2010 Prius IV - My Work Car

I bought a 2010 Prius IV about 4-6 months ago, can’t remember the exact time frame. Great condition and it had been with 1 owner. When I first purchased the car, I noticed it was burning oil, the battery was pretty weak, and I was overall not satisfied with it mechanically but was pleased with how great the body condition and Interior conditions were. 3ish months after owning the car, I started getting misfire codes and the engine was shaking horribly. Turns out it was burning oil faster than I could remember to refill, leading eventually to blowing the head gasket.

I’m not very mechanically inclined but I had removed 3 engines before and replaced them, I didn’t think that was enough experience to dive into a head gasket replacement. The fact the engine was also burning oil meant the rings were seized. I decided to go for a replacement Japanese engine totaling me $1500 out the door. About 12 hours of work later, engine was replaced and runs great. My mpg didn’t go up as I hoped it would but given I live in AZ and the heat is non forgiving, I figured I would tackle the battery next.

About 2 weeks later I ordered the project lithium battery and installed it. My friend also ordered his and we were able to change both in less than 5 hours. Not hard at all, but did manage to pull a back muscle in between.

Next on my list are the brakes which I hope I have enough time to do today. I’ll post pictures if I end up doing it. Now I have a 2010 Prius with a Japanese engine with about 40-60k miles and a brand new project lithium battery. I’ll come back to this post to give updates on mpg in the AZ heat.

I use this car to DoorDash and I am Eventually going to put this car through Uber. My total cost of this car is now running at around $9500. Not so low but I’m very happy with the car.

 

Thank You!
I drove it around for a while on a nearly empty tank and it seemed to have reset the computer lol.
Can't wait to put it through the ringer doing lyft and uber rides. We will see how well it does!

I honestly do not feel like replacing engines takes much work, its not complicated at all. I consider changing timing belts, head gaskets, and transmission work to be mechanic work lol.

Back feels back to normal lol! thanks!

when i received the engine it came with the intake manifold, the throttle body, and the egr already installed. I still inspected it and saw everything fairly newish. I think the engine i purchased may have been on the higher end of the advertised mileage. i've done the cleaning on the other prius I owned and it was such a headache. Definitely don't look forward to doing it again.