Check engine light diagnosis on 2011?

Where in Northern California are you located?

We could point you to another shop as this shop appears to have staff that have large, expensive toys .

$300 for diagnosis is a large fee for the results when there are more fish in the sea .

 

how many miles on her?

 

I would always get a second opinion. As for the brake pads, I hope they cut/turn the rotors when replacing your pads, or else vehicle vibrations can come back.

 

looking at your car buying thread, it sounds like you didn't heed the advice given.

 

there are a few shops around san fran that specialize in hybrids. but any decent mechanic can clean the egr circuit. there's even videos available to her.

 

grab the video, and ask around for a good shop. it's a diy project, so a conscientious mech shouldn't have any problems

 

Yep... the videos on our YouTube channel

 

Watch the EGR pipe cleaning video first. It's by far the easiest maintenance, and the amount of carbon/gunk in that pipe will give you some idea what the rest of the circuit is like. The video's are good to send to mechanic too, so they see what they're in for.

It's a frustrating situation: Toyota has officially acknowledged that clogging of the Exhaust Gas Recirc circuit "can" occur, but seems to intimate it's just a sometimes thing, more spiritted driving will dispel it.

There's a Technical Service Bulletin on the subject, but for action occur requires either a Check Engine Light and specific code, or severe symptoms. You might actually qualify for the latter, come to think of it. Their action is those cases is to replace the valve and cooler, I believe??

Those two pieces will set you back around $500, which is ridiculous, when a few hours cleaning can restore them. Especially with the valve, the cooler is tougher. But both are cleanable.

A good thread on the subject:

EGR & Intake Manifold Clean Results | PriusChat

The sand-pounder: Toyota USA advocates checking the security of the driver's floor mat, every 5K miles. The EGR circuit, the thing that can bring the car to it's knees, hoop the head gasket: fugedaboutit.