DIY Radiator replacement?

Hi everyone,

There is a TLDR at the bottom.

I've gone against popular advice and bought a cheap ex-taxi prius with a massive mileage. It's just got to 278,000 and not surprisingly has some issues. It's been to the moon and is on it's way back - so I call her Luna. The good news is that I enjoy DIY and fixing my car is fun to me. I also like bangernomics so I try to run things cheaply and a prius seemed like a good bet. The car is a 2008 Prius T-Spirit with the JBL stereo, nav and cruse control. I've never owned a car with milage as high but after looking and seeing cars with 300,000 plus I thought I would give it a try. I have had 3 corollas and drove a Gen2 now and then as a company vehicle that also had a high mileage.

I have a water leak so I have bought a blue print water pump and gasket, new thermostat and o-ring, new aux belt, new pully for replacement. I also need to replace the inverter pump (gen toyota) as I have had the error. I have invested in a usb cable and software so I can set the car to run if needed.
I have also bought a new radiator as I thought I would replace that as well. Is there anything else I should look to replace when the coolant is drained?
I have read the thread about the problems with getting air out of the system so I will take some time to fill and burp the system. I can't find a UK supplier for the big funnel that attaches to the radiator tank so it is probably going to take some time. I can't use an air compressor so no vac system and I want to DIY.

I have replaced the cabin filter, air filter, oil and filter, front discs and pads as they were near end of life. My HID self levelling arm and sensor have broken so that's on my to do list, I have normal bulbs installed so not worried. It does have a C1628 (Vehicle Height Sensor Failure) code so it will need to be fixed.
The sensor arm snapped off when attempting to remove the old rose joint. Does anyone know the length of that bar that links from the sensor to the axle?

I have also had problems with a misfire so I have changed all the plugs (from NK whatevers looked like originals old and warn to Denso SK16R11), MAF (from toyota to a cheap aftermarket) and injectors (cheap aftermarket). I have not yet changed the coil packs on top of the plugs but it seems to run ok so far. possibly a slight missfire but no code for that yet so I think that is almost sorted. (initial codes PO203, PO104, P010A - Cylinder 3 injector Circuit malfunction, Mass Air Flow Circuit intermittent, Mass Air Flow MAF B Circuit Malfunction)(I then had P0172 System too Rich (Bank1) after the MAF so changed the injectors curing more of the missfire but had a fuel leak on injector 1 due to cheap failed rubber seals. Don't trust the seals on the china copies but the injectors seem ok. I have now replaced the new seals with old seals off the old injectors but new seals on order (Aftermarket from Russia - we will see!) Leak seem to have stopped.

I have replaced the 12v battery with a Hankook 45Ah AGM Start Stop Car Battery - AXS46B24R looks to be a copy of the toyota battery and a bit cheaper as I previously got codes P0A93 and C2318 - ( Inverter Water Pump Failure, Low Voltage Error Power Supply Malfunction) . P0A93 is back again hence the inverter pump change so I bought a proper toyota part for that as it sounds an expensive failure.

The cruse control is intermittent so I have a new switch to try - when I have sorted the engine faults! The good news is that the hybrid battery seems ok.

I have done everything from reading threads on here and listened to BLNT prius podcast but I haven't found a full radiator replacement so I thought I would start a thread and see how it goes. My aftermarket rad does not look to have a bleed valve on the top of it so this could be a problem.

Thanks everyone!

TLDR:
2008 Gen2, 278,000 miles over salted UK roads.

It does have a C1628 (Vehicle Height Sensor Failure) code. Does anyone know the length of that bar that links from the sensor to the axle as the old one has snapped?

Water leak so replacing water pump, thermostat, aux belt, pully and inverter pump P0A93 as well as radiator. Anything else worth changing when the system is drained as preventative maintenance?

 

Thank you! I have now replaced the ICP and burped the ICE system as I was getting the swoohing since I bought it. Perhaps what I thought was a leak was trapped air. The car did seem to take a long time to get hot and the internal heat wasn't very hot so I'm suspecting a bad thermostat. I will still change everything I just thought I would do the ICP first and make sure everything was working ok before I did the rest. My crush washers have turned up for the CVT fluid change so another job for the list.
I had a good hour to 2 hours of test drive and no MIL so hopefully have got to the end of the current problems. I didn't check the cruse, I will do that tomorrow.

 

Thanks Patrick. I am still getting the swooshing noise behind the dash but so far the radiator and overflow are staying full. It's just thrown a P0420 bad cat bank 1 so I will attempt a new O2 sensor and if not, get a cat. I'm not surprised as the misfire had been going a long time. I am still getting a bit of a misfire on start up so suspecting the coil packs. I switched the c1 to c4 and the misfire followed the coil. No code for the misfire as yet

 

The scuttle tray under the wipers at the top of the engine bay is clear and not full of rain water. The swooshing is and always has been on the right hand side of the car (drivers side in the uk) and same side as the ICE engine so I suspect it is air in the heater matrix also.

