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Hello, New To The Forum. Need Help With Fluid Maintenance Schdule

Discussion in 'Prius c Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Lexington-76, Sep 2, 2024 at 9:32 PM.

  1. Lexington-76

    Lexington-76 New Member

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    2012 Prius c
    Model:
    Three
    Hello All

    I’m new to the forum. Last week a bought a 2012 Prius C for my daughter with a 100k on it. This is my first time owning a Hybird car. I’ve been going through the manual and in particular the Warranty & Maintenance Guide to see what the maintenance requirements are. The only thing I see is when to change the oil and the radiator and inverter coolant. Everything else is says just inspect. It says nothing else as to when to change the other fluid Is there a list somewhere of the recommended changes for the following fluids, front & rear differential, transfer case, steering and break fluid? Also any recommendations on when to change belts? The closes one I found was this Scheduled Maintenance Guide | PriusChat but this doesn’t have what I’m looking for. Internet searches and YouTube haven’t been all that helpful too.

    Also any other maintenance you have to share will also be greatly appreciated.

    Many thanks.
     
    #1 Lexington-76, Sep 2, 2024 at 9:32 PM
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2024 at 9:41 PM
  2. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    Pennsylvania
    Vehicle:
    2018 Prius c
    Model:
    Two
    You are in luck!

    A Prius c does not have a rear differential or a transfer case. The power steering is 100% electric; there is no fluid to check or change.

    There is a front differential, which is lubricated by ATF shared with the rest of the transmission. Toyota has not published a replacement guideline for it, because it doesn't get anywhere near as stressed or contaminated as the ATF in a traditional automatic transmission.

    Some people do it anyway, but plenty of these cars have made it through full careers with the factory ATF in them. If you bother to change it, insist on the real 'Toyota WS' fluid: you do not want something that eats the insulation off the electric motor windings in there.

    Also there are no belts to change, so you're good there. Do check the tires, including the date stamps.

    Brake fluid should be changed periodically, and due to the sophisticated nature of the Prius brake system this is not an easy task- best left to dealer or an experienced hybrid mechanic.

    I would advise you to purchase a good diagnostic scanner to use with this car. Many of them will only scan part of the car, and an incomplete report is sometimes worse than useless. The Autel AP200 and AP2500 are good choices for full compatibility at a reasonable price.

    Welcome and good luck!
     
    #2 Leadfoot J. McCoalroller, Sep 3, 2024 at 1:52 PM
  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Vehicle:
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    One thing that's a little subtle: every 5k Toyota USA say visually inspect brakes, which presumably happens in the course of tire rotation. However, every 30k, they omit that, and instead say to inspect "Brake linings/drums and brake pads/discs". I would take that to mean do a thorough brake inspection every 30K.

    Something else, that goes beyond "subtle", verges on contradictory: at 100K they say to change "engine/inverter" coolant, with a footnote "3". Read footnote 3 and it says (bold added by me):

    "Initial engine coolant replacement at 100,000 miles/120 months. Replace every 50,000 miles/60 months thereafter. Initial inverter coolant replacement at 150,000 miles/180 months. Replace every 50,000 miles/60 months thereafter."

    FWIW, Toyota Canada says to replace both at ~100K miles (160K kms) or 10 years, whichever comes first. They also say to replace brake fluid at ~30K miles (18K kms) or tri-yearly.

    BTW, you can download pdf format of both the Owner's Manual and Warranty And Maintenance Booklet, from Toyota Tech Info, under the "Manuals" tab.

    What I found a useful exercise is to convert the event-by-event schedule to a a row-and-column format, say in a spreadsheet. I'll attach the US third gen Prius schedule, might actually be identical, and if not probably just needs minor edit.
     

    Attached Files:

    #3 Mendel Leisk, Sep 3, 2024 at 2:08 PM
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2024 at 2:16 PM
  4. Lexington-76

    Lexington-76 New Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius c
    Model:
    Three
    Hi Leadfoot.

    Thank you very much for that information. I currently own a 5th Gen 4Runner and there are fluid changes for everything. Because it’s a heavy vehicle and designed for off-roading fluid changes are more frequent. So with this mind set I was having a little difficult time understanding the Prius. I’m now learning that the Prius C is the complete opposite. Surprisingly I couldn’t get this information from the dealers. When they tried to explains it, they didn’t do it well and they confused the Prius C with other Prius which I think have a little more maintenance involved. Your explanation was great! I fully understand the maintenance needs of the Prius now. It would have been nice if Toyota included the information you provided in the beginning of the maintenance manual. It would have cleared up so many question.

    Mendel, thanks for the maintenance chart. Your maintenance chart was one of the first things I found when I first started searching for information on the Prius C. However, I thought it was incomplete but realized later it was. This was because I was unfamiliar with this car and was still looking at it as a normal car that has a transfer case and differential. I think it would be helpful for future newbies like me if you included a brief summary of what Leadfoot said with the chart. But thank you again for the information. I really appreciate it.

    I have two other requests if I may ask.

    1. Do you know if there is a digital diagram of the engine, transmission and differential for the Prius C? An example of what I’m looking for is like this digital diagram of a traditional car. It would be nice to have a visual reference. (I attempted to post a link of what I was looking for but the forum said I can’t because I’m new. Probably a feature to prevent spamming.

    2. Any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

    Many Thanks!
     
    #4 Lexington-76, Sep 6, 2024 at 3:27 PM
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
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