[DIY] ICE & Inverter Coolant Replacement

Nouman · Nov 16, 2022

mindfk said: ↑

Hello,

I'm coming from Audi/BMW background where there is a DIY for most of the maintenance jobs and you can find a scanned repair service manual for any year/model...

I want to contribute to the forums because I found some useful information here and I haven't seen a good DIY for coolant replacement for 3gen. I have 2010 Prius V (five).

Things you will need:
- coolant - I used "OEM Concentrate extended life Pink radiator antifreeze coolant" Part # 86-174POEM, SKU: 879899 from my local Pepboys. My local dealer did not have a pink coolant concentrate (and I did not fancy to pay $24/gallon of 50/50) and the specs for the alternative meet Toyota's coolant. I paid $21 for concentrate and $0.88 for distilled water...use whatever you like, this ain't an oil thread. Mixed coolant yielded 2 gallons of 50/50.
-a pan to drain old fluid
-tools to remove plastic rivets
-10mm socket
-10mm hex for inverter coolant drain
-my custom tool to loosen coolant bleeder valve at the top of the engine

Engine bay: right side - inverter coolant, left side - ICE coolant
View attachment 99902

Remove the belly pan with all its bolts and plastic rivets
View attachment 99906 View attachment 99907

This is how the inverter coolant drain will look like, we will do that first:

View attachment 99908 View attachment 99909

Inverter coolant capacity is approximately 2.1 Liters = 2.2 Quarts

Remove the 10mm hex coolant drain:

View attachment 99911 View attachment 99912 View attachment 99910

Give it few minutes and then reinstall the bolt with 29ft/lb of torque. I reused my aluminum washer.

Fill the inverter coolant reservoir tank until it is at the FULL mark, I used Techstream to start the inverter pump and circulated the fluid, it seems like the system bleeds automatically. Screw the inverter reservoir coolant cap back on the reservoir and you're done.

Now let's move to the ICE coolant.

View attachment 99904
View attachment 99913

Go under the car and look for the radiator drain:

View attachment 99914
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View attachment 99916 View attachment 99917

I also blew into the coolant reservoir to remove as much coolant as I could.

Now we will look at the back of the engine to drain the engine block:

View attachment 99918

Proceed with draining the block. In my case, blowing into the coolant reservoir resulted in no fluid in the block...funny thing....Torque for this little guy should be 9ft/lb so take it easy.

Close all the drains you used and begin filling the ICE reservoir (capacity 7.3 Liters (7.7 Quarts) with exhaust recirculation, 6.5 Liters (6.8 Quarts) without exhaust recirculation), when done, check for leaks. Fill to the FULL mark on the reservoir.

When filling you should loosen the coolant bleeder valve, close the valve when you're done filling the system.

View attachment 99903
View attachment 99919

You can steal my patent and use a bent piece of metal as a big stubby screwdriver

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Take it easy, all these bits are plastic and it is easy to break something, this L shaped piece of metal should be easy to fit under the windshield panel, if you want, feel free to remove the engine cover for more space.

You are now ready to bleed the system. Put the car into maintenance mode to allow for proper ICE warm up, the coolant thermostat opens at around 190*F.

Wait for the car to fully warm up, set high heat and fan to low - 1 bar. Full warm up will take few minutes.

This is when I started checking the bleeder valve from time to time to make sure I have no air in the system. If you want to find out when the thermostat opens, feel the radiator hoses underneath the car. It should take approximately 10 minutes to get the car to 190*F. When you will feel that the hoses are warm, bleed the system one more time and fill up the reservoir to the FULL mark. This completes the bleeding procedure. Exit the maintenance mode now.

Put back the belly pan and take your baby for a spin. You just saved yourself 200 dollars...

Have fun!

PS: I'm not responsible for whatever you guys do, this is just for your information. I'm not a mechanic and don't take my advice seriously. Also, in my attachments you can see few scans from the shop manual describing the coolant replacement process.
Click to expand...

I have prius 2014 with no bleeder valve and after thermostat change I don’t have heat on driver side. Not sure if there are airlocks causing this or there might be blockage in heater core. Before that it was all working fine just engine was heating up. Which is now resolved.

I tried the followings.

1. Lifting expansion tank.
2. Tried vacuum tool

Now bought a second hand bleeder valve to fit it from older model.

[DIY] ICE & Inverter Coolant Replacement

Nouman New Member

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[DIY] ICE & Inverter Coolant Replacement

Nouman New Member