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Engine cleaning service

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Rangerdavid, Oct 25, 2020.

  1. Rangerdavid

    Rangerdavid Senior Member

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    I have a 2016 Prius 3 touring, it has about 50,000 miles on it. Our Toyota dealer is recommending an engine cleaning service that cleans the fuel injectors and cleans the engine. I'm wondering if this is worth the $200 that it cost to have done

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  2. Dmitriy Sokol

    Dmitriy Sokol Active Member

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    In my experience, 99% of “dealer recommended” services are scam. If it’s not in your factory maintenance schedule, it’s not needed. There is that 1% when something goes wrong, but that would be a recommended repair/service for a specific issue that needs to be resolved. Just say “no, thank you” and keep you cash.


    iPhone ?
     
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  3. Dmitriy Sokol

    Dmitriy Sokol Active Member

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    Oh, and get a can of BG 44K and that’s your fuel system cleaner for the year.


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  4. alanclarkeau

    alanclarkeau Senior Member

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    Dealers love doing that - often it involves in "WRITING $200" on the invoice.

    TOYOTA have an Injector Cleaner - you add to the tank - we used it on Dad's CAMRY at 230,000km, and it did make a little difference.

    upload_2020-10-26_9-27-11.png
     
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  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    'wallet cleaning service'
     
  6. pjksr02

    pjksr02 Active Member

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    Change the "lifetime" transmission fluid instead.
     
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  7. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    I like pj's post. Change that trans fluid with the $200- you just saved and it will look very bad but once you change it then it will be good for the life of the car. Its all the differential gear wear in there your getting rid of.
     
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  8. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Should you pay them $200 to do this........that you can and should do for yourself for about $10 ??
    Techron is available at any auto parts store and most farm supplys and many big box retailers (WalMart).
    I do mine once a year.
     
  9. alanclarkeau

    alanclarkeau Senior Member

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    There's really no differential - though there are gears.

     
  10. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Correct it uses no pinion gear but there’s still a lot of wear where the final drive connects to the 2 cv halfshafts.
    I use the term differential for simplicity. I doubt there’s a lot of wear with the sun gear system but where the rubber meets the road much more wear initially.
    Changing my g2 trans fluid 3 times over 150,000 miles revealed high initial wear at 5000 miles with very little wear after that initial change,
    Pictures I have seen on this site of g3 fluid looked much worse which makes sense there much higher powered motors.
    But I still think just change it once at 5000 miles your good to go for the life of the car as it is a pretty prescision trans.
     
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  11. Rangerdavid

    Rangerdavid Senior Member

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    Ok, so I'll just get a bottle of fuel injector cleaner and run through it. I'll also look into the transmission fluid change. I hadn't thought about that. Thanks!!

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  12. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Prof. Kelly can be seen installing the differential starting at 10:24 in that video:

    diff.jpg

    Another view (from Art's Automotive, of a Gen 1):

    [​IMG]

    There'd be quite a lot of rubber left behind when turning corners if there were not one.
     
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