What services you need and what you don't

There is no problem waiting until 5K miles as long as you change the oil at least annually.

Since your car has lasted 180K miles, whatever you had been doing seems to be working well.

Make sure the services required at 100K and 120K miles have been performed, and that all engine compartment fluids remain full, especially the engine radiator (open the radiator cap to verify fluid level, do not rely just on looking at the overflow container.) Ensure that the serpentine drive belt is good and that the engine coolant pump is not leaking coolant at the bearing.

 

A toss up. I'd go with 6 months. Still, at some point that starts to fall apart, with really low mileage. Honda says something along the line of changing it at least yearly, with extreme low mileage.

 

Any way you could direct me to how to find these things? I can change an air and cabin filter and that's about it.

 

Radiator cap: hiding under the large black plastic panel over the radiator. That panel is held on with six plastic fasteners that look like, but are not, Philips screws. Use a Philips screwdriver to rotate a fastener as you apply upwards pressure on the panel, to pop the fastener out of the hole.

Serpentine drive belt: at the end of the engine, facing the passenger-side fender.

Engine coolant pump: attached to one of the pulleys being spun by the serpentine belt.

Search for my posts about how to replace the engine coolant pump and the serpentine belt, as they provide several photos taken in that area.

 

Anyone have the part numbers for:

Serpentine Belt
Inverter coolant

Cheers

Tony D

 

I bought my 2008 (Touring edition) late last spring with about 88K miles. I just took it for the 90K mile service recently, at a local diesel/hybrid specialist (not dealership). They did an oil change, tune up (spark plugs, air filters, clean throttle body, clean mass airflow sensor),drain flush & fill transmission fluid [expensive!], PCV valve, they also replaced serpentine belt (a friend since looked at the old belt & said I could have gotten a bit more out of it but replacing wasn't unreasonable). Total was $688. Anything here look fishy? Trying to decide if these guys are straight up or not.

They also said that the dealership I bought the car from (not a Toyota dealership),when they said they'd done the brakes, had only replaced the pads not the rotors ... I have been told that this is a no-no. Do I need to be concerned about this? They also discovered that said dealership had not installed the brake hardware kit, which is the cause of an annoying slightly metallic sound I hear on rough pavement when windows are down. Once again, a concern??

Biggest annoyance I have so far is the rear defrost doesn't work. They discovered that there's a break in the circuit within the rear window & they replaced a fuse. It worked for three days, then stopped again (they warned me of this but I didn't think it would happen so fast). So rather than have to replace a fuse several times a week (defrost is really needed in Seattle weather) I'm thinking of replacing the rear window. Any advice on this appreciated (best sources for a good deal, places to have it done etc).

Last but not least I'll be looking for new tires soon since I've discovered the traction control isn't working well on wet pavement (just started raining again after a very dry summer here). I've always loved Yokohamas in the past, anyone have these tires on their Prius? Recommendations for Seattle's wet roads (bear in mind I have the Touring's larger wheels)?

thanks everyone!

 

1) Spark plugs were replaced a bit early. Toyota calls for replacing at 120K -- but not THAT big of deal.

2) PCV early also -- probably could have waited until 120K -- but again, not THAT big of deal

3) Filters, who knows? If they were dirty, then they needed replacing, if not, you could have waited.

4) MAF and throttle body, probably a good idea, but again, depends if they were very dirty or not.

5) You can replace ONLY pads. It depends on the condition of the rotors. Indeed, on the Prius, I would not be surprised that the rotors did not need replacing or servicing. Indeed, even replacing the pads might not have been necessary. Again, depends on the wear.

6) Belt, probably needed replacing -- and I am going to sound like a recording, but it depends on the wear.

Defroster, not have experience with the Prius, but on another car, I think it was a 90's-era Ford, I was able to fix something such as you are talking about very cheaply. But, not knowing exactly what they meant with the break in the circuit -- and the fact that replacing a fuse will not repair a break in the circuit, unless, indeed, the fuse was blown, I have no idea. The ideal thing would be to know what is causing the fuse to blow and fix that, which might be quite cheap. Cheaper than an new window.

I might have that issue investigated elsewhere, or go back and tell them the fuse blew again and ask exactly what break are they talking about and how would they propose fixing it permanently.

Tires, I would recommend Les Schwab, as at least you will get a decent Toyo tire for not a cheap price, an O.K. price and if you have any issues at all, they will get you back on the road quickly.

If you don't like les, Discount Tire can hook you up with a decent Yoko:

Yokohama YK580

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Size 195 /55 R16 87V SL BSW
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$122.00each

 

Thanks for the link to the Yokos, look very similar to what I had on my Passat (and loved).

As far as the defrost, I'm probably using the wrong term but they said it was something broken within the window - they'd tested the connection points (of the window) and everything good up to that point. I don't understand the electrical well enough to know the terminology, just something within the window (the black lines) that at some point there's a break. They said I'd need to either keep replacing the fuse or replace the window .

Good to know re. the brake pad/rotor issue, I don't need to be so ticked off at the dealer who sold me the car after all. I guess it's different in the Prius than other cars and I won't worry about it too much. Does make me worry about the knowledge (or perhaps honesty) of the shop though, if they're hybrid specialists you'd think that they would know this. Still wondering about the [missing] brake hardware though - should I get this fixed?

