Newb with a 2003

That's what I thought. I'll pick up another module on Friday from a parts recycler in Orlando. I still want to repair the sensing harness as I don't trust it long term.

 

Wasn't able to get another battery module yet. Will have to wait till Tuesday. I just ordered everything I need to do an overhaul on the brakes, new drums, rotors, rear wheel cylinders, front and back hoses. Already have the pads and shoes. Hopefully the calipers aren't all dry rotted.

I changed the oil today and replaced the spark plugs with NGK laser Iridium's. The oil that came out was very dirty. I'm going to run a can of SEAFOAM through the engine half in the gas half in the oil and change it again. There was ALOT of varnish and deposits on both the drain plug and the dipstick. It was recommended to me to run a quart of DEX/MERC through the engine oil, I've heard that will clean out deposits and not do any damage. Can anyone tell me why I shouldn't do that on a Prius?

Ordered new windshield wipers to replace the dry rotted ones.

Replaced the head light bulbs with GE Night Hawk
Platinum's

Good news the A/C works. I put a can in and it gets nice and cold. Except now the ac belt squeaks. So I ordered belts, Gates for the serpentine and Goodyear Gatorback for the power steering to ac compressor.

Still need to pick up fluids for radiator, inverter, and transmission fluid change and more engine oil.

 

Can this be used in both the radiator and the inverter loop Valvoline™ ZEREX™ Asian Vehicle Antifreeze / Coolant : Product Catalog - Valvoline®. It meets the Toyota specifications.

 

Another update for those who are following or interested. I flushed and refilled the radiator today. Emptied it then filled it up with distilled water ran the engine till it was up to temp and then emptied it letting it suck all the old coolant out of the reservoir. I then refilled it with the Valvoline radiator fluid for Asian vehicles. It meets the Toyota specs so Im pretty certain its safe.

after that I flushed the brakes. The fluid that came out was very dark. This flush seems to have cured my soft brakes. It was at this point I realized my parking pawl must be broke as it will now roll if in park if there is no parking/E-brake applied.

I was trying to do two things at once, burp the radiator while flushing the drivers side brake caliper. Well while I had it up in the air with the car on and in park, the wheel starts to spin. not very fast but it would fluctuate with the engine rpm. Is this normal if the parking pawl is broken? Or is something else wrong.

Tomorrow I plan to drain and refill the the transmission fluid and drain and refill the Inverter coolant.

Last but not least I put in a new battery. Did the battery mod to fit conventional sized batteries in the car. Was pretty easy. Now I just need to get a piece of carpet or something to keep it from vibrating against the car and rubbing a hole in the battery or shifting around.

So after tomorrow all maintenance will be done and I can keep track of it from here out. Also while I had the tires off I realized new shocks and struts are in my future. The stops and bellows are completely disintegrated and there is corrosion and pitting on the pistons.

 

Update. using the vin number and Toyota owner site ive been able to look some of the dealer service. Some makes no sense as it just says "write in description" or "Sublet Repair" and nothing else to tell me what was done. From what I can tell the car sat ALOT longer than the seller led me to believe. Its moved less than 2,000 since the beginning of 2015. Over its life its had the MAF sensor replaces in 2007, new spark plugs twice at the dealer(I just did it for its 3rd time). New ignition coil in 2013, New catalytic converter and inverter coolant pump in 2010.

I guess that tells me why the spark plugs I took out looked so new! I guess I will hold on to them as spares.

 

Changed the inverter fluid today. Think I got all the air out. Ill keep checking it to be sure.

I'm going to put off changing the transmission fluid until I get a gasket for the pan and a fluid transfer pump to fill it. I saw some video and pictures of some VERY dirty pans. So I want to be sure mine isn't full of junk. I'm also going to put a rare earth magnet in there just to help pick up more metal.

Took the traction battery back out. The bad module was right where the code said it would be. It must have one bad cell, it was at 6.4 volts. Every other module in the pack is either 7.9 or 7.8 volts.

While I had it out I did the repairs to the voltage sensing harness. I crimped and soldered the new ring terminals on and put the pack back together. Should only take me about 30 minutes to put in the new module and to put it all back together and in the car tomorrow. I'm getting pretty fast at it!

 

Well I got the new module installed. Put it back in the car bolted it down and started it up. Right away I got P3030. Damn voltage sensing wire break. Ugh, its getting dark and i'm soaked with sweat as its still over 90 degrees outside and its been raining of and on so the humidity is high here in Florida. I guess the harness isn't repaired after all. Well time to undo all the work I just did. Well I got the other one that I also repaired and installed it. I left the pack in the car and just took the cover off. connect it all back up again and start it up. All seems good, then I get another triangle fault main battery. Check for a code, nothing. Clear the code and a few moments later it comes back. Still no code in the ECU. Well I decide to try the Tech Stream software I installed on my laptop. Bring it out to the car and cant get it to connect to the car. I think its a driver issue with the Mini VCI. Well I've been letting the car idle this entire time i'm messing around. Probably a good 30 minutes or more. Car is running fine. Well I clear the nonresistant code again and this time it doesn't come back. I decide to take it for a spin around the neighborhood, the code never comes back. Got on a back road and had it up to 70 mph, no code. Battery is showing at two bars the whole time. Take it home park it and let it idle. It shows its charging the pack so I just let it charge till it stops at 3 bars. While it was charging I put my multi-meter on the main connector and got about 314 volts while charging and 304 volts when it stopped charging. 304 / 38 = 8. That tells me all the modules should theoretically be at 8 volts.

