My phone rings yesterday, my son in Los Angeles. The beloved Prius has died on the side of the road. We bought it new in April 2011. It was just after the horrible Tsunami in Japan and the cars were hard to get. Level 3, Tan side and out. My commute was 84 miles a day on the NYS Thruway. AT first I took at easy, read the hyper mileage posts and tried to see what I could obtain. That lasted 4 months- couldn't get any better than 52.7 indicated ( I didn't try real hard...) After that it was 80mph every day- all highway. 13,981 miles the first year. Bought a set of winter rims and kept Michelin X Ice on every winter. Harmony's in the summer. Never a problem. Put numerous sets of pads and rotors on - although the original rears did last 133k! Being a mechanics son, my car was the last thing to keep maintained properly. Safety wise yes, but normal maintenance, not so much. One morning in March 2020 it let me down. The dash lit up and no Hybrid drive. Thankfully it was part of the warranty enhancement for the IPM and was fixed at no charge. At the 169k mark it needed a RR wheel bearing. At 187k it was the LR wheel bearing, along with the ABS cable; the LR rotor shield had rusted off and tore out the cable on the highway. Oil sender leaked at 198k and was replaced. The converter flange rusted and blew out the donut. Cobbled that together with a new donut. Replaced the original 12v battery in 2023 at 217k. Had to finally replace all 4 original calipers in 2024 as having multiple sticking issues. Stopped like brand new again. New York salt tax took a toll. The underside was getting quite rusty. Taught my 3 sons to drive in the car. Took them to Chicago and Cleveland for college. My middle son kept it at school for the last 2 years. Then in the spring he got an internship for the summer in Los Angeles. ROAD TRIP! We drove from Cleveland to Kansas City, on to Denver (Where we snagged last minute tickets to the Nuggets NBA Playoff game) and then on to Los Angeles. I had noticed the rear wiper blade was rotted and hanging off so as we got near his apartment I stopped at Claremont Toyota to pick up the rubber insert. They didn't stock the insert, but the woman at the parts counter gave us wholesale on the assembly which was extremely nice. I installed it and we headed back out or so we thought. On starting there was a rattling and hammering in the driveline. It shook the car for 5-10 seconds and cleared up. Since we were there I asked the parts woman who we should talk to - she recommended "Oscar" in service. He said to bring it in. I think there was a miscommunication as we had to get to the apartment before 5 to get the keys, but he finally understood and grabbed a tech (I think Salvatore?). He had me start it and immediately said "Head Gasket". I was skeptical until he filled in the details. In California they go around 150k. I had 245k and never put a wrench on the motor- no spark plugs, no EGR, no coolant pump; nothing...! The cool NY climate must have slowed the failure. Due to the age and rust, it wasn't worth leaving, so we took off the coolant tank cap and drove on. I debated staying and trying to find a car, but my son insisted it would be fine. And it was! For 6 weeks! Commuting 26 miles 5 days a week on the freeway! I almost thought it would make it. Then he called. 45 minutes north of Santa Clarita on his way to Sequoia National Park.... At first I was mad- What do you mean you were taking this car up the freeway at 80mph on a 95 degree day for a 3 1/2 hour jaunt?!!? Then I was sad as I knew it was the end of the line. Almost 250k miles in 14 years. Total investment 27k purchase + 25 oil changes, 6 sets of tires, multiple sets of pads and rotors, 1 set of calipers, oil sender, 2 wheel bearings, LR ABS cable, 1 rotor dust shield, 3 air filters, 2 cabin air filters, 8 sets of wiper blades, and approx 6500 gallons of gas. RIP Well done Toyota!
Last week, I pulled out the hybrid battery to restore its capacity from a 2015 Prius with 270k miles. The owner drove those miles on the highway and did nothing to the car except changing the oil and tires. I recommended him to restore the battery capacity while it is still in the working order. No issues with the car so far. A couple of weeks ago, the owner of an automotive repair shop called me and asked me how he could clean the EGR cooler on a prius. I told him how I do it, but he told me that the cooler was clogged shut. I asked him what the mileage was on the car, and he replied 250k. Later that day, I went to his shop to balance a few wheels and saw how clogged that cooler was. It looked as if it had been stuffed with ground. This car came to the shop due to a trouble code for EGR flow. I have a 2013 prius V with 211k miles, which had a problem with a clogged EGR circuit, but there were no trouble codes, and the car was jerking under light load. If i leave it parked for 10-15 minutes, the car starts misfiring for a few seconds. If i leave it for a long time, for a night, for example, it starts without the misfire. The misfire occurs in cylinder 1. I'm sure it's the head gasket, but the behavior is strange. The clogged EGR circuit may have helped the gasket to blow. I bought a 2012 Prius V around October 2024 with 218k miles on it as my workhorse. The insurance company totaled it due to minor side damage. I cleaned the EGR and rebuilt the hybrid battery and put 13k miles on it. Last week the engine started misfiring and would misfire every time the engine started while driving. I drove it to my shop and found that cylinder 2 was soaking wet with coolant. The head gasket blew on both sides, same spot. As soon as she started misfiring, I connected my obd2 adapter and looked at the engine temperature, it was 191 degrees. The water pump has been replaced before me on this car along with the thermostat. The water pump looks original from Toyota. There is a Toyota inscription on the housing and the rotor is crack-free, beige/tan in color, not yellowish, as are those Chinese fakes. The water pump housing already has oxidation, but not as heavy as on the engine. The thermostat was the MotoRad brand. I knew that the head gasket time would come from the moment of purchase. I saw a Prius V at auction, with 226k miles, with the coolant reservoir empty. I saw another Prius that had the coolant reservoir empty too and started with a misfire and had a water pump code. I also saw a Prius with 169k miles with no coolant and a pumping abs pump every 15 seconds. To me, this suggests that this car was being tortured in city traffic, which caused the abs and head gasket to collapse so soon. As for my Prius, I don't see any other reason than the aging of the gasket itself. The operating conditions of this car allowed the gasket to live 231k miles. About 10 days before it started to misfire, a slight shaking appeared, as if it was barely noticeable misfiring. I think that the process of coolant leaking into the cylinder 2 had already begun at that time.
