120k mile service - potential DIY questions

These are very minor things to change out, tackle them 1 at time and have some fun.

You'll need a special oil filter tool to remove the oil filter. And yes you'll need jacks or a ramp to give you more room.

I use oem parts mostly, but air filters and coolant, I've used after market brands with no issues

 

Here are the videos that will help you with the decision to DIY:

Nutz About Bolts Prius Maintenance Videos

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

You don't need a special filter wrench. You will probably need a small size wrench that fits the Prius filter. $3-$4. I actually can take the filter off by hand.

Probably need some sort of safe lifting -- such as jackstands. I have always been able to do without. Most dealerships sell the filters for a reasonable price, about the only thing they sell for a reasonable price.

Cabin filters have been discussed to death on this site, considering what a minor part of the car they are. You can spend upwards of $25 or $30 or more at the dealer. I spend around $3-$4 on Ebay or Rock Auto for the TYC brand of Cabin Filter. Engine Air Filter is important. The one aftermarket brand I tried (Purolator) did not fit well. I stick to the Toyota.

If you are changing out the Engine air filter, also clean out the snorkel as long as you are at it.

Opps, just realized I accidentially posted on the GEN 3 forums. Sorry my comments apply to a GEN 2.

A little bleary-eyed this morning.

 

If you can get the Gen3 oil filter housing off by hand, you’d put a lot of us to shame .

But you beat me to it.

 

All can be done at home.

Add 'change ATF fluid' to the list also if you plan to drive the prius forever and 'relube brake caliper pins' whic requires you to disconnect 12v battery.

To get some of the things off your list crossed the fastest in specific order: Find a leveled spot, disconnect 12v battery negative clamp. loosen all lug nuts, use chocks at designated tires, lift & jack stand entire car. Remove plastic under carriage. Drain ATF, remove all tires to relube brake calipers and rotate tires then only hand tighten nuts, refill ATF, remove rear jack stands only, drain engine oil, switch filter, drain screw goes back, put plastic under carriage back, remove front jack stands and refill engine oil. Pump your brakes until it's tight to push down pedal, reconnect battery. Start up prius, admire the dash x-mas lights because other dash lights appear like car is broken. After ICE turns off, turn car off and back on with no xmas lights. If ICE didn't come on, just turn car off and back on. (ATF & oil change + caliper relube + tire rotation + removing leafs and rocks stuck between car underbody and plastic shield done)

As for the 12v battery, check the date on it. If it's not older than 5 years and car is garaged most of the time just drive it until you notice little electronic glitches first before replacing it. Just deferring a bill, but if it helps you sleep better at night to change it the next chance you get, go for it.

Other brands I used are K&N filter, Mobile 1 advance fuel eco 0-20w, 3m anti seize for calipers. Hope others chime in on alternative brand parts.

 

No need for 2 sets of stands, but you never know.

I made my own out of spare wood I had “just lying around” as underneath the wheels elevators for everything other than Work requiring the wheels to be removed.

The capacity of the transaxle is 4 quarts (I filled ours to 126 ounces before it came out so 2 extra ounces won’t hurt). No need to level if you don’t have the space for storage of equipment.

As for cleaning the Maf, it is easy and should be just as easy on a RAV4 as it is on a Prius.

Hope that helps.

 

Consider doing a brake flush while doing your brake pin lube and general cleaning/inspection. NutzAboutBolts also has a good video about doing that. Toyota uses DOT 3 on the GEN III's and like the Toyota labeled WS ATF, this is also NOT a lifetime fluid.

 

Automotive ramps are a good choice for oil changes and other maintenance items under the front of the car instead of jacking the car and putting jack stands under it. You will have to have the car back on the ground level to check the final fluid levels.
You don't need very high ramps for oil changes and get them longer rather than short so your bumper doesn't hit them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1-Dp9w0x78

 

I'll try to address just your oil change questions. Considering the level of your questions, I'd suggest to just take that on first, see how it goes.

For the oil filter on our 2010 I use a Honda socket, it's the same flute size/number, works fine. It's their standard oil filter size: 14-flute, with inside face-to-face dimension of around 64.5 mm. Mine is ancient, the parts number out of date, but google it and you'll find up-to-date offerings, on Amazon or wherever. It's heavy gauge stamped steel, very durable.

There's various Toyota specific sockets for sale, with special extra slots that cup around ribs on the sides of the oil filter housing. I'm skeptical as to how necessary these extra slots are, have never had a problem. Some of them are of suspect quality, thin cast aluminum, or thin stamped steel. I do not know, do know that the Honda filter has worked for me, for decades.

