Research- Gen 1 Prius Longevity

Gen 1 came out in 2000.

Gen 0 came out in 1997.

Both are sometimes lumped into the same category, since the body was almost identical. In reality, the battery-packs differed significantly.
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Still driving it. My ride home tonight (see signature.) I bought it used in Oct. 2005 with 49,300 miles. Drove it home from Fort Worth TX and now it has a little over 125,000 miles.

I'm not a good person to ask about maintenance since I use my NHW11 for experiments:

• added 1 kW inverter - used for home power about 1-2 times per year. It also provides 110 VAC in cabin for laptop use.
• added transaxle breather tube - used as part of a long term study of potential transaxle oil contamination. No evidence it is needed but too lazy to install a replacement transaxle vent.
• added XM radio kit - no longer in use after switching to iPod Touch last summer (cheaper and higher quality programming.)
• bought lifetime wheel alignment
• used metal shims for rear wheel alignment
• replace metal shims with EZ wheel alignment disk
• bought caster adjustment bolt
• replaced original 12 VDC battery after 4 years with seal, glass-mat 12 VDC battery
• added 2" receiver hitch and trailer light plug
• built and tested 'dingy towing' configuration
• drive with Graham Mini-scanner
• changed inverter coolant at ~53k miles
• series of transaxle oil wear test changes: Amsoil ATF, Amsoil ATF, Type WS, Type WS
• change engine oil twice a year: Spring and Fall
• change engine air filter once a year: Fall
• clean throttle body plate once a year: Fall
• injector cleaner once a year: Fall
• rotate tires twice a year: Spring and Fall
• air up tires every 3 months, also have pressure caps
• use mini-shop jack instead of OEM jack (Thanks Doug!)
• installed convex mirrors on inside review mirror edges
• installed Cat-5 data cable between engine compartment and cabin for experimental purposes
• installed inductive pickups on MG1 and MG2 leads for power studies
• swapped about half-a-dozen rebuilt accelerators (Thanks Doug!)
• tail light fuse blew (probably the rental John boat and trailer)
• bought and assembled folding 4x8 ft. trailer
• bought both shop manuals and schematic
• bought spare key (used 2003 Prius came with one key)
• bought Ebay keyfob for backup and programmed it
• bought GPS mouse for engineering studies used with laptop
• bought a petroleum densiometer for gasoline studies
• bought a 1 gal, spare gas can for gasoline studies (ran it out of gas over three dozen times)
• replaced Motorcraft tires with Sumitomo T4 after 4-5 months
• wore out first Sumitomos and bought another set
• bought spare rim and have a full-size spare
• duct-tape covered, split water noodle, bumper air inlet block
• a suicidal pole planted itself in front of the passenger side stop light while I was backing into a parking place at dusk (I no longer back into parking places.)
• windshield wipers every 2-3 years depending upon wear
• Rain-X before long trips

I think that pretty well covers the maintenance and mods that have been used on or about the car.

Still on the original battery but I bought a spare from a salvage a couple of years ago. I also bought a failed traction battery to get hands on bad and marginal modules for experimental purposes. Also bought a computer controlled, RC model charger for the experiments.

Bob Wilson

 

My Prius is from 2001. The battery was replace at 95,000 miles, but I'm not sure why you would sell/trade it in because of that.

 

The traction battery warranty is for 8 years / 100K miles. Once the warranty has expired, aftermarket and salvage alternatives are available, instead of paying $2,200 plus labor for a new battery.

The battery on my 2001 was replaced at ~60K miles under warranty.

I also agree that failure of the traction battery would not necessarily trigger sale of the vehicle. It is more likely that transaxle failure would trigger a forced sale, due to the $5-6K cost of removing/replacing that with a new part, compared to the market value of the car.

 

No, it's under warranty until 100,000 miles.

 

:cheer2:

 

The best answer I can give to that question is this: It certainly can last 10 years, but I wouldn't count on it. Perhaps when you go prius shipping, you should look for one that has already had the battery replaced at some point, then you won't need to worry about it.

 

Primarily the price. You can buy a new 2010 Insight much cheaper than a 2010 Prius. But I am also a fan of driver-oriented instrument panels and the center-dash layout of the Prius is unattractive to me. I've been very pleased with the Insight too, it gets between 46 and 50 mpg all of the time.

As for buying a "new" one.. I'm surprised you'd be posting to the Gen-1 forum because you can't buy those new anymore. If you are getting a new Prius, I probably wouldn't worry about the batteries because the new ones use a better battery that probably will last 10 years for most people.

 

Sad to say but the answer is "it depends:"

• hilly terrain, frequent speeds at or above 70 mph, high temperatures, original NHW11 modules - risky, good chance of early failure.
• same thing, NHW20 modules - little or no risk, these are nearly bullet proof modules.
• climb at 55 mph, speeds up to and including 65 mph, park in shade in summer, original NHW11 modules - little or no risk, this style of driving avoids 'heat pumping' the modules, the enemy.

Note there is no assurance with NHW11 modules how the previous owner treated the car.

Bob Wilson

 

quick note for this thread. Just traded in my '01 for an '05 about 2 months ago. '01 had 245,000 miles on it, engine, traction battery, etc. had no real problems - Toyota claimed one of the cells in traction battery was leaking a couple years ago and recommended replacing, but I said no, they patched it up as best they could and it ran fine for another 45,000. Finally had to get rid of it as it developed a very intermittent starting problem - dealer replaced a ton of stuff, towed car in 6 or 7 times, but never could find problem (replaced ECU, aux. battery, air flow, brake sensors, ...............). Every two or three weeks it just wouldn't start. But when running, still ran fabulously well. I was peeved it didn't make it to 250K, but i couldn't bear it anymore
Ken

 

Hi Ken,

Thanks for sharing your story. Regarding your list of repairs done to the car, was the throttle body and throttle plate cleaned?

I'm wondering if the root problem was the circuit opening relay or the fuel pump becoming flaky (the latter would require fuel tank replacement.) Was the fuel line pressure checked? (43 psi at idle speed is spec.)

 

I believe they cleaned the throttle components; they changed a ton-o-stuff out, only partly at my expense... I don't know if they did anything w/fuel pump. When it failed to start, I'd turn the key and the dash would light up fine, but no sound at all from the ICE trying to start, etc. Often, it would start on the 3rd or 4th try, or waiting an hour, or overnight, without any other intervention, so the circuit relay or an intermittent short seem like the culprits. They even replaced the ignition cylinder, keys, etc. Never diagnosed the problem, so I let them keep it and got a real nice loaded '05. LOVE having cruise control, finally!
Ken

 

Thanks for the addl info. If you don't hear MG1 trying to start the ICE, then the problem would not be the fuel pump or circuit opening relay.

Apparently the hybrid vehicle ECU is not getting the inverter to provide AC power to MG1 when you issue the command to start. Fascinating problem.