Ensuring road worthiness on a 08 Prius sitting for 1.5 years

A Prius newbie here in a most unusual way with a major question: What should I do (and have the dealer do) to make an 08 Prius that has been sitting for 1 year 8 months ready to make a 1200 mile road trip.

Here's the background and info: My girlfriend left her Prius in her Garage while we went out west to work. It's been 1 year and 8 months since we've been able to get back with the intent to drive the prius back west the 1200 miles. We arrived today, opened the garage and inspected the prius. Immediately, rodent droppings everywhere on the car.

When I lifted the hood, a mouse (or rat maybe) ran away (sort of) and there was rodent urine and droppings everywhere. Fearing the worst, I looked for nests, eaten wires etc, but could find none. The mouse did re-appear of course, but I hope it left. Other than the droppings and urine, I could find no evidence of damage. We jumped the battery and in about 10 minutes of charging, the Prius cranked and ran fine, although the 12v battery or course, still weak. I pulled the air filter, and underneath in the intake/air duct was an actual rodent nest I removed.

We aired the tires back up (all were at about 15psi, but no cracking, rot, flats etc), and drove the car and it ran fine.

The battery is still weak (I understand it's the original) so I called a parts store and have an optima yellow top on the way I'm going to install tomorrow. The drive belt and rubber hoses looked fine visually, with the only defect I see being the passenger headlight is very dim compared to the drivers. I almost consider this a small automotive miracle this thing wasn't eaten by mice, and that it jumped and cranked right up!

We plan on driving it back out west, and that being said, what would any of you have a dealer look at, do PM on, inspect etc, to prepare this 77k mile Prius for the 1200 mile trip after sitting 1.8 years unmoved, and uncranked/driven?

Some of my thoughts as an absolute Prius newbie are:

Change transaxle fluid?
Flush coolant and replace radiator hoses?
Oil change.
Basic safey inspection and any 70K (or the closest range) PM due?

I'm still amazed the car cranked and drove fine today ( I did put about 5 gallons of "new" gas in the tank), and didn't exhibit any problems......Cleaning the mouse droppings and urine off of the engine top, is another matter however. The smell of burning mouse urine on an engine is not a pleasant one!

 

I have some incremental driving planned along those lines. We put about 10 miles on it today with me following closely in a second car. Tomorrow after the optima battery install I want to get it up to interstate speeds. From there the drive to the dealer is another 80 miles. My major paranoia lies in the drive belt, if all else is well as appears. I would say there would be about 150 miles "test" on her before the big 2 day, 1200 mile run back to utah.

 

It's amazing to me given my previous experience with rodents doing significant damage in a matter of weeks, versus years and months with the "warrior Prius" as I've named it, and a lack of damage, despite so much evidence of them and sighting one. We did have some mouse bait in the garage it sat in, but I'm sure it ran out long ago.

We've put about 40 miles on the car so far, and so far so good. Tires were virtually new and show no signs of dry rot, cracks etc.......They all had about 15psi in them. The optima yellow top went in with little trouble using a guide here, and the hybrid/traction battery had a charge and is keeping such and functioning regularly.

We are taking it to the dealer Monday for an inspection, and the oil and transaxle fluid change, and yes, although I left them out initially, an air and cabin filter are on the list. The brakes actually look good, with some rust on the PS pully (I think it's the ps pump) but it's minor.

We have about a week before the big test of the 1200 mile trip, but every mile locally we put on it, the more confident I am from my experience anyway. Still amazed overall......Espeically given a chevy avalanche that sat similarly will not crank, at all and the prius fired right up after jumping.

 

I did end up using a carwash sprayer (not pulling the trigger and using the light mist it emits) to strategically wash the engine bay and surrounding area. Absolute "nastiness" as patrick Wong mentioned and it was the best way. Very careful aiming and it seemed to work well.

I also changed the air filter (cleaned/vacuumed underneath on the air snorkel side) and changed the cabin air filter. Much filth and urine behind and in the cabin filter too! The new filter and febreeze negated the smell, but you can still see filth on the air inlet door and in the cowel inlet at the base of the windshield passenger side too. I'm still amazed they used the prius as an outhouse, but yet ate nothing. Luckily no incursion into the under hood fuse/junction box took place either. On the Avalanche I mentioned earlier that sat similarly they seriously damaged the under hood fuse box with urine. I gave up on resurrecting it and it now sits in the hallowed space (via grunting, pushing and gravity)the Prius occupied, at least garaged, and well mothballed, saved for another time, as no such "10 minute revival miracle" the Prius pulled off.

We made the 80 mile run today smoothly and the Prius is at the dealer ready to roll in tomorrow morning for 10k service and inspection for the 1200 mile utah journey a week from now. Basically right now though it runs and all systems functions like it sat overnight, not 1.8 years! I'll have to post some pics soon.

 

Just to update. The Prius cruised cross country across I40 through all of the 18 wheelers trying to run us over (serious issues with these guys wielding there rigs like a cruise missile against motorists) and now sits in flagstaff AZ, for an IPA. It has done great and about 300 more miles to complete its last leg.