Spare engine for $200, should I?

If you plan to keep your Prius for another 100K miles and have storage space, then it might be worth buying that engine.

But why stop there? You could easily need to replace the transaxle, traction battery or MFD; not to mention ECUs like the hybrid vehicle and traction battery units.

Pretty soon your storage area will look like a Prius salvage yard.

 

Well then, I hope you can find a local independent who specializes in Toyota hybrid service, or else all of those parts will only be useful as display items for a Prius Classic museum at your home.

 

You can buy Prius engines for that price and cheaper on car-part.com. I payed $150 for one delivered. These engines rarely die and salvage yards barely sell them. The transmission and hybrid battery are something you may want to hang onto tho. Much more likelihood they will go before the engine does. Hv battery cost = 750 and up. Transmission $400 and up. These parts can be purchased at anytime tho and you prob don't wanna keep a hybrid battery laying around unused and possibly depleting.

 

Labor to install an engine = $1500
Labor to remove an engine from a wreck and install into another car = not $1500

 

i would buy the whole car and tinker. great way to learn mechanical skills, and now you don't have to worry about being electrocuted.

 

I would say,, depends on your mechanical abilities - gifts... Its weird how some people are gifted in mechanical abilities, and others, wish they were, but just are not, even possibly can not. I was working on mini bikes at 11, tearing apart 2 stroke dirt bike motors at 14, and car engines by 15. Yet my son, as much as he wanted to, just did not have the mechanical skill set. (Yet he is a Genius in Math, with a Physics major from U.C. Davis and a total computer Wizard)! Having a wreck to tinker on WOULD be a great way to learn, yet, also, a real eye sore, and a real mess, unless you live on a farm or ranch with plenty of places to put it. Many town's and cities have ordinances about having a wrecked car, in your front yard, and it can make for some pretty ticked off neighbors, too! Call some local junk yards, ask them if they would take the stripped chassis away for free, or,, for how much $$. I had a totaled 72 Skylark that I pulled the engine n trans out of, and the wrecking yard was happy to come and tow the rest away for scrap, at no cost,, but then, that thing had A-LOT of steel in it, and that was 15 years ago. The engine & trans sat around in the garage, taking up space for years. I did take a couple parts off the engine, for our 69 Skylark, but ended up selling it all for like $100 when we had to move. I sure did not want to be moving those chunks of iron around again, along with a whole house of belongings! The down side of stripping a wrecked car, is the part you did not take off, before it goes to the wrecking yard, is ALWAYS the part you need!

 

If the parts car is still available please share where it is. If it was close to me I'd buy it for $400 for sure.

 

That was the case 1-3 years ago, but the market is changing.

High milage prius engines are starting to die or at least drink lots of oil as they get older. If you have the room, buy one now for cheap and store it. In a couple years prices will be 2-3 times what they are now. (as more prius get older it will affect supply and demand). Even now it's hard to find cheap lowish milage engines. NOTE, we originally thought Gen1 and Gen2 could be used in place of each other. They cannot. A gen1 engine in a Gen2 will work, but poorly. BTDT!

 

I just paid $550 for an inverter and transmission from a 2003 with 90k miles and was gad to get them.