The car does not blow hot air inside for a long time (apx 45min but I had no app for water temp the first time so no hard data on coolant temp) so I also suspect a stuck open thermostat. I have the new part ready The aux belt looks old and I have the new belt in the car in case of failure and I also have replacement water pump and pully parts as they look old also.

I don't think I'm getting any noise off the old pully and pump as yet but I'm tempted to replace them anyway as I have a bit of time now (but may not later) so I know the history and I have the parts.

As I'm getting air into the system with the thermostat replacement I may as well do all of them at once?

Would you make sure that I've got all the air out and got the car to "normal" before continuing? This is my gut feeling

I also have a replacement radiator as I initially thought this was leaking but it appears to be pretty sound and also aluminium not steel?
On other old cars a 10 year old radiator is normally due replacement but this doesn't look too bad. I got a bit part happy on holiday (away from the car) and ordered it because it was on offer. Now looking at the car it looks ok

A set of 4 new coils are on the way and should be here by the weekend I know one is going bad probably all will be failing soon.

This is good to know! Thank you as this have saved me £££ on a part that I may not need I'm pretty sure I have at least one bad coil so hopefully full replacement of all coils with new will fix this.

What temp (in C if possible) should the water temp get up to in the ICE? I seem to be getting up to 92-93 eventually and around 40 for the invertor according to the app. It this normal for summer? I'm used to a gauge that sits in the middle of blue and red so never known how hot a car really is

Thanks in advance!

 

How many posts before this goes away or is it always on? I'm not a bot

 

Thanks for that, it has reduced so I've removed some of the air and the cabin is warming within the 10-15 min. The swooshing is still happening so more air trapped but I have removed some. At least I know it's not overheating so that's good

I don't want to pay the money for the airlift just yet. I'll try the ramp plan as I have ramps, thanks for the advice!

In other news my coils have arrived. But I was out so will collect them tomorrow and see if the cat can be saved. It was a pending code for a time so perhaps it's time dependent. I have a few months before the MOT (Ministry of Transport Test - an annual roadworthy test and requires no MIL lights on to pass as well as other tests including emissions, corrosion, tyres etc) so with any luck I can have it sorted far before then.

 

Replaced the coils, cleared the cat code but it came back shortly after. The misfire seems to have gone at least. So as it's P0420 code could I try replacing the O2 sensor before changing out the cat?

 

Fluid swapped the CVT as another job to do. Found some material attached to the drain plug and the fluid was dark so needed doing. It was really tough to get the drain plug out of the bottom! Well over 29 ft-lbs - I had a 60cm breaker bar and all my strength with two hands to get it open - perhaps the first time it has been done? New washers installed and correctly torqued. Good for the next 60,000 hopefully.

I had a bad (new) coil that has now been replaced again so hopefully will be ok now. That did give a missfire again. I am also waiting for some new seals for the fuel injectors as I may have a very small leak, it's not pooling so I'm not too concerned as I'm not driving the car but it did give a P0172 code. Would this also give a P0420 code as the amount of fuel going in would not equal the combustion products?

Right I've had the car up on ramps and to get to the air/fuel sensor it looks like I'd have to remove the catalytic converter. I also don't have the slotted socket needed. I think this might be beyond my skill/tools level so it's time for professional help. I don't fancy my chances getting the exhaust apart.

I have found a genuine toyota air/fuel sensor 89467-47010 for around half the price of the catalytic converter. I have an after cat O2 sensor but according to techstream the O2 sensor is good. Is that for the post cat sensor or would this also be the air/fuel sensor as well?

Although I have access to techstream I don't really understand much of what it tells me. Please see the screenshot below.

Thanks for all the help, both here and in other threads. This has been a great place to learn about this slightly different car.

 

Oh joy!

Right well pretty sure I have a leaking injector or two so that's an issue.
The maf is a Chinese copy so could be an issue. I have ordered a used toyota maf to replace it with.
The air/fuel sensor (bank 1 sensor 1) is also the pre-cat sensor? So that could be worth replacing? Given the cat issue.
I have some oil in the throttle body so possibly the pcv valve needs replacing I just found out.
If I throw good quality parts at it then I can iron out the problems. Perhaps I was wrong to go with cheap Chinese copies

Thank again! I'll get there in the end

 

Quick update, fuel injectors did have a leak so replaced the seals. The MAF has been replaced with a known good 2nd hand Toyota part and currently no engine management light. With the coils being changed the misfire seems to be gone for good but not driven very far as yet so need a bit more testing.
As winter is on its way, I have drained the ICE radiator, removed the water pump and thermostat. I tested the old and new thermostats in boiling water and the new one opens up much more fully.

There's a lot of red deposits on everything but I've read not to use a flush in the coolent system but not sure where or why. Any advice on what to do?

Picture of old thermostat with red deposit on it.


I've also managed to replace my headlight leveling switch with a bit of diy refurbishment.