving it as my daily car and sell my 2005 Prius. I see no indication of mechanical issues now, I just want to run for a long time without problems. Can anyone tell me if I missed anything? Is there anything on this list that is really not very necessary or incredibly difficult for a DIYer and is best put off or done by a mechanic?

100,000 Mile Proposed Preventative Maintenance List:

1. Clean EGR Pipe
2. Clean EGR cooler and valve
3. Clean intake manifold
4. Replace engine water pump (I know this isn't totally necessary this early, but I figure I might as well do it now as I dont want it to fail)
5. Install oil catch can (no indication of oil consumption issues yet, but might as well do this while I have everything disassembled)
6. Replace spark plugs
7. Replace PCV valve

On my shopping list is:
1. Aisin water pump
2. Oil catch can and associated hoses and fittings
3. PCV valve
4. Coolant
5. Spark Plugs
6. Lots of tools

 

Sorry everyone, I realize this should probably go in the Gen 3 care, maintenance, and troubleshooting forum. Not sure how to move it now that its posted.

 

Good input from all. The one item I am a bit hesitant to do is the oil catch can. I feel like with my luck I will remember to check it 98% of the time but there will be the one time it overfills and starts sucking stuff back into the engine. I live in a cold place so I am a bit worried about the amount of condensation and water that might accumulate. I know for sure if I install it it will be in an easily accessible place so I dont forget about it and can quickly check it. Also I worry about a DIY project having leaks in the hoses or not being properly attached. Not sure what the major risks would be if one of the hoses came undone or wasn't fastened properly.

 

Thanks for this input. I changed the transmission fluid on my 2005 Prius for the first time at 200,000 miles. Its still running strong! but yes in retrospect it was an easy and cheap job so no reason to put it off that long.

 

Okay so now that I've put about 400 miles on this car I noticed that it looks like the coolant in the expansion tank may be slowly going down. Looking at it, after 400 miles it might have gone down 1/4 inch in the expansion tank. I might be a little paranoid now, but I am thinking I should probably try and make sure I dont have head gasget issues.

I did check oil and coolant (no foaming or irregularities) as well as smell the coolant (smells slightly different than brand new coolant, but doesnt really smell like exhaust to me).

Can I buy a cheap compression gague from the local hardware store and run the test myself to give myself peice of mind I dont have any problems here? I dont have an OBD reader or scangague. When I look at it it looks like I should be getting Techstream but I cant find a clear guide on where to purchase and how to connect, other than lots of spotty reviews of sellers with techstream software that contains virus' or only works on old 32 bit computers. Any simple way for me to run a compression test? Or is there a simple path towards buying a reader and installing Techstream? Or maybe i dont need to go through with that and can just test the compression in maintenance mode?

Feel like I am opening up a can of worms here but if I have everything off to change spark plugs I figure now is time to compression test.

 

Okay I may have figured it out. My plan is to:

1. remove spark plugs
2. Buy cheap compression guague from local hardware store.
3. Follow sequence in this video to turn over the engine:

4. Record pressures.

Will this tell me if I have a blown head gasget or other major problems, or am I wasting my time and need to get Techstream first?

 

I just went out to measure the coolant level again. It "might" be 1/8th of an inch lower than when I checked it 400 miles ago, but I didnt mark it exactly. It is about an inch below the "low" mark on the overflow tank when cold, so there is a chance it has been slowly loosing coolant (I am assuming at some point someone filled it up to the right mark and its gone down since then.

Im going to chalk it up at this point to me being paranoid about head gasget failure after reading this Site too much. I'll go ahead with my scheduled maintenance, mark the cold and warm coolant levels after done and keep a close eye on it.

Just finished the spark plug job. I have to say that it wasnt super hard overall - old plugs looked pretty good, a bit of carbon on them but nothing crazy. Each plug looked to be worn about the same amount.

EGR system clean is next job!

 

Nope... maybe too late for that. Havnt reassembled the cowling and wiper assembly so should I pull the spark plugs out again and double check? And by your comment I am guessing you mean look at the top of the pistons and if some appear to be cleaner than others that could indicate blown head gasget or engine issues?

 

I just followed Nuts about Bolts youtube guide on removing the underside plastic cover so I can access the coolant drain plug and do a transmission fluid change. I have to say that was harder than removing the cowling and wipers and replacing the spark plugs combined! Stupid plastic clips... I shattered two of them, and a bunch got really bendy and wouldnt come out without lots of prying and pulling. . There were already a few snapped off from the last person that was under there. That made my job a bit easier I guess I should try to get the dealer to send me a few more plastic clips. If I do this one more time I think there will only be one or two left holding it on.

Crazy thing was there were 3 different types of plastic clips under there. I wish they'd just use 10mm bolts.

Onto the next thing...

 

Okay, after struggling for a very long time to get the radiator valve open (that job and the plastic cover on the bottom of the engine have been hardest, oddly enough. Finally found a pair of pliers small enough to twist the radiator valve - it was very seized up and impossible to do by hand) I finally got the EGR Pipe off. Its got gunk in it, but not fully clogged.

I started trying to pull the coolant hoses off the EGR cooler and I cant get them to budge. Now i've ordered some picks to help but that was a frustrating step for me and has halted the project for now. Im starting to realize how huge of a job pulling off the EGR cooler is going to be after watching NAB video again. And now i've read a few postings about people who have done their whole EGR clean at about the same mileage of my car is at AND still had their head gasget blow shortly after that. Now it seems like the more I read a head gasget failure is a given at approx 10 years, even in cars with less miles than mine.

I've ordered a scope from Amazon and am going to inspect cylinder heads through the spark plug. If that shows any signs of head gasget issues I might start thinking about just driving the car for a bit more while looking into purchasing a 4th gen engine (or a 2015 engine) and lining up a shop that will do the swap for me. If cylinder heads look good and no signs of head gasget failure perhaps I'll move forward with the EGR clean.

Attached are photos of the EGR pipe and the intake manifold and EGR valve holes that the pipe joins to. Its got gunk in it, but certainly not close to being fully clogged (you can still see sections of pipe from some angles). Anyone else who's done this - can you estimate how clogged my EGR cooler might be based on these pics of my EGR pipe? A part of me wants to say that the pipe has only a maximum of 10% of its diameter (and most places less than that!) covered in gunk and I am at 100,000 miles now so rationally it will take 1 million miles to fully clog!

Maybe I just need to take a break, I feel tired and I am only halfway through the "easy" step of the EGR pipe removal and clean.

 

Thanks for looking at the pictures. I took a break this afternoon and convinced myself its worth the time to just clean it all. I'll just have to take it one chunk at a time. I've only started this job this weekend so no need to give up now. I'm giving myself 6-8 weeks max to complete it with time on the weekends and evenings.