I always used Discount Tire with my Passat but think I may switch to Les Schwab since Discount doesn't do alignments (at least in Seattle), which is inconvenient since it requires a separate trip.

 

Your defrost thing still sounds a bit weird. My issue, now that I thought about it was one of those little grid wires had a break -- the wires that go across the window.

It was an easy fix, IIRC correctly, but that whole fuse thing with yours, well, does not sound like the wire break -- here is a repair link btw:

Repair a Broken Rear Defroster Line

If I were you I would start a new post in care and maintenance forum on the defrots and describe the issue, maybe one of the real experts can help.

I am not an expert on brakes. Normally, if you do a brake job, you replace the hardware. But, if for some reason they did not, and it still works? got me. The Prius usually does not use the brakes when it stops, unless it is a panic or emergency stop. Usually it uses some special engine braking system that I don't really understand, which is why the brakes on the Prius last forever -- sort of...

Steve

 

This is a concern only if you are bothered by the sound.

A "break" in a circuit would not blow a fuse. A "short" in a circuit would, if the 12V circuit is shorted to body ground instead of powering the intended load.

It is reasonable that a defroster element might develop a break if the conductive element painted on the glass is scratched. However it is not clear how the defroster in the rear window would develop a short.

Can you identify and provide a name for the fuse that is blowing?

 

Patrick, my lack of electrical knowledge is showing

haven't gotten that far with the fuse - I haven't actually bothered with it since they fixed it, then it went out again. According to my owner's manual it's fuse 2(40A) I'm assuming since the fuse blows, it must be a short rather than a break in the conductive lines (which would mean that part of it doesn't work but the rest does, from what I can surmise from the link that Steve Woods posted, and of course what you said above).

This is a post on a forum (not about Prii - LandRover forum - but it may apply, question was from someone whose defroster kept burning through fuses): "On the rear defroster issue......you got a short somewhere. Most likely in the rubber "condom" around the hinges where is bends all the time when you open and close the door. This is the best location to start from....but really...the short could be anywhere." However as I said earlier when the shop tested it they said it was good up until the connection points (which I don't think would be true if there were a short of this sort since that would be before these contacts?). Beginning to look like a real mystery ...

Note that the side mirrors (heated) DO work when I turn on rear defrost, even when rear defrost doesn't work - but they are on different fuses .

 

Regarding the transmission fluid change, there's no need to flush, unless the wrong fluid had been put in at some time. Either they overcharged for what is really a simple fluid change, or did multiple changes (a flush) for no good reason. A simple drain and fill should be around $80 $100 at most.

Regarding the brakes, there's absolutely nothing wrong with replacing pads but not the rotors. This is something new that some places or DIY'rs are extolling. My 2 cents, for the most part it is just a waste. If there was some "hardware" missing, yeah that's not good. But it'd be good to know exactly what: anti-rattle clips, pad bridging springs, shim plates. That'd be sloppy brake work.

 

Yes, you may be right about an intermittent wiring short in the hatch area, causing the blown fuse. I suggest you may want to get a second opinion on this issue prior to replacing the hatch glass as that will not be an inexpensive project.

Since the issue is intermittent it is not obvious to me how the shop mechanic would know for sure where the short is located - unless he could force the short to occur by flexing something...

 

^ I thank God for auto-hydraulic adjustment on third gen. Honda's were a lot easier in that regard, valve adjustment was a DIY exercise, really justified the $100 you'd spent on the Shop Manual. But this was screw and lock nut adjustment. OTOH, maybe that system is more prone to need adjustment?

 

Could you please tell me how to listen to the valve noise? Sorry, I know it's an old post and probably a ridiculously straightforward thing to do, but I can't locate any old posts on how it's done. And thank you for your past replies to my other posts.

 

My impression is "listen for valve noise" is a bit of a brush-off. The valves could be loose (typical case in my experience) or tight. And the definitive way to check clearance is to...: check clearance. With Toyota's shim system, adjustment of valve is no small task, very labour intensive (requires cam shaft removal?), and adjustment involves having a varied supply of shims on hand. OTOH, the shim system is to be pretty stable. There may be clues, maybe someone else will chime in.

I had a Honda Hurricane with shims, the brake-in maintenance involved checking it, they seemed to manage ok. Told me the clearances were all over the map too.

 

re 2009 Touring model/134k miles: I called my mechanic buddy about draining/refilling the transaxle fluid, and he said he had been told it had to be put in at a particular temperature, too much trouble for him (I have not seen this temperature thing elsewhere). So I called one of the local Toyota dealerships to get an estimate, and was told to NOT have it done. He said it would likely cause more problems than leaving it alone. What's up with all this?
And a question about cleaning the throttle body: one youtube video had a guy cleaning it with a Q-tip wet with solvent, and another used a paper towel. One of the comments said to be sure to use something lint-free. So use a microfiber cloth? Will the cloth dissolve in the solvent?

 

The attachment is 3rd gen transaxle change (from Repair Manual), so a little different for second gen. But one thing, there is NO mention of temperature, pure BS from someone, likely a dealership trying to brush someone off. Transaxle fluid change is VERY straightforward and simple.

Regarding throttle body cleaning, any clean cloth would do, as long as it's not shedding, and q-tips fine too, for in the corners. Don't go overboard right at the pivot point of the valve, just in case there's a lubricant there. And don't spray directly.

 

Thank you for all the info.