Buying a 06 with 144 k miles

This guy is on here. He's currently driving a 2012 prius v and going on 300k miles.

There's always a chance of transmission failure, the car has 144k miles. But the parts are cheap even if it does fail. Any component can fail at high miles.

SM-N900P ?

 

I just finished a transaxle swap on a 2005 with 152k miles. Mg2 failure. Not sure the fluid was the cause, it was the original

SM-N900P ?

 

I got it for 250. But most are around 400 at parts outlets or salvage yards

SM-N900P ?

 

Wasn't my car, it failed from an out of state trip. Probably over heated. I would suggest a part from a late model 2007 or newer. There is a tsb for these transaxle from 2004 to early 2007. I got an exact 2005 replacement, only found out about the tsb after I purchased

SM-N900P ?

 

Technical service bulletin from Toyota to address issues

SM-N900P ?

 

You probably won't notice the difference in the engine and cabin air filters, buy a quality national brand and you should be ok.

The plugs you will commonly find at the discount parts stores will be the NGK (4996) IFR5T11

The engine coolant reservoir should not be empty. This would indicate you have a leak somewhere, it's most likely in the engine water pump. It's the pump that's driven by the serpentine belt. Look around the pulley and see if there's some pinkish residue, if you see it, it's from your water pump leaking.

The leak isn't something you have to address right away, just make sure the coolant is topped off and find a convenient time to change the pump. Use Toyota Super Long Life Fluid from the dealer, about $23 dollars a gallon.

 

Look in the radiator first and see if there is pink fluid in there. If not, top it off. The coolant reservoir that's next to it should have a "low" and "full" mark on it. It's on the bottom half of the reservoir.

The leaking water pumps don't leak large amounts of fluid, it's just seeping some fluid, which cakes up into a pinkish residue around the pulley. You can't miss it if it's leaking. This is a common problem with the Prius, no need to be alarmed. The part will cost you about $60-$70 at the Toyota parts counter or you can buy a similar quality one on Amazon for about $44.

 

Did you do carfax and did you run the vin tru Toyota's website?

The coolant reservoir wasn't empty last night?
You had visually noticed the amount of coolant in the reservoir prior to this morning?

 

I would just top off your car with fluid if it's low. If you take the radiator cap off and you can see fluid, even if it's not at the very top of the neck, it should be ok. I think you are a bit over paranoid about this car, just drive it. Worry about the maintenance in 1000 miles or so, after you get a feel of the car.

 

Since I just passed 40000 miles, I thought it would be a good time to swap out the spark plugs. Now, I know that the iridium plugs should be good for 120000 miles, but I was far more worried about the plugs being "welded" in place by that time, so out they came.

Overall, not too hard to do. Basic steps are as follows:

Disconect negative battery terminal (Personally, I'm not sure why, but the manual has this step). This can be a little bit difficult to get to, but a 10mm box end wrench did work.

Remove the relay box above the plugs and move it out of the way. Here I used a 10mm socket with a 2inch extension.

Disconnect the wires going to the ignition coils. This can be a bit difficult, as you have to press pretty hard on the lever thingy to get it to release. I had to use a small flat screwdriver on one of them to "help out a bit."

Remove the bolts holding each ignition coil (1 per). Again, a 10mm socket with extension. I only had a 2in extension. A 1 inch extension or a deep 10mm socket probably would have worked better.

Pull off the ignition coils.

Remove and replace each plug. Torque to 13 ft-lbs. These were a bit difficult to remove, so I'm glad I did it now. There was little wear on the plugs themselves, and they had discolored to a light grey. Here, use a 5/16 spark plug socket with an extension. I used a 6 inch extension which was a bit long and made it a bit tricky to get the plugs in and out, a 4 inch extension would probably be just right. I did not use any anti-sieze lubricant. The Toyota manual didn't say either way, and I had read a few bad things about it on the internet, so I went without.

Replace the ignition coils. Replace the bolts holding them. Torque to 82 in-lbs.

Reconnect the ignition wires. This is far easier than removing them. Just slide them on until you hear a click.

Replace the relay box. and torque to 53 in-lbs.

Reconnect negative battery terminal. Reset auto window, radio presets, and clock.

Clean up and test drive. As would be expected, no change in performance, but that's not why I did it.

Time from start to finish was about an hour. Cost was a little over $40 for the 4 plugs (part number 90919-01217, and $10.37 each from a local dealer).

Just thought I'd write it up in case anyone else is thinking of doing it themselves.

Thanks,
Shawn

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For comparison sake, here is one in Austin, TX:

2007 Toyota Prius with leather OBO

Good luck on your negotiations! (find the stuff wrong with it and offer them $5000 or 5500, they will likely "meet you in the middle" since that's the most popular negotiation tool private sellers know)