299,999+ Mile Club

Been lurking and learning a few years now, thanks y'all! But now it's time! I bought an '04 at the start of 2017 with 210,000 miles and a rather poorly refurbished traction battery, but the price was right, who can complain. It made it seven months before I swapped it for a junk yard special, wrecked at 60,000, and installed the Prolong charger at the same time. Just stopped the odometer at 299,999 last month -- I added a twin '08 Touring addition two years ago, so they take turns now. I've been using the second trip odo to keep track since 299,999 but that's only going to work til the next 12V failure, right? 300592 is the official count.
Anyway, I did change the tranny fluid at 275,000 just in case, and yeah it needed it, the shuddering when the gas kicks on when parked only helped a little though, bummer. It's Mobile One high mileage for her, and every 15,000 miles has been just fine. Might eat a quart of there's a lot of high speed use. She's eaten a couple of ignition coils after hard rain, so I beefed up the tape lol, it had been patched with overlapping vinyl electrical tape .
She doesn't throw any codes, but is starting to stutter once in a while as if a cylinder is briefly misfiring, any ideas there? Other than yet another round of failing injection coil?
Next cool day, they both need left front fender liners and some grill pieces, I tend to ignore conventional wisdom about what makes a good dirt road vehicle when visiting West Texas y'all should see the looks I get, way past the "what are you doing here" straight to "how is this possible" but, yeah, maybe not the best choice cosmetically.

 

I used to do a lot of this stuff when I was a lot younger tape and mad maxing things and all that sort of stuff now I put gaskets on when gaskets are needed or if that's outweighed I drop the mess and fool with something else All of my Corollas have gone over 400,000 mi there have been six I didn't get to drive them all the 400,000 or better members of my direct family that live on this property did most of those cars are gone and they were wrecked at 400 plus K miles so going for 500,000 miles does not really impress me a lot about any of my Toyotas from RA21 silica's TE21 Corollas back in the '70s all the way up through AE111 Corollas and these silly prii. I expect 400k with minimal maintenance good management of the consumables I expect this and expect no less and have not been let down yet even with horrid maintenance when I was a youngster my TE21 1.6 Corollas would go 290,000 miles with Mary an oil change seriously. I just added back then. Twas the early 80's and I was a moron

SM-A715F ?

 

Priscilla hit 300,000 today. Still gets over 47 mpg. Purchased her used with 150,000 miles, so not sure if hybrid battery has been replaced. Only major fix has been wheel hub assembly replacements. Youtube helped me change out her blower motor, coolant control valve, spark plugs/coil packs, recharge ac, and perform other small maintenance myself. Hit a deer about 15,000 miles ago and found hood, fender, and door at salvage yard and put her back together. Wasn't about to let her go when she ran so well. (Since Priscilla, I have purchased used Priuses for my teenagers and a spare for myself -- hence the Presley Fleet -- Priscilla, Elvis, Lisa Marie, and Gladys.)

 

Yes I'm on 10k changes 5:30 still battery being replaced at 3:30 I think and other than that everything's pretty normal other than the dash going out I can't wait to see if the hybrid battery magically fixes that some people seem to think so I think not

SM-A715F ?

 

The only "magic fix" for the dash display not lighting up and all the other fuctions that stop working along with it .... including criuse control, fuel consumption and odometer actually recording the miles while it was dead, is a shut down/reboot of the 12v supply.
There is a positive cable that runs from the 12v battery up to the fusebox under the bonnet (hood?) with a separate red plastic cover over the10mm nut that holds that cable in place. If you add a relay between this cable and the terminal it mounts to, you can use a number of different options to turn the relay on/off.
Relay driver choices range from:
A) permanently on with a momentary switch in the negative switching cable, so when the lights go out, a 5 sec press of the switch causes the shut down/reboot and all is well again,

B) A rocker switch to drive the relay, so when it's off, the whole 12v system is off, doubles as an anti theft device ... well, until they find the switch

C) A momentary contact switch that ratchets the relay on when the big button is pressed, but the relay opens as soon as the the big button is used to switch the system off.

The down side, you need to sort a short term power supply for the radio memory and the clock and any other stuff stored in the short term memory.

