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Bad Motor, what now? A Moral Dilemma

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by Matt_MO, Aug 12, 2020.

  1. Matt_MO

    Matt_MO Junior Member

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    Well Prius folks, I was proud to count myself as one of you. Bought a high mileage Gen3 2012 from an auto shop at around 185,000 miles and loved it. Within the first year I started seeing the telltale bad head gasket symptom of rough shaky starts.
    Now at 190,000 it’s real bad. With nothing to lose, I did the head gasket “fix in a bottle” which did seem to stop my ridiculous coolant loss (bypassed the heater core to prevent clogging there) but I still have a bubbly coolant tank which tests positive for exhaust gasses as well as some coolant “chocolate milk” in the oil.

    So now I’m at the moral dilemma with the following options:
    1. My shop wants $3200 to put in a refurb engine. I paid $6000 for the car so that’s a hard pill to swallow. Nothing else wrong with the car besides needing a windshield. If I drop in a new engine, who knows how long I’ll last until this happens again since these Gen3 seem to be notorious.
    2. I would NOT scam-sell this to an individual. But I would be less hesitant to change the oil and sell to a dealership for which I have a $3450 cash offer. I take it by for a “10 minute inspection” and just hope they don’t notice the issue. Lowest bluebook is $6300
    3. The options get less gainful from here: donating, scraping, etc. I have drove it too long bad to just change the gasket.

    What would you do? I’m tempted to move up to a Gen4 from here and pay for the lower miles and lack of head gasket that comes with them.
     
  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    30 views and no responses: tough question.

    Those head gasket sealers are useless (and damaging) snake-oil, but anyway:

    1. Do a engiine coolant flush with 50/50 white vinegar and water. That should flush out that crap. Set your cabin heat temp on high, you want it flowing everywhere. Drain thoroughly: radiator drain, engine block, and pull off the lowest hose on the exhaust recirculation. Then maybe drive and repeat. Then put in 50% of system capacity (spec in owner's manual) with Toyota Long Life Coolant (unlike Super Long Life, this coolant comes full strength).

    That hopefully gets rid of the crap. To determine the efficacy of vinegar for dissolving, test a few chunks.

    2. Replace head gasket.

    3. Clean EGR system, intake manifold, install oil catch can.
     
  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The OP believes "I have drove it too long bad to just change the gasket."

    Maybe getting into the job would show it isn't really that bad in this case. OTOH, it might be. And replacing the gasket, if you're going to do enough inspection to distinguish those cases, is plenty of labor, maybe not cheaper than the engine swap.

    A couple more scenarios to maybe work into the moral-dilemma advance what-if exercise:

    • They don't notice the issue in the 10-minute inspection, but they ask you if you are aware of any other issue
    • They have you sign a written agreement that asks if you are aware of any other issue

    Thinking it through in advance, what are you comfortable answering to an oral direct question? What are you comfortable signing?

    PriusChat doesn't need to know ... just a personal exercise.
     
  4. Solar Blue

    Solar Blue Member

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    You could post it for sale on Craigslist with full disclosure of all known issues for a bargain price of maybe $1000. See if you get any bites.
    Maybe there's someone near you who is up for the challenge.
    A good shade tree mechanic should be able to get it back on the road for $1000 or less.
     
  5. Matt_MO

    Matt_MO Junior Member

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    I didn't have high hopes in the gasket sealer, but chose to try it because I felt I had nothing to loose. The only complaint I saw out there was either not working or clogging the heater core, which is why I bypassed my heater core to keep the coolant out while I tried the snake oil.

    Interestingly it did seem to do something: minimized or eliminated my coolant loss. But engine is still no bueno because I have exhaust gas in my coolant reservoir (indicated by the color-changing fluid detection test and visual bubbles that I'm not sure were present before.)

    My mechanic said he would not just replace the head gasket because I drove it too long with the current bad head gasket, likely resulting in other things being wrong with the engine now. I will be cleaning out the snake oil contaminated coolant regardless.
     
  6. Matt_MO

    Matt_MO Junior Member

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    Conscience be dammed! I'm too honest of a person to try and pawn this problem off, even to a stealership.
    Looking at JDM engines for $1200 + $1900 for install = $3100.
    My mechanic is reluctant to do a JDM install and would not warranty it.

    He would 1 year warranty a 32,000 mile motor from his trusted source (odometer verified, fully tested)... but that would cost me $3100 plus the same $1900 install for a total of $5000

    So my question now is how much sense it makes to spend $5000 to fix a car I bought for $5700.
    A 32,000 mile Prius like mine blue books for $12,300 but of course that's the whole rest of the car at 32k, not just the motor!

    Nothing else wrong with the car and it seems like the motor is the one big spendy thing that goes wrong so I'm tempted to bite the bullet and fork over the $5k and have a car that "restarts" the odometer pretty low. Contrary opinions welcome!
     
  7. Solar Blue

    Solar Blue Member

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    If you are swapping engines, maybe consider a forth generation engine. There is a tread here about what modifications need to be done to make it work.
    The issues that caused the engine failure in the first place were supposedly addressed on the forth generation.