Lowest mile Gen 2 Prius. 5,156 miles. Back on the road after sitting 12 years.

Gotcha. Ok, that makes more sense.

Looks like we'll be keeping it in the family for now. While it is running and driving, still more clean up to do.

 

Here ya go.

At the time of these pics all I did was vacuum it and spray down with some water and a rag.

The center armrest I did clean up with water and a scrub brush in the sink Just to test what was spilled on it. I think it's hot chocolate. I'll ask the original owner next time I see him.

 

Was pretty mouse-y when I first got it. I 've spent days cleaning and deodorizing the interior since then.
To get a deep cleaning, I stripped out all of the rear interior panels, the battery pack,and most brackets. Also removed glove box, climate control fan, etc up front and sanitized there as well. Did 2 very short ozone treatments.
The smell is mitigated but not perfect yet.
Will be deep cleaning fabric throughout this week and I'll reassess after that.

 

Took it in for an oil change yesterday at the same dealership the car was purchased from and had all previous maintenance done at.

And today Toyota updated the online service history .

So now these are the 2 most recent maintenance records.
12 years between the oil changes, but only 291 miles.

 

@TinyTim
The customer bought a New Prius in August 2006.

This customer did not like the idea of oil sitting in his car longer than around 6 months.

So he consistently brought it in based on time rather than miles.

That accounts for the 13 oil changes from 2006 to 2013.

In 2013 he bought a new Plug in Prius.

He then parked the 2006 in the back of his driveway and stopped driving it.

Over the years mice got in it, 12v battery died, etc. So it simply just sat there while he continued to drive the 2013 Plug in Prius.

He called me to do some diagnostic work on his 2013, and while I was there he asked if I could remove/buy the old 2006. Which I did.

The owner is still alive and well. In fact I'm still helping him with his 2013 Prius.

 

I had a coupon.
5w-30 oil.
$88.00.
I could have gone for full synthetic for over $120.
- They also found about $1,300 in possible repairs. I said I could do any of those repairs myself if needed.
- They provide a full Carfax for free.
- Also a car wash.
- And they tell you the trade in value in case you want to sell. They said about $4,500.

He kind of laughed saying he knew it was worth more than that.

I said I had an offer of $10,000 before I even started doing any work on it. He said it'd easily get $10,000. Since it could be sold for more than that on the lot.

 

Going to start some documentation.
Here is the car. I had first seen the exterior of it the Friday prior. They didn't have keys. They explain to me the situation that I described in the first post.

Owner drove it very little and had been parked a very, very long time. Certainly over 10 years because he had gotten a new Plug-in Prius around 2013 and had stopped driving this 2006.

Over the weekend they called and told me that they were buying a new/used car. A non-hybrid. The dealership had given them an offer for their trade-in. And they said I could buy it for that price.

I hadn't even opened the car at that point and it looked in terrible shape. And I hadn't confirmed the miles. But said I would come on Monday.

I received another call that weekend making it sound like it was a done deal offering assistance in getting it out of the driveway.

They provided me with the VIN and I looked up service records via the national Toyota website. Last service record was at 4,889 mi back in October of 2013. The service record showed 13 oil changes during that timeframe and a $10,000+ Hymotion PHEV system installed at the dealership at 1,522 miles. Crazy.

I said I would come on Monday. And when I arrived, even before opening it, I bought the car figuring even for parts it could turn out okay. Even if the miles weren't correct. Once the money and title were exchanged, I opened the car and started assessing things, hoping I could get it out of there that same day.

12 volt battery was dead. Tires were flat.
Smelled like mice. Quite a few obvious moise nests. Hybrid battery was low. Was surprised to find that it really did still have a 5kWh Hymotion system in the trunk. Of course everything was non-functional.

I arrived early in the morning and worked diligently throughout the day to hopefully at least try an attempt at starting the engine.

For all I knew the engine was seized, the brakes were locked up, important wires were chewed off, or any other showstoppers.

First order of business was to bypass the Hymotion system, so it wouldn't be possibly throwing errors that prevented the car from starting. Luckily since I worked on these systems in the past I had a spare bypass connector. I ended up not using it since there was one already attached to the harness.

