Saying goodbye to the GenIII

Sold the Gen 3 Prius yesterday to a newlywed couple and a bit sad to see it go - 168k on the clock. Got too much for her with the market and replaced it with a 12th Gen Corolla LE J-VIN which we bought at the end June for 24.9% off of MSRP in THIS MARKET! Still is waiting on her first break-in oil change and a Fumoto valve. Getting a crankcase of fresh TGMO 0W-20 and Toyota/Denso filter in a few weeks.

The Prius has served us well and the only issue we had was the clogged EGR cooler - which I cleaned and replaced the entire circuit.

She got a full exterior detail including headlight restoration (clay bar, polished with Griot's complete compound, and sealed with a Turtle Wax ceramic coating, new brakes all the way around (Akebono pads and E-coated Centric rotors), new wiper blades, a new cabin filter, and new rear wheel bearings (NTK/Aisin). Going to wash it for a final time tomorrow, throw a bottle of injector cleaner in her, and fill the gas tank and drop her off to her new owners.

I will probably still lurk on here and impart my knowledge to others.

 

So the vehicle spent 3 winters in OH and the rest of the time in NC. All-in-all it is not a rusty vehicle and you probably wouldn't know that it was in the rust belt as you can tell from the photos except for the fact that the caliper brackets and calipers are corroded a little bit. The driver side wasn't too bad (this one was a bit loose with a significant click. Took maybe 30 to 45 mins to get out), but the passenger side (was tight but had just a very slightly audible click only when the hub was torqued to 66 ft-lbs) took me almost 2 hours of beating on it and using a slide hammer and hub puller. I went back and forth deciding whether to change it and knew if I didn't, I wouldn't be happy with myself. The brakes and wheel bearings took me a full day in the garage.

South Main Auto has some tricks popping out 2 studs and using nuts and bolts to put pressure on the knuckle (in this case the trailing arm assembly). I was getting ready to head to Home Depot to buy some bolts and an air chisel and it flew out and I fell off my stool .

I used gobs and gobs of Liquid Wrench penetrating oil (Project Farm has this rated as one of the best Penetrating Oil – Liquid Wrench).

 

I would say in a SE / non-rust belt vehicle, it should pop out within 15 mins with a slide hammer and a few good blows with a 3 or 5 lb hammer.

If not, buy an air chisel and watch SMA on YT. It would have saved me hours and pulling my back if I were prepared. Funny though, the '09 NF Sonata that I bought to replace my other vehicle was originally from OH and those wheel bearings popped out within 10 to 15 mins with a slide hammer. Therefore, I didn't think these would be that big of an issue.

I will say that the wheel speed plugs/connectors also took me a good 10 to 15 mins a side to get unclipped and when I was putting the cover/dirt shield for the cover back on, I couldn't get it seated and clipped correctly. I was worried about damaging the harness by putting the pressure on it that I was.

I also cleaned the surfaces with my wire brush attachments for my drill and prepped them for the next guy with Anti-Seize and also put a nice coat of Liquid Film on them. The NTK hubs are beauts though and have a black painted end cap and say Aisin and Made in Japan right on them. They are Toyota OEM hubs. Well worth the $90 a pop I spent.

 

Actually, I just wanted to make sure that it sold for top dollar. Which I think I got - $6500 (2010 purchased in Dec '09 new by my FIL and as I stated above just over 168k on the clock). That is right in the middle of the KBB excellent range for my area and in all honesty way too much for a car that is nearly 12 years old, but hey I have a 2010 at a dealership with 165k listed at $8k (It was at $9k and they dropped it because this car was 100% in an accident and you can see the paint is mismatched on the front end and they've had it on their lot for quite some time now) and a 2010 Camry LE with 178k listed at $7400 - w/ doc fees and TTL they would both be around $1000 more OTD. I actually emailed the dealer with the Camry out of curiosity and got a quote of $8505.XX OTD. I should mention the dealership offered me $3k when I first went to look at and test drive cars. I almost laughed in the guys face. The cats are being stolen on the 2nd and 3rd Gens because they go for $1000 to $1500 on secondary.

Do I know them? No I don't. The funny thing though is the husband is from the same town in Ohio as my wife and his wife goes to school with my coworker's wife. It is a small world!

It's about karma for me though. I want someone to have a worry free ride. Just buy it and go. Just the way I am and I had bought all of the parts at the beginning of the pandemic so I had them in my garage. Didn't want to say, here you go, find someone to install them.

Plus paying it forward. My wife and I have great jobs and have done better for ourselves in the last 8 months. I got a huge promotion and my wife got a significant raise at a new job.

 

Ohh you're not alone, my wife thought I was crazy too, haha

 

That would 100% work too and you wouldn't have to pop a stud out or two out.

The nice thing about the stud hole is that it's smaller and their won't be as much play when you apply pressure to the knuckle/trailing arm. So in theory it should be able to apply more direct force.

Also, hitting one of the ears where the bolts go into the hub (there are no threads on the hub housing, the hole is through and through and the threads are only on the trailing arm) with an air chisel/hammer should put some rotational shear force on the hub, and break free the fused, rusted metal

I think doing everything in combo will have you with the hub out in no time.