First Post- Thanks to all who post here

I just purchased a 2007 Prius 1 owner base with 124k. Mostly because they have always intrigued me a bit and I love to tinker. This isn't my only car (or motorcycle) so I don't mind a bit of downtime if needed. Seems like a cool project.

Main reason for this post is to say thanks to everyone who contributes here, what a great resource! I trolled the board here for a couple weeks before buying so I would know what to look for in a used Gen 2, and it really paid off. I knew at least some of the pitfalls and how to spot them, like original battery or refurb, check 12v battery condition, trouble codes and battery health with Dr Prius, original cat since I'm in SoCal, etc. I feel like I was pretty well armed in advance knew at least some of what to look for, although, yeah, there were a couple of surprises but I'm good with that and don't mind working on the beast.

So keep on posting and I'll probably chime in from time to time for some advice. Thanks all.

 

Hi there. I found this guy in the back lot of a local dealer. They took it in on trade but was too old to put in the used section of the dealer since they only do certified used cars, they don't sell over 5YO on the lot. A friend gave me an introduction to the used car manager and he let me take a look at this car that was scheduled for the auction. It smell a bit of old wet dog, but thanks to the forum I knew to look at the place under the hatch where the top meets the hatch and saw what you have all described as the water ingress point... easy fix if you know to look there. Was a 1 owner Cali car with dealer service records and no reported accidents (dealer pulled a car fax for me), so service was maintained. 12v battery voltage was at 11.9, so marginal but might have been sitting a bit but was not OEM (replaced with optima recommended here), purchased Dr Prius app and battery was at 65% after lifecycle testing, pulled back cargo covers and verified Toyota OEM battery. Cycling several times might improve this, not sure, but I did the test on the lot before test driving so it might have been sitting a while. We'll see. I expected to buy a new battery, but I'll let this go as long as it performs. The test drive went well, the car feels very solid with no bad behavior, drove straight hands off, a pretty nice ride which I found surprising. Battery stayed in the blue during my 40 mile test drive, mostly freeway but some city. It got 51mpg, so I would guess battery is not working too hard since the fuel economy was really good. Battery delta was .22 and IR range was 18~26. So I purchased and stopped on the way home for some silicone sealer and got that problem solved. Also got the optima battery on the way home.

I've driven it 1500 miles since purchase and the oil level hasn't changed on the dipstick, so I see that as a positive, but just luck really since I couldn't know that in advance.

Surprises. 3 days after purchase the combo meter went dark... didn't phase me since I knew from here what that was all about. I disconnected the 12v white cable and plugged back in and the CM came alive so ordered the 220uF caps from Amazon and used ODB Fusion for a speedometer while waiting for caps. 3 days later yanked the dash, replaced the cap, and everything is fine with the CM.

During the dash teardown I found several cracked places on 2 dash trim pieces near vents that I didn't notice during inspection so I ordered replacements from Ebay and waiting for arrival now. Note to self, check dash trim pieces closely in the future. The cracks weren't obvious until I went to remove the trim. That also pretty much confirms that the CM problem had likely been a reason the owner traded it in since a dealer would charge a very high price to fix that with a new CM. The cracked pieces tell me someone ham fisted the trim pieces off and probably diagnosed the CM issue. So that's a good thing really since it's a likely reason it was traded and not a blown engine or bad traction battery. All conjecture at this point though.

It has a lot more get up and go than I expected and drives like a real car, not a highway slug like I expected. I routinely drive from 4200ft AGL to near sea level (and back) several times a week and it has no issues cruising up long steep slopes at 70mph with cruise control on, so that was a surprise of the good kind. I did pull the HV blower fan and cleaned, pretty dirty but not sure if it was enough to matter. Worth doing though just for peace of mind. A VXImini will be here tomorrow, so I'll have that to fool with if needed. I also have Torque Pro on a Lenovo tablet and am still fiddling with that with layouts and such.

Probably the biggest surprise though is the amount of information, videos of specific problems, and a community that is pretty quick to help. Can't put a price to that.

All in all having a lot of fun with it.

 

The Dr Prius app showed lifecycle reading at 65% (see my post), not 22%. Delta was .22v. Seems used but reasonable to use for a while. And this is after sitting in the lot for a while, so may recover a bit with use... too early to tell. And yes, modules could have been replaced but I didn't see evidence of any wrenching in the battery area and could only dig so far into the interior during the lot inspection. If at some time in the future I need a new HV battery, I'm prepared for that and will probably buy an OEM replacement and change it out myself. Doesn't seem too hard.

Do a search here for Gen 2 dark dash and you'll find lots of posts and there are many youtube videos showing the entire procedure. Sorry, I'm too new here to post links here yet. It's about a 4hr procedure and requires a bit of soldering skills. It's a bit tedious to rip the dash out, but the capacitor repair is straightforward. I ordered 10 220uF 16v caps from Amazon for under $6.00 to replace the 100uF 16v original. So cheap repair parts wise.

 

Yeah, I don't know how valid that data is from Dr. Prius app, but I figured it was at least worth doing a test before purchase to get a general idea about the HV battery. While driving the battery stays in the blue and sometimes green. The bars show typically between 5 and 7 bars. Engine doesn't seem to be racing during operation. But time will tell I guess. Getting fluids changed today.

Now I need to design and 3D print a tablet holder for the Torque app.