Hi all, is it my car's time? I am not a DIY. I have a great mechanic (I think) that has done a lot of work with taxi drivers over the years and therefore has experience with Prius v. He gave me a roundabout of $4000 (CAD) to fix gasket, replace sparkplugs, and other stuff I can't remember. He did a clean of the EGR at around 225,000km if I remember correctly. The problem is even used cars are so bloody expensive these days... I need to decide today. :-(
I agree with bisco, if the rest of the car is still in good shape, you might as well change it. If you do, I would recommend changing the EGR and intake manifold as well since there are updated parts. I just bought a 2012 with a blown head gasket over the summer and had it replaced at the dealer I work at. If you need any help with part numbers and such I can help you with that as I have access to the electronic parts catalog.
That's around 140k miles (for our American brethren). Did anything in particular prompt that cleaning? Was it a thorough clean, and included the intake manifold, which has the final leg of the EGR passages? Not sure? Just my 2 cents, that's an expensive, fool's-mission; I would just clean what you've got.
Thanks for the comments, folks. I bought the car private sale in October 2020, odo 205k km (127k mi). Perhaps the previous owners knew what was coming, because in December 2020 I experienced the disturbing "death rattle" on startup. I looked it up on here - thank you everyone especially Mendel for all the great info - and took it in before things got worse. I see in my records that he did a transmission service and replaced the spark plugs on Dec. 10. On Dec. 29 he did indeed do a thorough intake manifold clean. So: I decided to fix the car. You are right, Bisco, $4k doesn't take you far. Did you know that I can buy a 2014 Prius V for MORE MONEY than what I paid in 2020?? The only difference I noticed between my car when I bought it and the one in the ad was that the odo was a touch more at 225k km (about 140k miles). I do have a bit of rust - a worrisome spot at the top of my windshield that I sanded and repainted (and if anything made it worse), some under the rubber covers of the rocker panels, by the licence plate and probably elsewhere. Underneath Mike said it was pretty good. Here's the breakdown of my bill, in case anyone on this forum is interested: Parts: head gasket head bolt kit intake gasket exhaust gasket valve cover gasket tensioner gasket 4 spark plugs ultra black silicone Labour: Re and Re Cylinder Head clean/replace gaskets as necessary Clean Intake manifold and EGR system. LOF He said the intake manifold and EGR weren't that bad. The cause was the degradation of the gaskets. He also said I caught it early. Total cost: just under $4400 CAD ($3200 USD). Hopefully I can now make it to the 300 000 miles club.
Glad you got her fixed! It's always a tough call when vehicles get older....put the money in it or start over with something else? What's even tougher, these days, is finding a GOOD used car that someone's actually taken care of. I can't believe how many Lexus, BMW's, and Mercedes I see waiting for service at my local Jiffy Lube. (It's right next to my favorite car parts store, O'Reillys, so I'm always curious at what's being serviced over there.) Who would spend BIG BUCKS for a Lexus just to take her to a Jiffy Lube for an oil change?? To quote Joe Biden, "Come on, man!"
