New 2 me 2010 very base Pri

Just got fed up with DIY maint. and took her to the shop. Gave em carte blanche (family friend's shop and always dum, snicker)

$1,800 to change every fluid and EGR. Mileage went from 36 MPG to 45 and car runs so much smoother. Frankly, I'm glad not to have to learn how to change out an EGR. It was pretty packed up and doubt cleaning would have been the way to go.

Mostly happy just biting the bullet and spending the money. Was getting behind and frankly board with learning and doing these things. Starting some community college writing courses. Basic English is kinda the focus for now. So I can now now gooder ways of writing.
(writing a novel and taking notes for a memoir. ((and I misspelled "writting 3 times while writing this. 2 funny))

 

Headlight bulbs kept blowing. I had tried using gloves when changing them but this time was sure to in no way touch the new bulbs. Tey both have not blown in many months. Aside from the expense, they are a huge PITB to swap out! So I'll be grateful if this is gonna work long term.

 

Some 2010s and 2011s have an eats_low_beams issue. The incandescent headlight bulbs are rated for 12.8 volts but the Prius normally operates at a higher voltage (up to around 14.7). The designers depend on the skinny wiring to the headlight dropping that voltage closer to what the bulb wants, but somehow in some 2010-11s it did not end up skinny enough, and too much voltage gets to the bulb. The result is a bit more light (output goes as roughly the square of voltage), but greatly reduced life (life shortens by around the thirteenth power of voltage).

There's a service bulletin, T-SB-0204-12, to correct that. It just splices in a couple extra meters of wire to each low beam bulb, enough to shave about 0.55 volts off the voltage arriving at the bulb, so it will have a reasonable life. It was discussed more in this thread. The modifications have to be done very carefully, exactly as the TSB describes, because they involve joining copper and aluminum wiring, which is a fire hazard (see: 1970s residential wiring in US) if not done just right.

If you are using any of the "premium" extra-brightness kinds of bulbs, that makes the problems a lot worse. Those bulbs already trade off a bunch of longevity to make a bit more light, and if you put them in a Prius that already has the eats_low_beams issue, they go poof in short order. Just using standard bulbs will give you better longevity, maybe even enough that you won't feel a need to have the TSB wiring modification done.

In most auto stores, the "premium" more-light-shorter-life bulbs are prominently displayed right at your prime eye level, and the standard ones will be hanging on pegs somewhere down by your ankles.