2010 Maintenance and MPG

When we could drive the generation threes that we had here that was about the normal gas mileage everybody says they get 50 and 55 mi to the gallon yeah for about 30 minutes If that was the case you would be making 550 mi on the tank of gas and still have a gallon or so left in the tank never seen it personally

 

Any gen 3 with 180K miles, for sale, chances are about even it's got a blown head gasket, maybe masked by stop-leak product. Don't sink any money into tires or whatever, till it's true nature shakes out.

A check of the pipe between EGR valve and intake manifold is pretty easy to do, will give some idea of the EGR condition. See video #16 here:

Nutz About Bolts Prius Maintenance Videos | PriusChat

Check the links in my signature (on a phone turn it landscape to see signatures), for EGR cleaning, and dealing with head gasket. Last link is full engine section from Repair Manual.

Head gasket failure usually "presents" sometime after 150k miles, typlically at the wall between cylinders one and two, allowing coolant to leak into one or the other of those. Symptoms include:

1. Banging/shaking at cold starts, due to coolant in cylinder
2. Unusually clean top of piston, in compromised cylinder
3. Coolant level drop in the reservoir
4. Misfire code P030X, with X corresponding to cylinder number

To get the spark plugs out for a look the wipers and cowl need to come off. See video #13 in the aforementioned link.

 

45-47 is probably average on fuelly. the only thing you can do to increase mpg's is driving behavior and low rolling resistance tyres

 

Post how that goes, especially if they do EGR cleaning. That should include intake manifold cleaning, since there’s EGR passages running through it. There’s not a lot of places that’ll do this; not sure why; it’s not that hard.

FWIW: thanks to the shortcomings of 3rd Gen EGR, optimum would be every 50k. Neglecting it, head gaskets fail.

 

1. Use the tires until they are done. ROI on greenie tires isn't super high.
2. Clean and lube caliper sliding pins at all 4 corners. They corrode and lock up.
3. I would say do the EGR cleaning and use some ngk spark plugs or denso. Just buy from a real source so you don't get counterfeit ones that burn up 4x faster.
4. Change the oil every 5k, check the oil every time you get gas in case its an oil burner. Probably a good idea to track oil in and oil out for every oil change.
5. To be safe i would unplug the egr valve electrical connector until you get the egr system cleaned. You're in the head gasket danger zone.
You can leave it unplugged forever if you want. Just get a permanent p0403 cel. arkansas has no inspections so its a good way to go.