Transaxle Failure

haha! i know huh! I wish I could have taken more photos, but I was in kind of a time crunch, so I did not have time to set up the tripod and take self portraits...haha!

Thank you! I am actually overwhelmed with the response I have received from everyone on here. It is very encouraging to hear support from everyone.

I did not have time this weekend to pull apart the old transaxle, but don't worry. It is still to come!

As mentioned above...next weekend will bring that job. Besides I need to keep you all in a little bit of suspense. I can't reveal all of my glory in one weekend! haha! Just kidding...

I will have too look again more closely this weekend, but I am 99.9% sure there is no opening between the boot and transaxle. Am I wrong or is the axle joint there solid?

Yeah, I know...thats what I am wondering...I will have to look at it closer this next weekend.

Thank you for the support! I am planning on pulling apart the transaxle and if I can get ahold of the parts I may rebuild it for fun...

I did notice the throttle body was quite dirty, I was so busy with other things that I forgot to clean it. I will pull it off in the next couple of days and do that.

Well, I am a student, so the job I am in is pretty low paying, but I would say it would have cost me...A little over $200 at my hourly rate. So what is that $800/16 hours...$50 an hour. I guess that is not too outragous, but I don't know, I have never taken any of my cars into a shop to get fixed. In the end I still saved over $4k, since they wanted so much for the parts.

I am SO tempted to drive down to the dealership this week. I don't know though...I might need a video camera if I do to capture their faces. Haha.

By the way...my name is Peter Wilson. No relation to Bob.

Nope! I followed the instructions, cycled the pump a couple times, and it was done!

Haha! That is great! I have to say I was laughing so hard when I read this. Has to be the best description of a dealership I have heard yet!

According to the shipping invoice it was 300lbs. I would have to agree with that considering it took pretty much all that I have to lift it off the crate it come in.

It had to be about 2ft off the ground to get the transaxle out. I removed two out off the three engine supports, one below and one on top of the transaxle. It is pretty amazing how much trust is in those supports...with the bottom support not attached the engine swings back and forth I cant imagine the damage if that support fell off. I had two jackstands holding up the car and one holding up the engine. I would guess that the engine is lighter than the transaxle, so I was not super concerned with its stabilization. Removing the transaxle on the floor jack was tricky! Let me tell you! Lets just say I was jonesing for an ATV/Tranny Jack. I had to have my father in law lower the jack while I steadied the transaxle on its way down. Pretty much I was praying it would not fall on my chest, because I was not looking forward to benching 300lbs. Haha, jk, I made enough room so it would not fall on me. My life/body is a little more valuble than a broken transaxle.

The rest of the photos and more details coming soon! Give me an hour or so!

 

Update:

Ok, so I did not get as many photos as I would have liked to take, but I also did not have a lot of time so I could not keep stopping work every few minutes to take photos...so I hope you have enjoyed the photos I have taken.

I will definitely be taking more photos of the transaxle when I open it up in the upcoming weekends...so we still have something to look forward to at least.

The throttle body was quite dirty. I was planning on cleaning it, but I forgot(I will do this as soon as possible.) Anyone know how to prevent this? I changed the air filter when I first got the car, 20k miles ago. It still looks perfect. Maybe all this junk is from before I had it.


I thought I would throw in a photo of me, since I know its always nice to see the person you are talking to.


Filling the transaxle with ATF. It was surprisingly easy compared to what I was expecting due to the placement of the fill plug and the nice large mouth openings on the containers allowing my pump to fit perfectly. On my Tacoma refilling the axles with gear oil was the biggest pain, because the fill plug was on top of the pumpkin, so this experience with an oil pump was much more pleasant.


All done! I am leaving the engine cover off on the top end for the week so I can keep an eye on everything.


Gotta love the drive down from Big Bear! I missed this sight while I was driving my truck for the few weeks I was without the prius.


Sorry about the blurr...but yes, that does say 81.2 MPG. Only due to the downhill drive from Big Bear...too bad that is not usual driving! I guess I better work on my hypermiling huh?


When it came time to start up the car you can imagine I was sweating bullets...I was so scared that it was not going to work. When I first turned the ignition on all of the warning lights came on and my stomach dropped...I tried to keep my calm as I turned the car off and back on...luckely everything reset when I did this and I was given a clean slate. I drove the car around the block..and yes! It worked! All of the grinding noises gone! All of my power was back! It was flawless. I have to say I was suprised it worked...as I am everytime a major project is completed, haha. I was so relieved...it made for a good ending to a long weekend of work.

Ok, so some highlights of the job:

Pulling the inverter had to be the easiest part. I was wishing that it was the inverter that failed, I would have been done with less than 2 hours work.

I tried to follow the book for most of the job, but I skipped a couple things (such as removing the muffler). It is good to have the book around for advice, illustrations, and instructions on tough sections.

The transaxle was much heavier than I had expected. Unfortunately our ATV jack was broken, which made the movement of the transaxle a lot harder than needed.

Overall if I had to do it again, with what I know now, I believe it would only take one day. As long as you have the right equipment, such as a good transmission or atv jack, this job it not very hard. The prius is a complex car on the inside of each component, but as far as R&R goes it is even simpler than most cars I have laid hands on.

I know I am probably leaving a million things out, so please ask all the questions you would like. I wish I had the time to take photos of each step and give you a step by step tutorial of the project, but that is a little unresonable with my busy schedule.

I would like to thank each and every person who has shown their support and encouragement with this project. It has been so nice to have everyone interested and supportive of this project.

I am definetly not done with Priuschat.com, as I hope to be frequenting back here as much as possible.

Look forward to more photos of the transaxle being torn apart in the next couple weekends. I will also keep you updated as of the state if the prius as time goes on.

Thank you again.

-Peter Wilson

If any of you are interested I have a daily photo blog which I try to keep up on at 03-05-09 • Dailyphotofix.com/blog (hence the name dailyphotofix). It has not been updated in the last week or so because of my hectic schedule, but I will have it updated soon with new photos for the last 11 days.