2001-2008 Haynes Repair Manual

I just received my "Toyota Prius 2001 thru 2008 Haynes Repair Manual".

I am very disappointed. I think it is a waist of money. They have all of 8 pages on the hybrid system and 75% of that is poor quality pictures. The majority of the book covers basic auto repair that is not necessarily appropriate for the Prius. As an example one part discusses proper care of a lead acid battery! The Prius doesn't have one. They do have a list of ECU trouble codes but that's it, a number and a name, no description.

Save your money.

 

Hi dorf - the Toyota technical documentation does take getting used to. However, I find that it is generally very helpful once you get used to it.

If you are interested in a technical training overview of the Toyota hybrid system, I suggest autoshop101.com which contains files provided by Toyota.

If you are interested in "theory of operations", I suggest the 2004 New Car Features manual for 2G (or 2001 NCF for Classic), which can be obtained at the subscription techinfo.toyota.com website. The subsequent model years NCF will identify changes from the prior year.

The diagnostics manual (which you apparently did not buy) provides info regarding how the various systems work, along with abbreviated circuit diagrams. It provides full instructions about how to interpret and troubleshoot the thousands of DTC/INF codes that can be logged by the various ECUs. The level of detail that it goes into in some cases is extreme and seems intended for the remanufacturing centers responsible for repairing/rebuilding major assemblies.

Patrick Wong

 

I bought one of the HAYNES manuals also and am happy that I did.
It's very useful to someone like myself who is completely new to this type of vehicle, especially for pointing out where parts are that I would have a tough time figuring out without the manual.
It's not a "Toyota Factory Service Manual" but it is good in it's own right and very informative.

Patrick,
I went to the techinfo.toyota.com website and evidently you have to pay to access info there is that correct?

 

I worked as a mechanic for over 30 years, and I was really impressed with the overall information the book had. It did cover basics for the beginner, and did cover actual rebuild of major components as well. I'm sure that Haynes wasn't helped a whole lot by Toyota in the assemblage of the book, but I found it to be informative for the Classic or newer Owner/Mechanic that has a vehicle no longer covered by warranty. It's of course done in the usual Haynes layout. Nice to have a reference book handy since we can't always be sitting in front of our screens surfing Priuschat, nor do we want to "burn up" 3-4 printer cartridges getting them online. Of course Priuschat has been a wealth of information for me as a new owner. Certainly worth the money though!

 

There is a lead acid battery in a Prius, it is there for all the 12 volt functions like control, lighting and audio.

Haynes manuals are written for the amateur user so don't go into a lot of detail where special training is needed like the 200 volt electrical system.
The aren't a how it works book but a how to keep it going book. There isn't going to be much in them about the HSD because there isn't much to fix in it.

 

Yes, that is correct. $50 for one month access and $10 for one day. If you try the one day access and sign up on a Friday your access may stay in effect until Monday.

 

The Prius 12V auxiliary battery is a special Valve Regulated "Absorbed Glass Mat" (AGM) design and should NEVER be replaced with a conventional lead acid battery.

If you do what 'Haynes' tells you to do to maintain the lead acid battery, you will have problems.

However I concede, the Prius 12V auxiliary battery has both lead and acid.

 

Yes, this statement can be found on p. 6 of TSB PG007-03.

However, what is interesting is that some Classic owners found that the original equipment GS battery with the same markings and white case, in fact was regular lead acid and not AGM. They can see liquid inside and the battery makes a sloshing sound when shaken.

The battery in my 2001 was AGM, based upon opening the top, looking inside, and finding no liquid, just the weird looking AGM plates with the mats holding the acid. (Another way to verify this without opening the battery is to shine a light through the case, then tip the battery over 90 degrees to see if you can see liquid electrolyte or not.)

A few owners successfully eked out more life out of their AGM battery by peeling off the label on the top and opening the access cover (ignoring the label that says not to open the top) and adding an ounce of water to each of the six cells. Nothing to lose, if your battery is weak & you are planning to replace it anyway...

In the UK, a normal lead acid battery made in China with a Toyota label, containing a sight glass to view electrolyte status in one cell was sold by local dealers as a replacement battery.
http://autos.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/Prius-UK/photos/browse/cb61

Hence, not all parts of the Toyota world act in accordance with the cited TSB.

I think that the reason for installing an AGM battery is to provide additional safety in the event that your Prius is wacked hard on the rear corner where the battery resides. A regular battery will spill liquid acid everywhere. The AGM should be safer when physically impacted.

 

Patrick,

Autoshop101.com is a great reference.

As you are probably aware, sharing the passenger compartment with a working lead acid battery is not wise because of the vapors. The car will work fine however.

I have seen reference to Prius "Repair Manual Vol 1, 2, and 3", "Electrical Wiring Diagram" and the "Collision Repair Manual". But, I have not come across the "diagnostics manual"?

