5000 Mile Self-Maintenance - Warantee Issues?

[cillic]

I have the standard Prius Warantee. I am wanting to change my oil/filter and rotate my tires myself, however, I am unsure as to how this will affect my warantee, as I have never done this before. The maintenance logbook has an entry for the dealer to sign off on maintenance. If I do this myself, my guess is they will not sign off on this.

What has your experience been?

Thanks in advanced.

[jeromep]

First off, you can do your own maintenance, but you are going to have to retain the receipts for the supplies you purchase for each oil change. You are also going to want to start a log book if you haven't already done so. The receipts, kept with the respective logbook entires, combined with the log book information should protect you from any negative warranty activity.

I have never known a dealer to challenge me on maintenance with regard to warranty work that is to be performed, however a good logbook is very useful in the long run.

[cillic]

Thank you so much for the head's up. I'll use the log book provided with the Prius. Other than milage and the supply receipts, is there anything else that can 'officially' documented? I plan to visually inspect the breaks and rotate the tires as well... any way to doc other than photos?

[jeromep]

Yeah, just staple your receipts for materials to the page in the book that is for that schedueled service. And write down exactly what you did. That sould be sufficient.

Bear in mind, that if anything were to go wrong with brake pads or other consumable brake items during the warranty, it wouldn't be covered under warranty, and that goes for the "consumable" suspension parts (shocks, bushings, etc.) Visual inspection is more of a preventative maintenance thing rather than something better. I have no doubt in my mind that your own inspection might be more thorough than the inspection a dealer might give when a Prius is in the grease rack. I wouldn't worry about taking pictures. Just document that you looked at it in your log book. Dealers notate what they do on workorders, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was done. Ok, that sounds a little dishonest, however we all know it happens at some less reputable places.

Oh, and save yourself the headache of rotating tires yourself when you get them replaced for the first time. Let the tire dealer who sells you a new set do the rotations from then out. The sooner you can get rid of the Integrities, the better.

[cillic]

Regarding the tires... are the OEM tires really that bad? Should I pick up a new set ASAP?

Any threads on the forum debating this?

Thanks again!

[jtmhog]

There are several threads on tires. I don't have any special needs so the OEM's are OK. Very little snow in N. VA this winter. Most posters don't like the OEM. Depends on your needs and wants.

[gschoen]

If your dealer will give you a good deal for a diffeent set, I'd say definately switch. Some have taken the car immediately to some Goodyears and received a credit for the OEM tires. Changing the tires has made a ton of difference in comfort, handling, and stability (comfortreads) for me. I put the OEM tires on my old car that I'm selling.

If you can't get a decent credit, try them and see how you like em. On dry pavement they're ok, and if your roads aren't too bad they might not be too harsh. When I ran them Toyota spec pressure, 35/33 isn't it, the ride was tolerable. Tires aren't cheap, and if they're ok for you, I'd run em until you need a new set and upgrade then.

[cillic]

I have noticed poor handling, but I figured it was just because of the tire size/narrower stance/higher center than my previous car (Passat GLX 2.6L). I was considering going with the 17" wheels, but I didn't want to sacrifice fuel economy. I'll check out the forum for recommended tires. I've got $2000 I've budgeted for upgrades (got the AM package because I couldn't stand the NAV system and the 'Premium' sound sounded anything but) so I'll just throw some of that into a new set of tires.

Thanks