Dealership pulled up a stored C1202 code during a pre purchase inspection

I'm certainly not going to argue with this sentiment. You are totally right. There are a heck of a lot more Prii owners out there than there are on this site. There are also a heck of a lot of Prii owners that just trade-in the car at the first thought of an issue. IMO, the telling thing is that YES a forum will uncover the most common problems the more people post about them. And YES all cars have problems that come to light once people post about them, IE. Ford Sport tracs are notorious for having transmission solenoid issues...i know first hand . My take away is if the problem is something I'm willing to work with or are there other options available with maybe easier issues to deal with. I don't have a Prius, but it's cousin the CT and there are only a handful of people on that forum that talk about the EGR. So does that mean the CT doesn't have the same issue?? nope, it most certainly does suffer the same fate. Also, do you really think a dealer is gonna tell you what problems to expect as the car ages? yeah right! Lexus: "We have NEVER heard of a CT that needed a new engine" . Me: <reading priuschat.com after an engine replacement and seeing 104 posts relating to the exact symptoms we had>

Now, just to complicate the point, we had a sunroof explode on the CT and I haven't read other CT owners with the same problem...but I have read plenty of sunroof owners but different manufactures with the same problem (all in close year manufacture dates). They all used the same glass company from what i've found.

I guess my point is that coming here and seeing lots of post about EGR says I should pay close attention to that system whereas my other issue I just have to chalk up my sunroof to bad luck or the guys that made the glass went out drinking the night before.

 

Two things are certain in life, death and EGR clogging with a 2010-2015 Prius. After pulling mine and seeing how clogged
After 120,000, I must have had luck on
my side. Completely clogged, no doubt head gasket would have blown within another 10,000-15,000 miles. It’s a pain to clean but it’s either that or throw money out window what you paid for the car. It will happen, just a matter of when if not cleaned.

 

bwahahahahahahahahahahahah!

 

Having worked on a CT before, I can tell you the Egr circuit clogs just as badly as the Prius .

Being as though theemgine is the same, not altogether surprising .

But definitely present .

 

This is an extreme example of what “can” happen when the head gasket lets go.

When I tore down the engine after the fact, I found a second rod broken, in addition to piston shrapnel from where the number one piston exploded inside the block.

Between number one and two is where my head gasket let go.

 

I have a 2010. Bought it with 45k miles. It just hit 145k. I bought this car because I drive 250 miles a day and get paid mileage and thought it would save me money. So far it has been a money pit.

48k milesnew headlight bulbs
50k miles new headlight bulbs
51k miles new headlight bulbs
52k miles new headlight bulbs

Toyota finally "recalled" wiring harness. Still doesn't have the "parts" at my dealer to fix. I replaced headlight bulbs with LEDs so far no more failures.

At 110k the head gasket failed.

Rebuilt engine: $3600

1st rebuilt engine through a rod because the oil pump failed, replaced under warranty.

Soon the battery will need to be replaced around $2500.

So unless you have about 6k to put back into it, RUN AWAY NOW buy a cheap beater your return on investment will be much better!!!!





SM-N960U ?

 

so over on clublexus I was having a discussion about headlights. Though I "conceded" to his argument, I still have yet to understand why LED replacements are soooo bad. I was having the same issues as you with constantly replacing headlights and picked up and LED kit and they have been working flawlessly for over 2 years. I wondered if there was a wiring issue, but after examining a package and seeing that headlights only last between 270-400 hours, it really isn't uncommon to replace headlights if you do a lot of night driving. In the city you may only be driving for 20-30 min, on the highway, not hard to rack up 200+ hours, especially during the winter with dark morning driving too. But if there is a recall on the wiring, do you happen to have a link to the recall?

Unfortuantely, HG failures are becoming more common if you read through any thread discussing the EGR system/cooler clogging. I would agree it's hard to stomach a large repair bill, but I bet you have already realized some savings since first taking possession. To be safe, since you are driving that many miles (assuming highway which means more ICE usage) definitely check out the EGR stuff and keep it cleaned. Your Prius has hundreds of thousands of miles left in it.

The price for the HV battery is a bit on the high side. Member @2k1Toaster sells batteries and if you read enough threads on this subject you will see his do well. His site is: newpriusbatteries.com
Even at a high price of $2.5k, that battery has lasted 9 years (if it dies tomorrow), so that's a pretty good track record for a battery.

getting "value" out of a car is a pretty big gamble no matter how you look at it. I could get that beater and it could die within the first week. The overall maintenance costs of a prius are actually quite low. Oil changes, tires, fluids, brakes; all have to be done no matter what car you get. All cars are also prone to having it's own "expensive repairs". We had to /replace/ our engine, but the savings in fuel and other expenses still show our yearly/mileage cost of ownership to be lower than the previous vehicle we were driving (matrix).

I hope for many more miles for you on your Prius!

 

At 230k miles, the EGR just hasn’t been touched YET. My car had 209k on it when I bought it last year. Guy drove it 80 miles one way to work for like 6 or 7 years. Plus back and forth from PCB to Louisville KY twice a year. At 213k, the HG popped and grenaded the motor. The EGR cooler was 99% stopped up.

 

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Some people have problems at 120k, 150k, I lasted until 203k. And it wasn’t like a slowly progressing issue. It was one day ran great, next week rough start, midweek bucked at stoplights, engine dead on Friday.

I’d say your buddy is on borrowed time. If he pulls his cooler and can see through it I will be floored.


-Spiral

 

That’s fine, but with anything there are exceptions. Your friend’s rare to not have the head blown yet. I guarantee to you there is a very little to no air path in that cooler. To just believe it doesn’t apply to some vehicles is not accurate.

 

Italian tune up, our friend Bill Norton would vouch.

 

i guess technically I didn't come here because of a blown head gasket, I came here from clublexus after a full engine replacement and was told bent rod (didn't even talk about HG). But really, the EGR was already on the radar because I googled the symptoms we were having. So only make sense: person has car issues, googles symptoms, prius chat thread top result, read through, sign up, add case to the ongoing discussion. rinse repeat.

 

I started here with our 2010 and shared about the egr circuit cleanse that I had done .

Sold the car at 200 k miles and the head gasket was still in tact.

 

Thinking about it some more, on the club Lexus ct forum, yes egr is discussed, but that group would not be a good pool of data regarding HG issues. Someone once said though that far fewer CTs were sold compared to Prii, and the demographic for the CT is less likely to drive them like a Prii. So you see less “high mileage” discussions compared to over here or the demographic is less likely to be on forums, they will most likely just take it straight to the dealer no questions asked.


-Spiral

 

I used to hang out at club Lexus in the rx forum, but that crowd was rather dry.

I worked on a ct200h a couple of meetups back that had 159 k miles on it. Did the egr circuit cleanse .

Might have just caught it prior to the head gasket failure, but we’ll never know now as a deer totaled out @SacLexToy ’s beautiful red ct.