With the oil filter socket, it's worthwhile to use it with a skookum, long-handled ratcheting wrench, and an extension or two are handy. The torque value for the oil filter housing is 18 foot/pounds, for that a 3/8" micrometer style torque wrench would be good.

There's a clip beside the oil filter housing, much discussed, noted in the Repair Manual, that does squat. You can basically ignore it, it won't impede removal or install of the housing. The Repair Manual also goes into a lot of detail about unscrewing the housing to a particular position, then tipping to drain oil before unscrewing further. This was written by the same guys that dreamed up the clip I think, pretty much pointless.

When removing the drain bolt, the washer, which has some sorta coating, tends to glue itself on to the oil pan. I'd suggest to loosen the drain bolt just a turn or two, then tap the washer loose with a screw driver and hammer, then carry on removing the bolt, together with the washer. It's good practice to always replace with new, maybe overkill, but what the heck. Torque on the drain bolt is 27 ft/lb.

For oil change I raise the front with a floor jack, at the front/central jacking point (consult your Owner's Manual, though it's pretty obvious when you look under), then settle the car onto safety stands. I do not use the front scissor jack locations for the safety stands; they're ok for the supplied scissor jack, but poorly suited, unstable, and too weak, for a typical safety stand cradle. The points I put my safety stands are just inboard a bit, at the leading end of longitudinal body rails running along the underside. They're very solid, and stands are very stable there. If you're going to be using safety stands and are interested, I can post pics.

I remove the full engine underpanel for each oil change (done maybe 15 now?), and wash all the plastic fasteners out before reinstalling, to avoid them getting jammed with grit. There's maybe 10 plastic push-in fasteners, in a couple sizes (see attached TSB). Most are smaller/black ones, and two at the rear are larger, with grey heads. It's worthwile to mark those and their location, with some sort of white sharpy pen. There's also six 10 mm (socket size) bolts to remove. I start at the back when removing fasteners, work to the front, then finally when all fasteners are out wiggle the panel out from under the next plastic piece ahead of it. Install is the reverse. Note: you can just remove a few fasteners bend back the flap at the oil pan, but that's how the dang thing gets broken. If you've have professional oil changes in past, that's likely what's been done, and the flap may be partially broken already. And/or the whole panel may be missing one or more fasteners.

The simplest way to get the correct oil filter, drain bolt washer, is to just buy through a dealership parts department. You'll need also 4.5 US quarts (4.2 liters) of 0W20 oil (they can sell you oil too, my pref is Toyota oil).

I've attached the oil change instruction from the Repair Manual, and a Toyota Bulletin which shows the fasteners. You don't really need the latter, just be careful when removing the panel, be organized.

Addendum: think this is the current part number for the Honda oil filter socket:

07AAA-PLCA100

And a Honda dealership link:


07AAA-PLCA100 | Honda Oil Filter Wrench - Bernardi Parts


Mostly just for confirmation; it's available on amazon as well. Bernardi's price is good though.

 

You don't need two sets of ramps to get the car level for oil changes. I do it with the car headed downhill, with only the front on ramps, so it ends up level. (That tactic might be hazardous with jacks and jack stands, tho .)
If the drain washer sticks to the oil pan, that's good. It means you don't have to handle it, and can reuse it without risk of leaking.

 

Car doesn't need to be level for oil change though.

 

The main thing on the transmission fluid is to just get it changed and after you see how dark it is compared to the new stuff you can decide what is right. I changed mine at 60,000 miles on my Gen 2 and it was a little darker than the new fluid. Good luck.

 

I wouldn't say it clearly states it. It first says to change both, but attaches a little postscript symbol, which when you track it down, on the next page, it says to just change the engine coolant, and so on.

Page 50:



Page 51:



That's kinda the opposite of clear, maybe confusing Toyota Service Departments?

Now for my 2010 Prius, my Canadian schedule says to change both, at 160K km's (or 10 years, whichever comes first), with no tricky postscript. This is from the 2014 schedule, but it's the same, and I prefer the format of this one:



This schedule covers all Canadian Toyota cars, not just Prius. Then, to keep things interesting, there's this on the side of my Prius' inverter coolant reservoir:

 

You mean for subsequent changes, of both? See second image in my post above: 50K miles or 60 months.

BTW, for me it's gonna be 10 years, for both (Canadian schedule), we're very low km's, time governs by a long shot. @NutzAboutBolts has the definitive videos on changing the fluid in both circuits.

Might also be a good time to inspect the coolant pumps.