I started charging the hybrid battery because it was low with my $1,000+ high voltage charger/balancer/discharger. I left this on the entire day as I worked.

Reinflated all four tires. Hoping that they would hold the air. (They did.)

Started disassembling the trim in the rear hatch area So I can access the 12 volt battery as well as the brackets and cover for the high voltage battery.

Replaced the12 volt battery and got access to the high voltage leads so I could hook up the charger.

Found a gigantic mouse nest and a ton of piled up mouse poop and pee INSIDE hybrid battery electronics area. Yikes. It seemed safe enough to hook up the high voltage charger so I did.

With that going I continued to visually inspecting as much other wires as I could throughout the car including under the dash and under the hood. Seemed okay.

Powered up the car only in accessory mode so that I could use my Bluetooth adapter and Dr Prius app to see the hybrid battery data. Although low, it seemed to actually be balanced. That was a surprise.

I went through the usual things I would do on any car that had been sitting for a long time. Usually it's only a year or two. This one it turned out to be sitting for around 12 years. Wow!

The mileage on the odometer read 5,128 miles! I didn't actually attempt to start the car, there was more preparation that needed to happen.

I made sure there was oil in the car, checked the throttle body, checked the air intake, clean the mass air flow sensor, etc.

Next, I tried to see if it would physically roll in neutral in case I had to pull it out of there. So I put the car back in accessory mode and shifted it to neutral. Surprisingly was able to roll the car forward and backwards easily.

 

Since I knew the car could roll and everything else seemed to be checking out I said I would go get some fresh gas to add to the existing tank. I bought a couple gallons of non-ethanol gas, poured it in, and sort of bounced up and down on the bumpers to mix the new with the old.

By this time it was pretty late afternoon I really wanted to get an attempt at driving it over to my shop. Hybrid battery was charged up enough to try to attempt to start things.

Did some more checking under the hood including proper operation of the throttle body. I was still pretty unsure about everything.

I was especially scared of any kind of electric fire that may happen because of all the corrosion, chewed wires, etc.

I made a few calls to trusted colleagues to just get a reality check on some of the other things I might need to check and receive some encouragement.

With a Prius, you have about 5 non-start attempts before the hybrid battery gets driven too low, making it unable to have enough voltage to start the car. So I always try to have everything prepared as much as possible before giving it an attempt.

Key fob in the slot, door open, hood open, lid off of the throttle body, and starter fluid ready.

The moment of truth.

I squirted starter fluid down the intake, slapped on the lid, closed the hood, jumped in the car and pressed the power button.

Unbelievably, the car started right up!

I didn't want it to die so I revved the engine for a while. As the exhaust pipes heated up it had that terrible smell of hot dust and grime. I realize I hadn't checked to make sure there weren't leaves stuffed up in there that could maybe start a fire.

Once I felt comfortable I put it in drive and eased onto the street. I had forgotten to clean the windshield first, so the windshield was a mess as I swept it with the wipers.

I nervously drove it the short distance to my shop, worrying the whole way that I could die at any second, or a fire could ensue.

I safely made it there and let out a huge sigh of relief. I left the car running, parked far away from other objects just in case something bad happened. I also wanted to be able to easily get in there with the tow truck if it died right on the spot.

Below is a pic of it sitting idling with the lights on at the shop. Whew!

I then ran a Life Expectancy Test using the Dr Prius app. Attached is the screenshot showing the shocking results: 91.86% capacity!

I got a ride back to the customer's house to pick up my other car. I snapped a quick pic of the parking spot where the car had sat for 12 years.

The last thing the owner told me before I left was that I should get an oil change on the Prius before I drove it very far. The car was now at 5,129 miles. The next oil change would be its 14th and such a short amount of miles.

It was getting late, and after the rollercoaster of emotions throughout the day I decided I'd come back later to do a safety check up on the lift before attempting to drive the ~25 miles back to my home.

I knew it was going to take a while to do more work on this, and didn't want to clutter up the shop parking lot with it. Easier to have it at my home so I could slowly chip away at needed items.