DIY Transmission replacement on a 2002?

The floor on these cars is about $4500 right now. The junk value on these actually is pretty high too. The primary issue with the backyard swap without dropping the motor too is getting the trans off and on the motor. It has been done on Gen II, but I don't know about Gen I.

And, of course, P3120 has a dozen different subcodes, but generally point towards the system main relay, wiring harness, or the transaxle itself.

 

Good point on Gen I VS GenII swap, the thread I mentioned is a Gen II.

 

AaronA: Did you read that sticky on transaxle failure?????

 

Sounds like a good plan, I think you are right on the requirement to remove the engine and the tranny together. There was just a post on "489,000 miles, a mechanic in Arizona that had worked on a few Prii, he may be able to answer your question. I believe the car he worked on was a Gen I, I'll look also..........OK, easy, same page as the one you are on, 9 posts below yours, good reading and you can send him a personal message on PC.

 

A frequent failure in the tranny seems to be the MG2 stator. If that's the culprit, Luscious Garage knows of a way to replace the stator only, tranny in the car. Still requires pulling a stator from another MG2, but could save a bunch of labor. (As far as I know, the procedure isn't openly written up anywhere ; I think the person who worked it out sells training.)

-Chap

 

YES THE TRANSMISSION CAN BE REMOVED WITHOUT REMOVING THE ENGINE. Yet again i find the answer that nobody knows by tring it out. (pumping up my ego )
Anyway. Yes, on first generation 2001 - 2003 prius, as on the second generation, the transmission can be removed and changed alone without removing the engine contrary to what the repair manuals say. I just did it today. Will post pics tomorow. The process is very similar to the second generation only notable difference that i can remeber right now is when removing the cross member one must disconect the powersteering motor and sensors before removing it cause on first generation the powersteering is on the crossmember and not on the steering shaft as it is one hte second gen prius. My guess is that, when making the first repair manual the folk at toyota ware extra cautious pretty much the same way that the prius is an overenginired car. Thats why thay said that it can only be removed together with the engine and later on when they agreed to change the repair manual for the second gen nobody bothered to change it for the first one to.

 

"I doubt more than a few dozen people in the entire country would be interested and able to swap out the transaxle in their driveway."

Hopefully my friend just added to that #...*finger's crossed*

 

For the record, it's not too hard to remove the Gen1 tranny without a shop lift. You do not need to remove the ICE. (and Gen2 Prius Transmissions are even EASIER to replace without a lift)

Simplified version; Put the car on jackstands, remove wiper cowl stuff, remove inverter, remove subframe and steering rack. Support engine from top, support tranny from below. Lower engine/tranny together a few inches then separate them. Lower tranny more then pull it out drivers side wheel well. HF motorcycle jack is perfect tool for maneuvering the tranny Aluminum Motorcycle Lift - 1500 Lb. Capacity

Before I had a real shop lift did this all the time...even made up a wooden jig to hold engine from top and raise/lower with hand winch. One nice thing about the Prius tranny, there are no Flex plate/torque converter bolts to undo. It separates from ICE like a manual tranny.