Just bought a 2008. What maintenance should I perform?

Welcome to the forum. Go to Toyota's site and make sure your car is up to date on the recalls. It may be worthwhile doing a Carfax check if you haven't already.

Include both engine and transaxle/inverter coolant.

If brake fluid is darker than honey, it's time for a flush.

Throttle body and MAF sensor may need cleaning. Do a search here for that.

Keep an eye on the engine water pump, if it hasn't been replaced yet.

One of the more important things you can do is to keep a close eye on the engine oil level. They start burning oil before they reach 150K miles, typically.

If the car is from the Phoenix area, the hybrid battery may be stressed from heat. If you're a hobbyist/DIYer, considered getting the MiniVCI working on an old laptop so you can easily monitor battery block voltages and resistances. Listen for the battery cooling fan (vent in the back seat), if that starts running frequently it's a sign.

Enjoy the car. Except for the heat and battery thing, Phoenix is a great place for a Prius.

 

Replace the serpentine drive belt now. Look at the engine coolant pump pulley. If you see pinkish deposits from leaking antifreeze, on the pulley interior and/or on the AC compressor housing, replace the pump.

Check the condition of the front struts and rear shocks. If you see fluid leaks, definitely replace them. However the lack of a fluid leak is not proof the struts/shocks are in good condition.

Replace the iridium spark plugs and PCV valve at 120K miles, if not sooner.

I have 225K miles logged on the 2004, which still has the original equipment traction battery. I agree though, that hot weather doesn't help the battery's longevity.

 

Unless you know the owner was a DIY person it might be worthwhile to get a CarFax on the car and see if there are good maintenance records through shops that report their repairs and maintenance. You might find some of the things above were already done (as we were lucky enough to find out with our 2008 purchased at a mileage similar to yours).

 

A generic OBD code reader will not pick up all DTC logged by the various Prius ECUs. Mini VCI is your best bet as it is the clone of the software used by Toyota dealer techs.

 

What Patrick said, not only for diagnostics but also for testing, monitoring, maintenance, and even customizing. It's not the most robust tool, but it usually works pretty well, considering the $20 +/- cost, plus an old laptop.

 

Hah! Good question. I haven't found anything. You don't get that for $20. I found a couple of tutorials on YouTube, minimally helpful.

You might need a few computer smarts to unzip some files and get things loaded. Then it's pretty much menu-driven, probably mainly for associates degree level techs.