DIY tune-up

The spark plugs may be difficult to remove as Toyota does not apply anti-seize at the factory and after 5 years, they are probably locked in there pretty good.. Use lots of care, if a plug stops, don't force it or you risk stripping the aluminum head, but back it off a bit and with a hammer, tap the free end of the wrench so that you get an "impact" effect.. When I changed the plugs on my 2001, it took a fair bit of work to get the plugs out.. If you are not brave enough to try this, you can rest easy in the fact that the Prius uses iridium-tipped plugs that are rated for over 100,000 miles, and although I did replace mine with a new set, the originals were still in fine condition.. I always double-check the gap on the plugs even though they are supposed to be "pre-gapped"- the spec is in the repair manual and I think I did have to slightly tweak the gap on at least one of the new plugs before installing..

You don't want or need to change the "wires" because there really aren't any in the traditional sense.. The Prius features direct ignition- each plug has its own individual ignition coil molded to the top of the boot wtihout any intervening high-voltage cable, and the wires you see coming off the coil are just the low-voltage wires that don't need replacement..

Filter and oil are the easiest things to do- just like any other car, but don't overfill the oil... You'll probably want to replace the air filter and perhaps push open the butterfly throttle valve and inspect the bottom of the intake for oil- you can get a can of cleaner and spray it in while running the engine to clean this area off, although by all reports, the oil comes back (ie, it seems to be normal to have some oil at the bottom of the intake)..

You might also want to consider replacing the engine coolant at this time as well.. The regular engine coolant is easy to do- just like a conventional car, open the drain valve at the bottom of the radiator to remove the old coolant, fill up with new stuff- you may want to use the Toyota "Super Long Life Coolant" as opposed to the original "Long Life Coolant". The new stuff lasts longer and is a pink color vs. the original which is red. Do *NOT* mix any kind of water into the coolant as it is premixed, use it as-is from the bottle.

The Hybrid coolant takes a bit more to change and you might want to go to the dealer to get this done.. Improper bleeding of the hybrid cooling system can cause an vapor lock (ie, an air bubble in the system that prevents the coolant from circulating) and this could result in overheat damage to the hybrid components.. I haven't tried the following technique, but I'm thinking that it might be one method that could be used to replace the hybrid coolant: Basically you remove the return hose from the bottom of the small reservoir and put a big cork in the hole at the bottom of the reservoir so it doesn't leak and then attach a hose extension to the return hose and direct the end to a catch basin for the old coolant. Then you take the lid off the reservoir, start the car and as cooling system starts circulating the coolant and the old coolant starts to come out of the return hose, you slowly pour in fresh coolant into the reservoir to replace what's coming out and continue until the color of the coolant coming out of the return hose is the same as the fresh coolant and then you basically shut off the car and replace all the hoses to their original spots. In this way, you never evacuate the hybrid coolant loop and this should eliminate the possibility of a vapor lock condition caused by an air bubble.. IThe only downsides that I can think of is that it may take a long time before all the old coolant is circulated out of the system, and I think you may end up needing a fair bit more new coolant than what you're replacing, and you'll always end up with some small percentage of the old coolant left over in the mix, but as long as most of it was replaced, you're OK and I think it's a procedure that would allow you to replace the hybrid coolant with a minimum of fuss.. (The official procedure requires a THHT diagnostic tool to bleed the hybrid system after refilling with new coolant; and there's another DIY procedure that involves a lot of driving, stopping, checking to see if you've gotten the air out of the system).. Again, I haven't tried this procedure yet, but do plan to try it this summer on my vehicle..

 

How timely. I've just started a "50K spring maintenance" miniseries
that references some of the other helpful pages, too.
_ http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/maint50k/
_ http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/brkjob/
But other than the transaxle and routine oil changes, I haven't done
too much messing with fluids yet.
.
_H*