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Full on intake, egr, throttle cleaning

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Wtfdustinwtf, Nov 30, 2023.

  1. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    There might be things I do that would fall in the same category, but I don't think I push them as aggressively on other people. If I mention them at all, I'm likely to say something along the lines of "the repair manual doesn't give any instruction to do this, and obviously lots of people just follow the instructions and call it a day, but I like to ... because ...".
     
  2. bdc101

    bdc101 Member

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    I thought it was weird there was a vent valve at all on a front engine car. Typically you only see them when the engine is in the back and radiator is in the front. I owned and raced a lot of MR2s when I was younger and got real familiar with using these valves to bleed coolant on those, since they all had issues with thermostats and I had to replace a bunch of them.
     
  3. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    You do not need to open any bleed valve.
    The key is to fill SLOWLY, and a little at a time. This give the coolant time
    to push out the air. Filling quickly causes pockets.


     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    All our Hondas had them. As you fill the coolant you can feel air rushing out. Full disclosure: don’t recall doing that feel test when I did engine coolant change on our ‘10 Prius, at 10 year mark (with bleed valve open). Will the next time round; a couple of years from now, at 15 year mark.
     
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    There is absolutely zero doubt that if you open something at the top of a cooling system, you will feel air leaving there as you pour coolant in.

    Just doesn't bear on the question of whether the procedure in the manual needs such additional steps tacked on.
     
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  6. Wtfdustinwtf

    Wtfdustinwtf Junior Member

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    Hello everyone! Thanks for the help! It appears my efforts were successful. For those interested I preformed an engine coolant flush, inverter flush, spark plug change, intake manifold dismantle and cleaning, throttle body cleaning, EGR pipe dismantle and cleaning, and EGR cooler dismantle and cleaning. I successfully put everything back together. I did make a mistake and put the air box back in too soon so I had to take it back out, then forgot to plug MAF sensor in. This caused check engine light to turn on when I first started the prius up. My heart sank and I almost fell down crying on the spot! However I had some confidence in myself and after investigating codes and such I found the error.

    For ANYONE in the future wanting help or advice on what I did and in the order I did it, random tips, advice for tools etc. Feel free to reply here or message me. I don't log in this forum often but I do get email notifications so I'll see your requests and gladly help. It took me well over 20+ hours of working time to do all this. If I can help anyone to be more prepared it would make it well worth it to me so don't hesitate to ask!
     
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  7. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I see no mention of oil catch can, which is good. Save that for another day.
     
  8. Wtfdustinwtf

    Wtfdustinwtf Junior Member

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    I forgot to add pcv valve! I did in fact change it. No on the OCC I didn't have the resources to do so.
     
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  9. Wtfdustinwtf

    Wtfdustinwtf Junior Member

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    The main reason was when I looked into getting a setup I came across a wide range of similar products. Some where about 30$ some upwards of 90$ and I couldn't quickly determine with certainty which one a prius would need. In my experience a lot of things for prius tend to be the more expensive ones. Sometimes it's the smaller and expensive one also! (12v battery for instance). I figured at some point I will do at least part of this again and will do an oil collector then. I've been trying to gather info on if transmission change is worth it for a 3rd gen prius. This (might) be next project possibly when I do oil change.

    I do have a theory though, if I were to clean just the EGR pipe at every oil change interval would it have any effect on keeping the cooler and intake manifold clean?
     
  10. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I don’t think it’d help. I’d just clean the whole system? At least every 50k. Toyota screwed the pooch on 3rd gen EGR, and doubled down by keeping sthum about it.
     
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  11. Wtfdustinwtf

    Wtfdustinwtf Junior Member

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    Yeah I imagine the next time I do this it be easier and quicker so I might as well just save it all as an all in one maintenence. At one point I remember reading toyota claims the full life of a prius is 150k miles. If true (don't know where the source is from) maybe they could argue that adding in an egr and intake maintenence is not needed for the life expectancy of the car.
     
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  12. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The number isn't quite the same, but it reminds me a little of that old CNW Marketing "study" that said a Hummer uses less lifetime energy than a Prius ... by assuming an H1 would be driven for 379,000 miles but a Prius only for 109,000, and then plugging those assumptions into some simple math.
     
  13. Prius DIY nut

    Prius DIY nut Member

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    Funny, I did all the same things plus OCC in one go and then apparently I also missed to connect one of the vacuum hoses to intake manifold(IM). The ICE started rough then shut down and then a scarry message came up "check hybrid system". I tried not to panic and re-check all connections again and found that one vacuum hose was not connected to IM. After fixing that all went back to normal. Lesson learned: no rushing, re-check everything :)
     
  14. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    Glad you got it all finished, with only minor issues...

     
  15. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    It's not worth the effort. It will never clog up. The cooler will clog WELL before
    the pipe does.

     
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  16. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    Agreed, IMO the two ends are the most important (intake manifold EGR passages, and the EGR cooler/valve) to keep clean and flowing.

    SM-G781V ?
     
    CR94 likes this.