Calling a spade a spade

Still have the condition. As far as I can remember those conditions have not changed from Gen3.

I do not Driving on dirt roads or dusty roads.
I do not Driving while towing, using a car-top carrier, or heavy vehicle loading.
I do not do Repeated trips of less than five miles in temperatures below 32°F / 0°C. (I do a lot of driving below 32F, but almost never shorter than five miles.)
I do not do Extensive idling and/or low speed driving for a long distance such as police, taxi or door-to-door delivery use.

 

Sounds like for you, then, the longer OCI would be what Toyota recommends for you.

I have short trips during winter, so the 5,000 mile OCI is what Toyota recommends for me.

 

Although my condition has not changed, now with less total miles driven due to working from home, my first oil change due at 1 year is likely to happen at 3,000 miles.

 

Thanks for posting that video - makes a lot of sense and good tips. I'm still lurking for a Prius Prime and doing my homework but... nice to hear from a mechanic about these cars.

 

that's how it is for me normally

 

Yeah, it's been 6 months since I purchased my 2020 PRIME. I have been getting repeated emails from my Toyota dealer for the 5K Toyota Care service. I have less than 2Kmiles on the car. I don't need tire rotation. No oil or filter to change. The dealer is a few hours drive in a city for me. Nop, I am not taking my car just for fluid check and free car wash.

 

i took mine in for the free oil changes, which they routinely overfilled. they tried to sell me new tires at 15k.
after the free stuff was done, i have a local guy change the oil once a year, regardless of mileage.
the engine only has 20k afte 8 years, and that's recording all hv mileage, not just when it is on.
probably not a good thing, according to the video, but what can you do?

 

I took mine in for the first free tire rotation and check. They said they set the tires at 30 psi, way too low for a Prius. They actually did not do that but there was no way l was going to trust them with an oil change. I do them myself.

 

I just put michelin defenders on all the way round. After only driving the car in HV and a few time all EV over the last 6 months or so. the car seems to have forgotten my previous EV only driving style. A lack of current EV driving data to use perhaps. I watched occasionally the guessometer drop from 36 EV miles down to 28 before I decided to see if I could get it back up a bit. After 2 drives it's back to almost 30. But for me there is a big difference between me being able to get mid 40's miles per charge and low 30's and being stuck at low 7 mi/kwh instead of 8 and 9's for the same trip. I can also go about 1/10 of a mi, in creephome mode at 5 mph at the beginning of my drive and gauge the mi. / kwh against previous drives. I've gotten as high as 87 mi/kwh on that 1/10 of a mile. But now I'm only getting 20. I suspect a few issues may be at play here.
1 I can hear the brake pads rubbing on the rotors for far longer than I remember ever hearing them before.
2 New tires are a known issues for rolling efficiency. And the OEM Toyo's were down to the wearbars at 35k.
3 The lack of efficient driving data in the cars computers.
All at the same time makes driving in EV a tad less enjoyable for me ATM.

There are so many ways to look at driving the Prime. Prius and Prime do so many things really well. Still, not everyone's cup of tea. And there are probably as many ways to drive the Prime as there are Prime drivers. Making for an interesting set of discussions about what the car actually does and the best ways to drive it. A Spade?

 

Thank you John. Impressed with the community! Long term in my video is in years. Nothing will happen in 2 weeks really. You could actually do everything not recommended by Toyota for the first 3-5 years and it'll be fine. But it's the later years where things will start showing. That's what I mean the long term. If you usually keep your cars 3-5 years then don't bother with anything for the longevity of the battery.

The prime engine is nothing specific or special to the prime. It's a regular gasoline engine found in your regular prius 16-current. Only difference is the software. And yes I have been inside multiple 16-current engines and they leave a lot to be desired when it comes to oil cleanliness. Only Prime that I've worked on the engine is a manufacturing issue with a cylinder head that was leaking coolant. Isolated to a single case so this is not common and the car had 5 miles and since was sold and gone.

Now I understand the Prime is a special car. But the gasoline side of things is anything but. Gasoline engines work the same and have the same issues. If you'd like documented proof of oil change issues causing problems inquire in the 3rd gen community on oil consumption for especially the first 2 years. You can argue that this is the old generation and things has improved significantly since then? Well that's what the 3rd gen owners said to the 2nd gen owners.