 

The Prius 12 vdc battery is sealed. A vent tube is run to the exterior of the car to vent any potential vapors. I've always had a difficult time getting the vent tube hooked up after removing it

 

Yes, this is another good reason to pay more and stay with a vented AGM battery when the time comes to replace the 12V auxiliary battery.

The repair manual numbering changes each year. Since dorf says that Vol #1 contains "Ser/Maint/Eng", I interpret this to mean the following:

Ser: Service Specifications, which provides excruciating detail about torque specs, how to test specific sensors in each subsystem, etc. This to me is not particularly helpful as most of the info is duplicated later on.

Maint: General instructions about performing the periodic maintenance fluid changes & inspections. This is written at a basic level and therefore not particularly fascinating. The 2005 manual talks about a hybrid transmission dipstick and shifting into "L"; both of course do not exist (p. 99-4). If you are comfortable working on other vehicles, you won't learn much new in this section.

Eng: Not sure about this, perhaps he means Engine Mechanical, which provides detailed maintenance and overhaul info for the engine. This was a very useful section when I inspected valve clearances on my 2001.

I have an electronic version of the 2005 manual, hence I don't know the volume numbering applicable to the paper copy. The Diagnostics manual must be either #2 or #3 (maybe it is both 2 and 3) given the numbering you mentioned above, and this might depend upon model year.

Regardless, if you are going to buy the Toyota repair documentation, the Diagnostics manual is a really important volume to have. In the 2005 model year, this section alone was 2,700 pages out of 4,000 (no, this is not a typo.) It provides detailed information about how to diagnose each subsystem, how to interpret the DTC/INF codes, a fail-safe chart that shows how the system will behave given a particular DTC code, abbreviated wiring diagrams so that you can see how the subsystem is wired, etc.

Think of the Diagnostics section as telling you how to figure out what to do, while the other manual sections explain how to do it. The Diagnostics section sometimes goes into too much detail, and seems written less for the dealer tech and more for the repair center remanufacturing engines, transaxles and inverters. However, there's lots of great content in the section.

If you are trying to prioritize what to buy, I suggest buying the three repair manuals first, and deferring purchase of the EWD and collision repair manual. (EWD is a lower priority since Diagnostics gives you little wiring diagrams for each subsystem.)

 

yeah after reading through the whole book i'm not too impressed, there's some serious lack of information in here, although I'm not impressed with toyo either by having all their manuals on pdf and it doesn't allow me to have it on hard copy (which I truly enjoy).

on the brakes section it doesn't even mention of pulling out of the abs fuses due to the self check igniting the pistons from the calipers when doing a brake check, they only say (be sure the hybrid system is turned off)

yeah that says a lot! 6/10 the only thing that saves this manual is the proper English writing unlike the Japanese's English I have to deal with in toyo manuals.

 

I know that Bentley Publishers is putting out a Prius repair manual this June.
I look forward to see how this compares to your experience with the Haynes manual.

Link to the book: Toyota Prius Repair and Maintenance Manual 2004-2008

 

The link did not work when I tried it.

However I remember that Bentley published excellent repair manuals for VW cars. I understand that VW cooperated with Bentley in this effort.

I previously owned a 1976 Dasher and 1999 New Beetle, and bought the Bentley manuals for both. The content is substantially better than Chilton or Haynes.

 

I bought the Haynes manual because I was curious to see and I'm always interested in more tech info about the car. I was planning to do a short review, so this is as good of a place as any:


The Good: Lots of photos of stuff you will never have to deal with (e.g. Timing Chain replacement). Charts with torque values for various parts. Some advice on things you can do vs. things you should take it to a repair shop for (for the typical home mechanic)

The Bad: Some of the photos are not Prius photos, but are generic photos of a typical car (e.g. photos of rebuilding a V8 engine) This could be confusing for someone who had limited mechanical experience. Also, all Prius photos are a 2004 model, but explanations for the Classic (2001 - 2003) are an arm waving to the photos saying that some components are different. This could also be confusing if you have a Classic. Many of the charts are not really useful (e.g. conversions from Metric to English system) when working on the Prius, but are just standard Haynes "boilerplate" sections for any car.

The Ugly: I found a few things that were definitely wrong (e.g. ATF Type IV for Transaxle fluid; Classic uses Type IV, 2G requires WS ATF) . The photos and description of battery service are not correct for the Prius (e.g. the battery shown is not a Prius battery, it is not under the hood, etc. ) I think there are some others, but I don't have the book here with me as I write this post.

Summary: Its okay to supplement the factory manual, but be careful to double check info (e.g. ATF type and qty) with the owners manual and/or the factory service manual, because there may be some errors in the Haynes manual.

 

I fixed the link, so it should work now. Sorry about that!