New (to me) Classic

I'm a new member and just thought I'd introduce myself. I just bought an '01 with about 100k miles on it. I am the third owner. The second owner bought it as a Toyota Certified used car, from the dealer that originally sold the car new.

I am loving it so far. I commute about 40 miles each way on SoCal freeways, and I have averaged just over 50mpg for the last two tanks. Based on what I have read here, that seems pretty good considering most of that driving is at 60 to 75 mph. Not much AC use in that time though (maybe 10%).

It has carpool stickers, which has already added about 5 hours of meaningful time to my life in the last two weeks.

I have all service records since about 25k, and all seems in order except I see no record of a transaxle fluid change (which isn't surprising since it wasn't originally recommended). I plan to change it out this weekend. I changed the oil to 0W-30 Castrol Syntec full synthetic last weekend at 100k miles. I will probably use 10K oil change intervals with the full synthetic.

I am a "car guy," and I am not afraid to get into working on it myself to keep it going. Any other recommendations for service I should perform at this milage? I bought a PCV valve, but getting access to the old one seems like a real PITA. All I know is that it is supposed to be on the drivers side rear of the valve cover, but it must be under the wiring harness, which seems really hard to get out of the way. Anyone have any hints?

I have been reading the site (and others) to learn what I can about the technology, mods, driving techniques, etc.. Lots of great info here. I love forums where there is an obvious "community" behind the web site. This is obviously one of those.

I hope I can contribute some useful info someday.

Dave Goodrich

 

Thanks for the suggestions tochatihu.

I was a good boy and used the search function to find those threads on the PCV valve when I was looking at it last weekend. Even with that info in hand, I still didn't find the pcv to be easy to get to. I didn't try removing the cowl, however. I'll give it another look this weekend. Also, its not clear whether those threads are discussing the Classic, or only the HSD Prius. Would the PCV be in the same place regardless?

Yes, I was planning on getting a gasket and cleaning the transaxle pan. What kind of container should I use for the oil sample?

Spark plugs were changed at 82K, as was the Cabin Air Filter.

I will look at the throttle plate. If there is soot, does that imply a plugged PCV?

SSC 60G was done recently, at 97K. No record of TSB EG011-03, what is that? Can I just go to a Toyota dealer and ask them to check which required services (recalls, TSBs, etc.) have been done and which still need to be done? Is there no place on-line where I can look up what TSB's are required for my vehicle? I would guess that everything that was supposed to have been done has been done since this Prius was serviced at the dealer exclusively.

I will check my VIN when I get home from the conference I am at.

Thanks again,
Dave