We can debate this for years in the end You will take care of your car and will have no issues. Oil consumption is in the radar for most new cars anyway at 1qt every 1100-1300 miles is considered max normal. Low tension piston rings combined with long oil change interval = oil consumption. That is not a technology or EV range calculations. That's just the nuts and bolts of engines these days.

 

I cannot add on this one. All I can say is Toyota and all auto manufacturers are really struggling in the legality of things. It seems like the age of liabilities has really taken a toll here.

 

could they have overtightened the lugs?

 

OEM Prime lugs with those attached washers get tight real fast. Toque at 75 lbs sometimes feels like 150 when breaking them loose.

 

That's the one place I'll use a tiny dab of anti-seize. Not on the stud threads. Just a tiny dab on the end of a jeweler's screwdriver to sneak it in between that attached washer and the bottom of the lug nut. With that, they are very well behaved.

I have five extra lug nuts. At tire rotation time, I select out the worst-looking five of the ones on the car, and replace them with the spares. Some time between then and the next rotation, I clean up the five I removed, and re-do the tiny dabs on anti-seize on their washers.

 

I've tried the anti seize on one wheels of lug nuts + washers. But I can't say how that it's working for me yet.
I'm sure it's going to help with that chalkboard and fingernail sound I got when breaking all twenty loose last month.... scrrrrrrrretch

 

Yup, it absolutely helps with that.

 

Or a little bit of diesel will work as well as Seafoam for a gas stabilizer; about an ounce per gallon.

Perhaps they did. The data collected from PiP may have shown that it isn't as big as an issue as originally thought.

 

You may have covered this, but I think the implication with the Prime being different than other gas engines because you don't use the engine as much. So when the ODO says 10,000, that's not really 10k miles on the oil.

I have a couple questions for you. What do you think of the recommendation seen in forums to change the transaxle fluid around 30 or 60 or 90k intervals? Also, have you ever seen this issue in your experience and what's your thoughts: Instability/wandering steering on freeway/highway speeds | PriusChat and what do you think about post #12 as the propopsed solution?

 

In my professional opinion regardless of how many miles you put on your engine and the rest are EV You want to do the basic maintenance. This is not towards you but I must say. With respect ya'll are car enthusiasts and you love your Prius and take care of it. I feel like some have a sense of pride in arguing for the sake of arguing. If you love your car so much, jack up the car on some jack stands change your own oil and filter which will take you 15 minutes and cost you 20 bucks every 6 months! or if spending 40-50 bucks on your car every 6 month is too much then I guess we'll leave it at that. You can argue the oil change all you want, In the end when the car has serious miles and the battery capacity degrades you'll start using that engine more and now you have oil consumption issues and VVTi issues all because of oil contamination issues. But to each their own, This is my professional opinion and in the end it's your car,Your money and most importantly your decision.

Regarding the transaxle on the Prius and all hybrid models actually. I've never really drained a hybrid transaxle that had dark fluid or heavily contaminated fluid. There's nothing to contaminate it. Very little metal from the planetary gear and heat cycles.And no torque converter type heat to cook the fluid. With that said I would say on the very early side 60K miles up to 90K. I've only been inside a hanful of hybrid transmissions as they are very reliable. Scary to split the case!! but easily 100 times less complicated than a regular torque converter transmission. Feels more like a simple manual transmission.

Regarding the other post let's clarify something on the Prius. If anyone claims that the Prius or for that matter any Toyota (Except very few models) have sharp handling or high speed stability or expect to make some modification in order to achieve that unfortunately they will be disappointed. Toyota makes reliable cars, Anything that compromises that they're not going with. Good handling cars require more complicated suspension geometry which in turn either cost a fortune or is not reliable. A good rule of thumb with every single car every made is this. You can have 2 out of 3 of the following. Performance Reliability or Low cost. You can't have all three. Performance could be engine power or handling..etc. #12 post is correct, You could change tire brands or speed ratings to very slightly improve things but don't expect a big difference. And at the cost of buying new tires just for the sake of improving is not a good idea. If you're replacing tires anyways because they're worn I would give it a shot but just don't overpay for "performance" tires and then be disappointed that things are not as improved. 2016+ Prius models riding on the new TNGA platform handle impressively well for their intended purpose in my opinion. Sorry for the ramble but I hate to see good people spend their hard earned money on their car to improve something and end up with a dinged wallet and no desired improvement. I wish all people have good luck with their cars and never have issues and may your car cost you the least amount of money to own and may you enjoy it with health!