Hi all, new Prius v owner

Nicely done.

 

Did you try a straight hot water bath to remove the scale?

I’d give that a shot and see if it takes it off.

Between the 2 Prii in your fleet, that spare cooler will get some use.

 

@Mendel Leisk is our oxy-clean specialist.

 

Yeah I'd just plug one end of the cooler, pour the solution in. If I ever need to do it again, I'll prep by getting a proper diameter rubber stopper: I made do with a wood dowel planed down on a taper, and wrapped with a double layer of latex glove, to give it some flex. But anyway: you only need to be cleaning the passages where the exhaust gasses pass through, not the coolant passages. I think it's ok though, to do that: it's all stainless steel construction.

 

Yeah seems like. One thing, I wouldn't use oxi on the valve, which is aluminum. It might not be detrimental, but I believe it will tend to "dull" it.

I did oxi-clean soaks on the intake manifold. I'd say it helped to bubble more crud out of the small diameter EGR passages (one at each intake port), but ultimately it seemed unnecessary. Braklean plus some small diameter bottle brushes or what have you, is good enough. The intake manifold is much more open than the EGR cooler, and the interior plastic is kinda rough, so "functionally" clean is good enough I think.

 

Bridgestone is $70 off on set of four right now:


Tires: Shop for Car, SUV & Truck Tires - Costco


Maybe Michelin is next?

Canada's Costco's have $70 gift card on Bridgestone right now too, and supposedly following this schedule:

[Costco] 2018 Spring Tire Promotion @ Costco - RedFlagDeals.com Forums

The Bridgestone promotion commenced and runs as predicted above. They also had Michelin $70 gift card running for a few days, about a week back, not as predicted. Anyway, you'll see in above link (Canadian) that Michelin should follow, so maybe similar in the States. Just keep an eye on their website.

It kinda ticks me that Costco Canada has switched to gift cards: it's not the same as cash at the till, doesn't reduce sales tax (12% up here), and makes you a captive Costco shopper. It's getting closer and closer to the typical mail-in rebates, arguably better because it's still a little faster (gift card in the mail in a week or two, vs months for mail-in rebate) and arguably worse since the rebate's only spendable at Costco.

I was all geared up to re-tire this spring, but ended up putting the ol' Michelin Pilot's back on, one more time. Their build date is February 2009. Lotsa tread still, but looking a little tired. Roll good. Feel good, a little noisy just.

 

My Michelin "rebate" in the US was a Master Card debit card which worked for me almost perfectly as the next time I went to the grocery I happened to ring up $69.77. Yes tax and yes spoilage. But in the greater scheme of things, a rounding error.

 

@Mendel Leisk mentions a partial coolant drain IIRC.

 

Pull the throttle body to the side .

No need to disconnect .

Good luck this weekend .

 

@Raytheeagle beat me to it. Just lift up and to your right, you can tie it the inverter or whatever with some twine.

Yes, that's the way to go when removing EGR cooler. Drain a couple of litres (not sure how much is necessary, but this suffices) at the radiator drain spigot. There will be a slight bit of coolant trapped in the lower back corner of the cooler: you can just lift the cooler out without changing orientation, then tip it out into your drain container.

You can do this without raising the car and/or removing the undershield. But you might want to do that anyway, if you want access from below, and so the things you drop (hopefully) go right through.

The level drops in the reservoir when you do this drain, and when you pour it back in afterwards it'll be slightly high, but levels out after a few days driving. You might want to leave a top hose off the EGR (or the bleed bolt open, if you have a 2010~2011), and squeeze the bigger rad hoses a bit during pouring the fluid back in. Reconnect hose (or close bleed bolt) once coolant starts to flow out, as you're pouring fluid back into the reservoir..

 

Twine.

Kids these days use zip ties.

I was able to get it to stay without the need for either method.

 

Not when they are baling hay
City slickers! Humph!

 

I’m sure @Mendel Leisk does his fair share of barn yard chores.

 

Funny/true story: we were wandering around Canadian Tire (good luck trying to find tires there...) and overheard an older lady asking staff where they kept the string. She got mostly puzzled looks.

I used to "bale" tree and bamboo clippings, had up to 10 of the dang things curbside on compost day. Now they've switched over to the big plastic bins that the truck picks up, not as much fun.