Should I purchase a 2011 Prius two with 219,000 miles? It had been dealer maintained.

Only if you are prepared for the possibility of all the "common" faults that can occur on a high mileage early Gen3- HV battery, EGR clogging, oil consumption, head gasket failure, inverter, brake actuator , etc. There's nothing that says any of these things WILL happen any time soon, but one or more COULD happen, and the more use it gets, then the higher the likelihood.

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I wouldn't unless you're handy and want to potentially deal with a head gasket replacement. EGR cleaning at the very minimum. And likely will need a new battery sooner rather than later.

 

No, unless you're getting it for $1500. I agree about the egr maintenance, but I have not heard about any gen 3 battery going bad so far...but it will eventually. could be a year, could be 5 or 8.

 

Those two factors pretty much assure head gasket failure just around the corner. You’d think dealership maintenance would be a positive, but dealerships tend to be oblivious (intentionally?) to EGR issues, and owners using dealerships exclusively for maintenance, and info, tend to be less knowledgeable about the stuff Toyota is downplaying.

Yeah, for aforementioned $1500 (purchase price), and be prepared to:

1. Immediately clean Exhaust Gas Recirculation and intake manifold.

2. Be ready for a head gasket replacement; an EGR untouched for 219K is asking for it.

3. Unless you can get access to the maintenance history: do a full brake inspection, brake fluid change, both coolant circuit changes, transaxle fluid change. I’d also pull and check plugs too. They’re supposed to be changed at 120k but who knows.

4. If water pump (engine coolant pump) has never been changed, I’d do that ASAP too. Optimum interval is maybe 150K, synced with second engine coolant change (and first inverter coolant change? Maybe others will comment on this.


BTW, if you don’t have warranty and maintenance booklet, you can download from Toyota Tech Info; it has full maintenance schedule.

if you’re interested I can post excel graph format translation of it; MUCH easier to understand.

 

No. It was never test driven.

 

Got lucky when I bought one. I was going to use it as a temp but found out the brake module was replaced under warranty, the ecu was updated and the battery pack was refurbished. Only thing I'm replacing is the engine and all the coolant hoses

 

For now anyway. At some point you'll be spending money on the battery...you can't really "refurbish" a battery. You can replace bad/weak cells but it nothing like new...kinda like patching a bald tire.

 

yes!!!

is this a poll?

 

Well the PO showed me a receipt for the work on the battery replacement and another for when they had to take it back for a bad fan that was replaced under warranty. The car has been down for a while due to needing a new engine so I might look into charging the cells and go from there. He was expecting it to backfire while I did a test drive but it didn't. Drove fine on the way home. I looked at it 2 weeks later and notice ALOT of oil leaks, by the oil filter, the valve cover the lower portion of the block, around the timing chain cover and oil pan. I came to the conclusion it needed all new seals around and a new timing chain/guides/tension. Decided that since I saw so much gunk in the intake manifold and egr that the rings must be toasted as well so an engine replacement would save me some time and it justified the coast. Not to mention pulling out the engine to reseal and put in a new rear main seal.

 

I'm just saying that unless he put in a NEW hybrid battery then all the parts in your "refurbished" battery are used batteries and will only last so long. Also, being down for "a while"...inactivity is bad for the battery too unless it was installed after the downtime period.