How often: Oil changes for 2013 Prius II

It's not mentioned by any manufacturers? Kinda like tires.

 

This.

I guess they think that everybody knows that batteries wear out.......kinda like tires.

The VAST majority of owners of all types of vehicles don't change their batteries until they go completely DEAD anyway.

 

Driving with jumper cables and bald tires.

 

Safe thing to remember on the twelve volt battery is to change them out every four years.

Been there when you get in the car and push the start button and nothing happens can kind of suck when you need to be at work and you're running late.

As far as oil changes go unless you do a lot of highway driving I would look at a daily driver Prius as severe duty. That being said we did a impromptu poll a while back and it seemed that most of the Prii with oil burning issues their owners were doing 10K oil changes. Not to say a number of cars that had 5K mile oil changes didn't also have a oil use issue, just not as many.

 

Do your wheels feel hot after an extended drive? That one simple/direct way to determine if your brakes are dragging.

 

I wouldn't trust Midas to add air to my tires, much less to do anything more complicated.
So I am not qualified to comment. Oh, wait..........

 

If your brakes are dragging, it's more likely the slide pins than the piston seal that's causing it. Simply removing/cleaning/lubing would fix the problem if that is indeed the case. If they've already replaced the calipers, you now have cheap rebuilt units in place of the OEM Toyota parts. Be sure to have them inspected, cleaned and lubed regularly -- as called for in the service manual.

 

I've never heard mention of a pdf of the Prius c "repair manual"; you might be stuck with taking out a short-term prescription at Toyota Tech Info.

Someone here mentioned "alldata" as a cheaper access, to the same data. Anyone tried that?

Sadly, there seems to be an inexorable trend to all-online "repair manual" (aka "shop manual", "service manual"). Also, the Owner's Manuals of late are being stripped of DIY instruction, oil change for example. Also, maybe it's just me, but it seems like the quality/completeness of the "manuals" is going downhill, whatever the format.

Back with our Hondas, I always bought the paper "Shop Manual"; typically a single volume, about the dimensions of a city phone book (remember those...), for somewhere under $100. It payed for itself the first time you checked the valve clearances (screw and lock-nut Honda style). Or did the brakes.

Maybe someone with a Prius c and some motivation could cobble together some basic DIY pdf's.

 

if they are speaking at midas, they are lying. there is no way for us to diagnose what happened.

in the future, if you can't find a decent independent mechanic, take it to a dealer.

you can do whatever you set your mind to, but if you are gonna diy cars, you should do a lot of reading, get the right tools and start with little things and work your up.

 

It doesn't help that the Repair Manual info, for routine maintenance, is behind an overpriced paywall these days. Yeah, I can remember buying a 0-25mm micrometer and a dial indicator with magnetic base, over 35 years ago. You learn as you go along. Start by just lifting off the caliper, removing and cleaning the pads and shims, pull out, clean and relube the pins.

For all the points of contact, between pad/shims/caliper I use Permatex Anti-Seize (silvery paste), sparingly. For the pins: Sil-Glyde Brake lubricant (looks like vaseline).

Cheap insurance is to disconnect the 12 volt negative cable before doing anything. When done, pump the brake pedal a few times to take up excess travel, then reconnect the battery.

 

For the pins, Toyota recommends a "lithium soap based glycol grease", which they sell. It is a clear red color and you can get a whole tube of it (part no 08887-01206), or just use the little packet of it that comes inside every Toyota rubber kit (one kit has all the rubber and fiddly bits to rebuild a left and a right caliper).

In my experience, the one thing that correlates most directly with long, cheap, trouble-free Prius brake life is regular attention. I just rotate my tires myself, mostly because it gives me a perfectly good opportunity, every 6,000 miles or so, to look at the brakes. I just flip them up, take some measurements, waggle the slide pins inward and outward, and flop them back down. In most cases there will be no parts needed and no real need to do anything at all. Usually the pin grease will have solidified a bit, and will feel stiff until waggled a few times, but if they come back to moving easily and greasily, I usually don't even bother opening them up to fuss with the grease. If they need it, I will.

A couple times, I've found the "fitting kit" (the teflon-like coated spring clips that fit in the caliper bracket and hold the pad ears) to be rusted enough not to slide as easily, and I'll pop in replacements (kit's about $15 IIRC, does a left and a right caliper). That takes, like, 5 minutes.

Long story short, brake calipers are pretty simple things, you just want to make sure they grab on when you're braking, and let go when you aren't. If checked regularly, they can probably do that for you for close to 200k miles in a Prius. But they're in a wet, salty, grotty environment, and can develop little issues any time, which you can easily catch if you check regularly, but otherwise can progress into situations requiring replacement of parts.

-Chap

 

If it has rear disc brakes, it’s not a Prius c; I think @myvoicehurts's profile lists the wrong model. In any case, the Cleveland Public Library subscribes to the Chilton Library service, which includes the Repair Manual text and illustrations for the 2013 Prius.

 

DIY wheel rotations affords you the luxury of manicuring the wheel hubs. I put a very sparing amount of anti-seize on, 2~3 rotations ago, and there's still enough residue that I can rehomogenize it with a toothbrush:

 

Spotless, looks like new!

 

Based on Km’s, it almost is.

 

Deleted by author

 

The point I was trying to make: often "professional" service means rushed, less attention to detail. A tire rotation for example, will be just that, wheels off, slammed back on in their new locations. The high hourly wage rate demands this.

On the other hand, the "amateur" might check the tread carefully, clean the faying surfaces between hub and wheel, dress them with a bit of anti-seize, clean up the lug nuts and so on. Because there's no rush.