It seems there have been several threads like this lately, but ah well. Some of you may have seen my last thread about an intermittent issue I was having with my good ol' first gen. I *think* I have narrowed it down to the fuel pump or fuel filter, neither of which is really practical for me to deal with at the moment. I now fall on the other side of the "who should and should not own a 1st Gen" equation. I'm in a supervisory position at work and need a 100% reliable vehicle, so I bought a new(ish) hybrid with a warranty that was a good deal. The Prius still runs and drives fine aside from that occasional stall/restart (fixable, just not worth it for me). So now my conundrum is that I don't want to keep paying insurance to keep it on the road, but also don't want to scrap it. The hybrid battery was replaced and is in great condition, and the ICE/inverter/transmission/etc are all in good shape. Swapped the fluids and cleaned the transmission pan like a year ago. Heck even the AC blows ice cold. I've been driving it to and from work the way it is for months, and there's a good chance it could make a longer trip although I don't know if that would be a great idea. Does anybody have a good idea for an interesting project I could do with it when I have the spare time/vacation (maybe turn the components into a generator, or hack it into a pure EV for my nephew when he's old enough to drive in a few years?) Or is somebody in desperate need of a parts/donor vehicle for a component that is tough to find?
It just needs a fuel pump then there's nothing wrong with the car but if you're not going to do anything with the car and it's just going to sit in your yard and go to whatever you might want to drain fuel out of it . Inverter generator not sure depends what you're powering . Newer hybrid will be perfect. But many people would prefer to have this old one if they can find reasonable not hacked up .
I threw my running/driving '03 with 220K on it on craigslist for $800. HV battery was last legs. A/C didn't work. LOL. I should have asked like $1500? Within 24 hours, I heard from 5 people and the first one dropped me the $800 cash. But, given what you described for yours (good battery, working AC), why not just have a shop do the fuel system work and whatnot? Sounds like the car is worth it.
Honestly throwing it up on CL for $800 isn't a half bad idea, I might just do that. At least that way it would (likely) go to someone that DOES have the time and interest. Problem with the fuel pump/filter is they are integrated into the tank, you can't do the replacement without dropping and replacing the entire thing. Can't imagine there is a shop that would do that for a reasonable price, and I really don't want to spend the time and effort.
Yeah man that's an hour job in my driveway no problem I didn't gen1 had same tank issue as the gen2. Done plenty of those . So no problem . Finding tank maybe issue.
I've been looking for you buddy I was wondering what happened to you and well here we go .! This seems like a nice one for you.
Following two of @Tombukt2 's comment above, dropping the tank to take care of business is a bit of a hassle, but maybe not as bad as you think. But if you do throw it up on C'list - do ask more like $1500-2000. Yours is in better shape than mine. And you can always come down... The guy who bought mine was hilarious. He is an auto recycler, but has a thing about older Prii. He'll buy any old one on it's last legs and drive the wheels off the rest of the way. Then he apparently likes to cut off the exhaust and play with them out in his farm fields like they're go-carts. When they're finally gone for good...that's when he scraps them. But first he saves a bunch of gas money on the road. Then he has fun playing. Then he gets at least some of his money back. Funny old guy.
I wish taking the fuel tank out was a hassle . Other than unbolting the straps or unbolting the the straps or flange bolts slip some hoses etc it'll fall in yo face. And these are non bladder and I guess there's no access to change the pump where the seat or trunk floor is etc so it's like a Chevelle or tank drops . US meccies used to do this many times a week .
I don't know man they are they aren't I don't have one somebody else was saying these are like old style tanks either way they're out fast make sure they close to empty . I'm working on getting no bladder tanks now 2 w EVAP boxes . On a slow boat