T1 Terry

 

That's just a reset I just undo a plug in the back it takes a second no need to wire up relays and switches momentary contacters it just takes a second for me to undo the thing and click click and then everything's back to zero and the gas gauges resetting in my mileage is messed up it used to be I would just press the my routine I'd go through anyway by 14 pushes or less of the power button the display would be back on like clockwork it did all the time when the battery was right so we'll see when I change the battery and get the car running whether I get my display back and whether all these amber lights go off because my brakes work fine well they will lock up if I squeeze on them hard enough but I don't feel any pressures or low and I don't hear any ABS pumps or anything running into the while they sound about the same as they do on all these Gen 2's so nothing we will see what a brand spanking new Toyota high voltage battery will do I know everything that's going on with this car I put a new battery in it and it all goes away I will be shocked seriously I just can't imagine

SM-A715F ?

 

Those various pressing of different buttons and the flashing of the headlights when the correct screen comes up on the centre display ..... only works for so long .... then it doesn't reset and the speedo display becomes a random event. Simply unplugging and replugging is fine if you only turn the car on maybe twice a day, not a suitable solution for a car that is turned off/on multiple times a day while doing the various trips to pick up parts and the mail etc as well as the trip to work and the trip home.

Not sure how many miles you have up on your Prius, but my '08 unit, that has the random display problem, is rapidly approaching the 740,000km mark, that around 460,000 mile, so this may only be the early days of your display non functioning problem.

One of the things your earlier Toyota's might not have suffered is the catalytic converter blocking due to the oil being burn creating ash that simply will not pass through the fine cat matrix. Just topping up the oil in a Prius works for a while, but that oil is being burnt and that is progressively building up carbon in the upper exhaust section before the cat. When the cat starts to block, that upper area of the exhaust heats up more than usual and that releases the carbon build up in that section .... the cat collects it and suddenly things go pearshaped.

Just another note to those with high mileage vehicles, when you replace that failed wheel brg, best either rotate the tyres or replace that tyre. What I thought was a second L/H/R wheel brg failing not that long after I installed it, turned out to be irregular tyre wear, caused by the brg failure, eventually breaking the tyre construction and creating an octagon shape with a twist across it instead of the original nice round tyre ..... but I do have 4 spare rear wheel hubs now ... it was actually cheaper and faster delivery to buy 4 new hubs from the US than to buy one from the local Toyota dealer .... I'd replaced the failed one with a second hand unit and I just assumed it must have been on the way out as well ....

T1 Terry

 

My miles come soooo fast tyres getting changing in 12 months or less same with catalytic converters they get stolen very fast here so mine have all been changed at 200K or less if not stolen I removed at under 300K and cut open or gut the balloon so no brick inside . So it no work. My display comes on for days or hours we like it off at night so many times if off I leave it. 360K miles now it's never been serviced only tyres 12 V batteries. Gas oil washer fluid nothing else . The most boring vehicle I ever loved.

SM-A715F ?

 

Tom, you've got to get yurself a keyboard.

 

Funny thing about all these prii. Is essentially especially with the 2ZZ derivative of the prius that system the Gen 3 especially is essentially regurgitating and dying on its own excrement so it is an over EGR engine and what kills it is choking on its own excrement is basically what I understand from how it runs. To me personally I would shy away or stay on the lowest end of that choking on my own excrement that I could which would mean staying in a gen 1 or 2 The minute you moved to a gen 3 all these EGR problems rear their ugly head and kill engines is what it seems like

SM-A715F ?

 

The EGR gives tremendous benefits for these ICEs: lower fuel consumption and emissions.
Cleaning every 100k miles help driveability.

4 Gen EGR is better developed, for sure.

 

One thing I like about TomBukt is how Clear and Concise he is...

 

Not sure I would have used the descriptor “tremendous” if I were describing the Prii ERG system…


iPhone ?

 

For sure: driveability really tanks, say with a hole in the engine block. And yeah, removing the wipers-and-cowl, spilling coolant, extracting the intake manifold and EGR components, soaking/scraping/blasting the caked-on carbon every 100K does the trick.

It's not exactly heart-transplant territory, but it's definitely more arduous than an oil change, and really not the sort of thing you expect to be contending with, when you buy a nice new vehicle. Dealerships will NOT stoop to cleaning, anything, so going that route you're going to encounter big expense, and push-back, assurances it's a waste of time, there's no problem.

Maybe Toyota should say something on the subject, besides "while the majority of vehicles will not experience this condition"...

The reality is the majority of owners don't hear about this, till it's salvage engine time.

 

We seem to be digressing from the subject topic, which is reporting the 299,999 mile mark.

It is especially egregious seeing how this a Gen 2 forum and the Gen 2 doesn't even have a EGR system.

How about we get this thread back on track?

 

Yes, I agree, Portuguese sometimes get mixed in english... sorry...

 

Hey all, reporting in...

