First Gen 1 Prius Plug-In w/ Blown Head Gasket?

Just an update.. I picked up the car Saturday morning (they called around 6pm Friday saying it was ready). Anyhow, aside from missing a few bars from my gas gauge, things seem to be fine. The engine is super clean now (mechanic took a power washer to it while the car was on, by the way). I'll drive to work tomorrow on gas to see how it does.

I pulled about 2 hours of footage from my dashcam. I'll update tomorrow with the time line of events while my car was at the dealer.

 

On the invoice there are charges for a head gasket kit ($288.39 / $1685.10), coolant ($127.19 / $211.56), 5 qts synthetic oil ($10.70 / $32.55), filter ($3.24 / $5.41)

The two $ values fall under the columns "cost" and "sale". Cost looks like cost of parts only and Sale looks like cost of parts + labor.

Total for parts $442.48, Grand total $1956.18

But judging by the cost of 5 quarts of Toyota synthetic at $10.70, this all seems like dealer cost and "warranty book hours". I never talked $ figures with the dealer. I was scared to, hahah. But someone in another head gasket threaded mentioned $4500?

Edit: uploaded a copy of the invoice

 

Ok, skimmed all the video and here's how everything went down as told by the dashcam:

3/22 751AM - Car moved to the back, in line waiting for service bay
3/22 849AM - Car moved into service bay
3/22 855-908AM - Car turned on/started 3 times
3/22 148PM - Car pushed out of service bay and parked

3/30 1110AM - Car started and moved to service bay

3/31 251PM - Car started in service bay, still engine still vibrating/shaking
3/31 252-226PM - Car started 7 times, engine shakes only at idle, smooth under throttle - 3 techs discussing
3/31 328PM - Tech diagnosed bad spark plug. There is celebration/cheering.
3/31 337PM - Car idling smoothly now, I hear the tech say he checked coil, used camera (to check for coolant in cylinder again?), and spark plug
3/31 342PM - Checking for leaks, car up in the air/lifted
3/31 357PM - Car lowered back down to ground, car has been on/running since 337PM
3/31 417PM - Tech pressure washed engine bay while car was running
3/31 419-441PM - Test drive, about 9 miles.
3/31 545PM - Quick test drive, car parked in service parking area
3/31 604PM - Valet moves car to car wash area queue
3/31 622PM - Car exits car wash and is parked in service parking lot
3/31 946PM - Car re-parked in service parking lot

4/1 825AM - Tech moved car from parking area to service bay
4/1 830AM - Car moved from service bay and re-parked in service parking lot
4/1 948AM - Valet moves car to customer pick up area
4/1 953AM - Car goes home


When I first watched the videos, I was thinking maybe it was a spark plug all along. But (1) I can hear the techs discussing that after replacing the head gasket, the engine vibration/roughness was only at idle, which is different than before and (2) that they did try using the camera (I assume borescope) before diagnosing the bad spark plug.. so they must have used a borescope when they found the coolant in cylinder 4. I also heard one of them say they thought the spark plug went bad from coolant fouling.

Anyway, I had a chance to drive it last night, about 25 miles worth, and I drove it to work this morning without a charge. I'm positive the car runs smoother than before. The engine start up when cold is definitely much smoother. I'm not saying the car is running any better than it should.. rather that maybe I'm just experiencing the smooth ICE and EV/HV transition in a way I've never experienced? Or it could just all be in my head.

It kind of had me wondering that this problem may have been around for a while and its possible that it didnt really show its more major symptoms until the spark plug eventually fouled up. I have no idea how much coolant I lost over 5 years since I never checked it, never thought I needed to.

Anyway, things seem to be OK. I'll start monitoring the coolant level and checking the oil for excessive consumption. But hopefully, the car is better than new and it stays that way for a long time.

 

Yeah, its the cylinder on the driver's side, next to the EGR. They did replace the EGR and the pipe. There was a TSB for it. So when they said they couldnt reproduce the problem (in late Feb when I took it in the first time), they just did the EGR and thought the problem would go away (which it kind of did, for about 3-4 weeks).

Something else which I couldnt find any info on was that when they replaced the EGR valve and pipe, another line item on the invoice was a "software update". I havent been able to find much info about it. But I wonder if it was a software update related to the EGR? or was it a software update related to my early PiP?

I didnt ask for pictures and I didnt see anyone take pictures (on the dashcam), but I imagine they wouldnt share them anyway? I did ask if they knew why the HG failed and the service rep just said "no reason, it just failed".