Tomorrow i'm going to put the cover back on, bolt it down and leave the seats out for a few days while I drive it around and make sure I don't get anymore codes.

 

Been driving the car everyday to work for the past 3 days, about 30 miles round trip. No codes, running like a top.

 

Put over 500 miles on the Prius and its been doing good except for the spongy brakes. Battery is at 3 bars and hasnt moved. been averaging about 38mpg. One thing I noticed by happen stance is that there seem to be ALOT of back pressure in the engine. I took the oil fill cap off while the engine was running and there is ALOT of air pumping out. Is this normal?

 

Update: Looks like I have another bad battery module. I'm pretty sure its one of the suspect ones that I chose not to replace when I rebuilt it. Ive been monitoring it with my OBDII scanner and the TORQUE app. It will go as much as 2 volts different than the rest. And of course it starts throwing these codes right when I needed to drive it about 400 round trip. It made the trip with no problem, just had the clear the code after any moderate to heavy acceleration. I wont have time to fix it till around the first of the year. Otherwise the cars been pretty great. Ive put about 8,000 miles on it since the battery rebuild.

Other things ive done since my last post is I pulled the transmission and oil pans and cleaned them. I'm glad I did! They were both dirty. I cleaned them both really good and added some rare earth magnets. The oil pan was the worst. It had hardened deposits i had to scrap and chip out and then use a stiff brush and solvent to get it completely clean. This is even after running seafoam and transmission fluid in the oil and using a motor oil flush before the change. The oil pan has definitely been pulled before. It was missing the gasket, they used a ton of sealant instead. Also when I had the oil pan off I could see right up into the engine. It was full of varnish and some deposits. I cleaned it the best I could. Im going to do another round of seafoam and engine oil flush at my next oil change. May switch to synthetic then.

 

Well, I got the module replaced. I'm getting fast at pulling the battery! had it out and replaced and back in the car in less than an hour! Using the torque app the replacement module was about 0.6 volts out of sync with the rest. After a day its down to about 0.1-0.2 variation with the rest with a max variation of 0.3 in the entire pack. Im hoping after another day or two that it will sync up with the rest.

Im overdue for an oil change. I got some Shell Rotella T5 synthetic blend 10W30 im going to put in. I did my research and its safe to use in gasoline engines as it meets all the standards. Hoping it will clean up the engine as it has ALOT of varnish and deposits. Gonna do another oil flush while im at it. Once thats done im going to give the car another seafoam treatment. As far as MPG's ive been seeing anywhere from 38-41 depending on where im going. So even with all the trouble with the battery im still happy with the car, even if my friends think im crazy.

 

Just a little update. My rear wheel bearing on the rear driver side is going bad. It has started to make a very loud humming/buzzing noise and its getting louder. The car sounds like a jet engine spinning up. Its louder at different speeds. I already have the part, just gotta install them. I ordered new whole new strut and shock assemblies for all 4 corners. I also ordered new lower ball joints, stabilizer bar links, stabilizer bar bushings, and outer tie rods. The rear shocks came in before I had to leave the state for work so they are already in. It was a quick and easy process. I put new tires on the rear. Went with 195/70R14's. Gonna get new front tires once the suspension work is done. Looking forward to putting all the new parts on the car when I get back in a few weeks. As far as everything else, car seems to be running great. Thinking of pulling the blower motor for HVAC to clean and inspect it. It just doesn't move enough air.

I also ordered a HD camera Boroscope on amazon. Planning to pull the plugs and take a look down the cylinders. Im curious how much carbon build up is on the pistons. Ive been running seafoam in the gas and MMO in the oil. Doing oil flushes every oil change. Probably gonna stick to the high detergent Shell Rotella oil for awhile.

 

Forgot to mention about the sanding and polishing of the headlights. Since new headlight assemblies are super expensive and hard to come by I decided to give sanding and polishing the haze out of them. I probably spent a good 3-4 hours total with soapy water and progressively higher sand paper to get the haze out. They aren't perfecting clear now but it has made a WORLD of difference! Started with 800 grit and worked up to 2000 grit.

 

Ive enjoyed keeping it running and fixing problems as they arise. Still haven't fixed the intermittent spongy brakes. Gonna probably just start replacing parts starting with the least expensive.

 

Ive bled them numerous times. Replaced the brake hoses and wheel cylinders. Thinking its the booster pump or the brake master cylinder. They can be pumped up firm with lots of quick pumps or bled down to the floor with long hard pushes on the peddle.

 

Did some more work on the old car yesterday and today. Yesterday I replaced the rear wheel bearing on both sides and changed the oil. The passenger side wheel bearing was the culprit for all the noise. Car is quiet as a mouse now. Job was way easier than I was expecting didn't have to fight with any corrosion or disassemble the rear drum shoes. I went WAY over due on my oil change it was at 6600 miles since the last oil change. Glad I put it the high detergent oil and Marvel Mystery Oil last time. I use Motor Medic 5-minute motor flush and replaced the oil with DELO 400 XLE heavy duty 10w30 & 20% Marvels Mystery Oil and Purolator PureOne oil filter.

Today I tackled the front suspension. Replaced both strut assemblies, sway bar end links, and the sway bar bushings. Didnt take very long. Car rides like a new car now. No more bouncing up and down and no more clunks or rattles from the front. Need to go back and adjust the wiper arms as I reinstalled them to high on the windshield.

I still have new tie rod ends and ball joints to put in. But I'm gonna save that for another day it doesn't look like rain.