I bought a 2005 Prius in 2018 with odometer capped at 299999. Seller told me he thought actual was about 308k. Starting from there I've tracked my mileage over the last 3+ years with trip odometer and my maintenance spreadsheet, and I'm at about 335k now.

• I believe the front rotors & pads had been done not too long before I acquired it, they were in good shape then, rotors well within spec, and I've not yet had to replace the pads. Every 10k or so I pull and regrease the caliper pins, measure brake pads, rotor width, and runout, and take notes.
• Rear drums were about worn to the outside of spec. So in the first year I owned it I rebuilt rear brakes with new shoes and drums. The old ones were really rusted on, they clearly hadn't been removed for maintenance in a long time, and none of the easy tricks worked. I believe that was when I purchased my first slide hammer...
• Or maybe that was for the wheel bearing. FL wheel bearing was severely worn, loud grating/grinding on some corners, very noticeable wobble with the tire in the air. For any readers who may be new to diagnosing steering/suspension issues: if the tire wobbles from left to right when in the air that suggests failed tie rod end; if it wobbles from top to bottom that suggests failed ball joint; if it wobbles in both directions it could be both of those together OR a failed bearing.
• I also replaced front shocks with some aftermarket ones. I remember not being very impressed with those, they didn't seem to improve ride quality at all, but they're still on the car. I've read many times since that if you're doing shocks you should pony up the cash for quality. Alignment in shops after bearing and shocks. I don't remember if
• There were some mouse-chewed wires in various places when I bought the car (for $900). I had a shop diagnose and fix all of those.
• The rear axle height sensor/headlight level sensor was completely rusted out and failed; this is I'm sure a very familiar problem to readers of this thread. I believe the headlights lock all the way high or all the way low when that happens; mine locked all the way low. I suppose I could keep some sandbags in the trunk if I wanted to point them up a bit. I just wanted to get the check engine light off. I ordered a used OEM one from ebay but for some reason I had trouble installing it and ended up reselling it. I ended up discovering that I could disable that system and turn the check engine light off by detaching one of the plugs up under the passenger side dash, so that's what I did! That's how it is now 3 years later.
• The engine typically consumes 1-2 quarts of oil in 5k miles. I noted once on a freeway trip, going 80 for 500 miles, I went through half a quart. Presumably there's just a lot of cylinder wear. There were/are a variety of slow leaks (nothing dripping, but gunky outside/bottom of engine). Since purchasing I've replaced the easy ones—oil pan gasket, valve cover gasket, and PCV valve.
• Once after parking for about two weeks outside in summer, when the car started it was in limp mode and I couldn't get it to rev, error code P2103. While trying to fix this I replaced 12v battery and inverter coolant pump, and ended up fixing it with a used OEM throttle body.
• At some point I also replaced the hatchback lift arms (very cheap and easy job) and I replaced the hatchback handle/garnish thing with an aftermarket metal piece as that breaking is a common issue. The color isn't a perfect match but it's held up fine.
• I have never had any issues with the HV battery and I believe I'm on the original. However, my mileage is pretty crappy. I don't really care about this...I go fast on the highway, run the AC all the time, etc. I don't really trust the built in mileage calculator, but I also haven't used pen & paper to measure mileage between fill-ups in forever.
  
  My biggest advice piece of advice for owners of 300k Prii is check your oil level at every fill-up and always carry a quart or more of good oil!

 

I've looked around on Prius Chat from time to time for quick answers so I figured it's time for me to post. I reached 299,999 in my 2005 Prius about two years ago. Sometime back in 2019/2020. I don't remember when. Since then I've put on average 25k per year since then (tracked by trip B and oil changes).

I've replaced
- HV battery
- Coolant Pump
- Rear Struts
- PCV Valve

It burns through about 2 quarts of oil every 5000 miles. Probably going to replace it if/when car prices come down.

 

I've been reading the forums for a couple years. Thanks for the add!
I'm about to hit 300k! I'm a rural mail carrier. Love my Prius!!!

Please post information about your ownership experience. Some questions to think of...

1) Did you replace the HV battery pack? Yes. Just changes it out last Saturday.
2) Did you replace the hybrid transaxle fluid? No, replaces the whole transaxle.
3) Did you replace the brake pads? They will be changed Thursday.
4) Your lifetime MPG (if available)? I average 40ish on my route.
5) How often do you change your oil? What brand / product did you use? Every 5k, I'm a fan of high mileage full synthetic.
6) How about post a picture of 300,000 miles on ODO? Sure
7) Are you the original owner? No. I'm the second owner.
8) How many miles under your ownership? 30k.
9) Feel free to add anything else you wish to share.