2009 Prius-- What tools do I need for DIY?

You need low profile jack if you want to jack the front of a Prius up without first driving on to something. You need to take the wheel of on many jobs so jack stands are more useful. You should have correct size cup oil filter wrench for Prius. (12V) Battery charger is only needed if you are not driving enough to keep the 12v battery charged. Mini-vci is needed for many jobs. Multimeter is very useful.

Remember that some things in Prius are totally different than in normal car. Some jobs require extra steps (for example brake jobs) and some are lot more complicated (for example filling the engine coolant). But mostly it’s just like any other car.

 

I got the Bentley book on Prius maintenance. It seems pretty good for a DIYer like me, much better than the Chiltons or Jaynes, and you can supplement additional instructions for more complex tasks from the internet. The Bentley book has a ton of warnings that should keep us from doing something stupid with high voltage, air bags, and such.

I live in an apartment with little room for tools but I manage to do plenty of maintenance using the car's scissors jack and a couple of 4x6 cribbing blocks I salvaged from a fencing job. I routinely change engine and transaxle oil and rotate tires, and have replaced spark plugs, serpentine belt and PCV valve, the combination meter, clockspring cable, the 12V and even the traction battery, for instance, without a garage or more than a few hand tools. The car has 160K miles and has only been in the shop for a couple of recalls and coolant change. I've been very pleased with its reliability and low cost of maintenance.

I finally bought a generic OBD scan tool for under $20 on Amazon but some autoparts stores will read your codes for free. I will soon be upgrading to a mini-VCI--I'm keeping my eyes open for an old laptop I can dedicate to it. A multimeter is good to have in any case.

 

Minimialist: The only thing I needed (I don't do much) was a 14-mm socket for the oil drain pan. I try to do stuff as a contorsion artist without jacking up car or maybe just jack it up a little. Plugs I was able to do at 130k miles with my existing Craftsman socket set (plugs pretty easy on a Gen2). I have not tackled transaxle fluid so you're more brave than me. There's a lot of on-line assistance...I always use John1701a's guides.

 

I wouldn't stress about buying everything at once. When you take on a task, get what you need for that. It's pretty much guaranteed you'll end up having to make more than one purchase with some items, some tools will work out, some not.

As far as the mention of a "low profile" jack being needed: I have a fairly low end, 3 ton jack. It's by no means low profile, but rolls under the front bumper ok, and the cradle's maybe an inch below the front-center jacking point.

I got an alternate cradle for it, one with a flat rubber face, easier on the bearing points than a conventional jack cradle.

Something not on your list but worthwhile is some wheel chocks. Four's a good number, get heavy rubber ones. A more lightweight pair is good to carry in the car, if you're changing a flat.

You can never have enough jack stands. The heights and ranges seem to be driven by load spec. Three ton are the lightest, have the shortest range, probably all you need. Six ton are the next step up, have a higher min height, more range, have wider base. Sometimes they're hard to get in position, to tall even retracted. But they're more solid/stable.

Where to put jackstands is debatable. I'm frustrated with Toyota's scissor jack locations on the lower rocker panel edge, find them too thin/unstable. Instead I put jackstands on the car's frame, adjacent to those points.

If and when you've got the car up on jack stands, and crawl under, you're likely to get a eerie feeling. At least I do. What I found helps is a big block of wood, something like a section of tree stump. The main criteria being that it's minimum dimension is thicker than you. Just push it under a main frame member before getting under yourself.

When buying sockets, go for 6 face instead of 12 face, they're more solid, less likely to round off bolt heads. I tend to buy them as I need them. Likely cost more that way, but I tend to buy quality. You need to be cognisant of drive size, ie: 1/4" (good for 10 mm in close quarters), 3/8" (used for most) and 1/2" (appropriate for larger diameter sockets).

Torque wrenches! I've got cheapie 3/8" and 1/2" drives. Tested them with a digital pull scale, and both seem surprising accurate. Toyota in their wisdom gives out precious little (no) information in the Owners Manual regarding basic maintenance, torque values. But it's out there. Here's a few I keep in my log file:

Engine oil drain bolt: 27 (ft/lb) (14mm hex socket)
Oil filter cap: 18 (64mm 14 face)*
Transaxle fill/drain bolts: 29 (both have 10 mm socket head cap screw)
Wheel lug nut: 76 (22mm, or 13/16", the latter a little snug

Funnels. Get them as you need. It can be good to have a few for dedicated fluids: engine oil, transaxle fluid (needs about 36" tube extension, maybe 3/8" diameter max), washer fluid, etc.

The main thing you're likely to be doing is an oil change. I'd recommend if you want to preserve the condition of the engine underpanel, to remove it completely when doing oil changes. Also, rinse out the plastic fasteners whenever you've got them off, to get the grit out. By removing the panel completely you'll be preserving the flimsy "oil change flap", and have a better view of the whole engine underside, for checking gaskets, CV joints on the drives shafts.

* There's several oil filter sockets on the market. I'm using a Honda filter that's the precise dimension, does not have extensions to fit around the stiffeners on the oil filter housing, but seems to work fine.