Hello Again!

Not technically a Prius newbie, nor even a PriusChat newbie, since I have owned 4 Prius cars and was first on this site in 2003. But it has been a while (since 2010) and I don't remember my old login and the old email that I used with the old login is no longer working. But, I'm back anyway!

Here is a list of the Prius cars I have owned:

1. 2004 Prius in red. Sold after 3 years and about 36,000 miles for about the same price as I bought it new.
2. 2006 Prius in light blue. Sold to my son in about 2015 when he got a job in the desert in California. Currently has about 220,000 miles and he finally had to do a brake job on it.
3. 2010 Prius 2 in dark blue. Has 122,000 miles and used as a daily driver. Had to replace the passenger front wheel bearing this summer, and then the oil pressure sensor after it started spewing oil everywhere.
4. 2017 Prius Prime Advanced in Hypersonic red. Purchased on Labor Day 2017. Has 3995 miles on it due to a cross-country trip. Still has that new car smell!

 

Hi Ray, it's a long story but I did the bearing twice. The first one (a gorgeous Timken hub with Koyo bearing) died on my test drive. Still not sure why. Axle nut problem I think. So I bought a cheapo ($89) aftermarket one that my local parts store happened to have in stock on a Sunday afternoon, and did it in a couple hours before the sun went down. I had to drive to work the next morning! It is much quieter now. It had gotten to the point where my wife asked me to stop turning left while on the freeway!

Biggest tip is to use a Dremel to cut the old axle nut off rather than try to unstake and wrench it off.
Other tips:

• Put a block of wood in the brake caliper so the piston doesn't pop out. Then you won't need to do a bleeding job.
• Use bungee cords to hold the caliper out of the way.
• Use a slide hammer to pull the old hub out.
• Clean the mating surfaces and grease as the repair manual recommends.
• Torque the axle nut properly and then stake it down. While checking, I found that the axle nut on my driver side was loose and must not have been well staked at the factory.

It's not a horrible job. Have fun!

 

Sent info your way....