Hi all, new Prius v owner

I found the part names in the service manual (I edited the post above). Now do I need a "Side Mudguard Retainer " or a "#2 Side Mudguard Retainer "??

Ya some of the corrosion is not great..especially in the rear of the vehicle. I should have looked closer at that before I purchased it. I have taken care of a lot of it though with all the work I've done. Pretty soon the darn thing will be nearly as good as new. I plan on doing a fluidfilm treatment on the rusty spots before winter. Overall the rust is pretty decent now...just rusty in a couple spots.

 

Oops and I forgot to mention (@Raytheeagle ) that I don't care so much about the missing "Rear Wheel House Front Plates"...which I presume is the part you are missing. I'm more concerned about the broken "#2 Side Mudguard Retainers" (part #76924-47020) that help hold the rocker panels on. So I ordered a few of them...found a bag of 15 for pretty cheap ( let me know if you need any ).

 

Adding another brake caliper video ( note that it is for rear brakes on a Gen3...I think ) :

Pretty good video overall. Pretty funny guy. However, I have a couple questions.

• He must not have disconnected the 12V battery.
• He does pinch the brake line after removing the old caliper ( the horror )..and makes a few jokes about it.
• He bleeds the new caliper by having an off camera person ( his wife ) step on the brake to activate the pump.

So out of paranoia I always disconnect the 12V when working on the brakes. After installing the new caliper I'm planning on connecting the 12V battery and then the rear pump should activate to bleed the new caliper when I push on the brake pedal...correct? @NutzAboutBolts any additional comments? I've never replaced a caliper on a Prius before.

 

Ya the 'brake cleaner serenade' in the video is hilarious.

So what is the best way to bleed the calipers after installing? Seems like I can follow your 'Prius brake flush' video to do that?

 

Ok will do. Thx for the help!

 

BTW - I replaced my rotors with zinc plated ones and they seem to be holding up well. Actually, if you go thru this thread you will see it has been quite an adventure...with rust. Frankly, I have never owned a vehicle where the suspension components and brakes have been this rusty. I should have looked closer before I purchased it! Sigh... I have learned a lot though and have replaced quite a few things on the car so far. The brakes/suspension are in darn near brand new condition now ( except the rear wheel bearings...which is on the to-do list ).

As for corrosion inhibitors, try FluidFilm. It seems to be pretty good and is very well known. It is not a 'permanent' solution though. More of an 'undercoat before winter' type of thing.

 

Today I removed the rear seats to prepare for our road trip ( see a couple posts above ). Here is what it looks like.


Since it is only two of us, it saves quite a bit of weight ( they are pretty darn heavy )...and removal provides a tremendous amount of cargo room.

I also discovered how the 'seat belt retainer thingies' work..



I must be dumb..I never noticed them before!

BTW - here are the folding bikes we are taking along :



We gave them a test run and they work great!

Now that I have the seats off I was thinking it would be easy to 'inspect' the hybrid battery. I want to check for dust buildup, etc...since the car was *very* dirty when we purchased it ( see posts above if interested ). I had previously cleaned out the hybrid cooling fan ( Hi all, new Prius v owner | PriusChat )...which was extremely dirty. I never got a chance to look at the battery.

If possible, I want to remove the top cover on the battery and take a peek to check for corrosion, etc.... Any advice/pointers/warnings? Lots of warning stickers on there! Looks to me like there are 11 nuts to remove. However, there is an orange 'plug' on the rear (hatch side) of the battery that looks like it also needs to come off. Any idea what that is?

Edit : Found some good info here : 2010 - 2015 Toyota Prius (non plug-in) Plug-and-Play Car Harness Insta – Hybrid Automotive

Edit: Some great battery info here :

 

I got the cover off...really easy once you do it once.

Looks pretty dusty ....I wiped off a small section in the center to show the difference :



Probably nothing to worry about I would guess..but it does show that dust has worked it's way into the battery compartment. I did attempt to blow it out a bit but the dust 'stuck'....

 

Ok..so it is 'safe' to pull the bus bar covers off without getting shocked? I'm super paranoid about that ( I got shocked once back in the day..and it wasn't fun ). At any rate, it is all put back together now...I'm not gonna muck with it anymore until after the road trip.

Haha the fan still looks spic 'n span!