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Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by sambojoho, May 25, 2023.

  1. sambojoho

    sambojoho Proud conservative

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    I just bought a 2015 Prius 2 with 79k miles. I used to own a gen2 Prius and have been lurking here for a couple weeks. I do all my own basic maintenance on my Toyotas and they rarely see a shop. I am planning to do the following maintenance now:

    ATF drain and fill
    EGR system cleaning (Valve, Intake manifold, cooler)
    PCV valve
    Coolant change of both circuits

    would it also be prudent to do the engine water pump and the spark plugs now? What about the hybrid battery fan? It has an inlet screen but it is clean and don’t see any junk in the intake. Anything else I should add to the list?
     
  2. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    You don't need to do the trans or coolants or pcv valve or spark plugs. Wait for the 120,000 service.
    The EGR system, you probably don't need to do that just yet. It certainly wouldn't hurt to do it.

    No reason to do the water pump, it's probably good for another 100,000 miles.
    Wouldn't hurt to clean the fan. Did the other owners have dogs in the back seat?
    Since it has that pull out filter, that will stop most of the fur, but not the dirt. You can get
    a sheet of a/c washable filter and cut a piece to fit. That's what I did.

    Check the brakes. Might be a good idea to clean the slide pins on the front and rear calipers.


     

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    Grit likes this.
  3. Rebound

    Rebound Senior Member

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    It would make a lot of sense to do the spark plugs, because it’s very labor intensive to access the plugs. However, you’re doing that labor as part of the EGR clean. What you can also do with everything apart is clean the firewall area thoroughly, especially the cabin air intake area, as best as you can. Keeps the cabin air fresher smelling.
     
  4. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    ?????What???
    Spark plugs are easy. It's a 15-20 minute job to replace the wiper cowl and assembly.
    A minute or two to remove the coils. A minute or two to remove and install the plugs.
    Just make sure you have 14mm magnetic spark plut socket. (y)

     
    Zeppo Shanski likes this.
  5. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    If you're going to do all the work yourself, I would go ahead and take care of everything. You're already at the 8 year mark and most of this stuff is done at the 10 year mark. It'll cost about $100 more in parts, but that's nothing for another 60k - 100k. I would save the water pump replacement until your next coolant replacement (another 50k) miles.

    So I would go ahead and change the plugs and coolant while you're in there. If your 12v battery is over 6 years old, I would consider changing that out as well.
     
  6. sambojoho

    sambojoho Proud conservative

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    Thanks. I was just thinking maybe I should do the plugs since I will have the cowl off anyway to do the EGR cooler. But it seems easier to do the plugs than on my Highlander. I had to remove the cowl and intake for that one.

    on the gen 2 prius I removed the cowl a couple times, once to do the pcv and another time to do the valve cover gasket.

    the reason why I was thinking water pump is I was reading a theory that the impeller blades wear out relatively early and can contribute to overheating and thus head gasket failure due to lack of coolant flow
     
  7. sambojoho

    sambojoho Proud conservative

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    good thought on the 12v battery. I have no idea if they ever changed it. I’ll see if there is a date stamp on it
     
  8. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Sometimes when you change out a perfectly good part, you can replace it with an inferior part and cause problems. Problems you never had before, just because you decide to change something that wasn't an issue. I've seen this way too many times
     
  9. sambojoho

    sambojoho Proud conservative

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    interesting thought. I have studied a bit about “infant mortality.” So I definitely get the concept. Maybe there is a better way to ensure my current water pump is performing good? Maybe you can see the amp draw or something from Techstream (wish I had access)? I would prefer to ensure flow though as a seizing bearing would also show up as amp draw even if flow is poor.
     
  10. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    I don't know anything about infant mortality, but I do hang around an autoshop a few times a week. One of the stranger things recently are water pumps failing from 2.5L Toyota engines. Similar water pumps in the 1.8L Prius. Those water pumps are just seizing up for no reason and many are just a few years old. Maybe there was a bad batch back then but that is the reason I don't like changing out good parts (in your case from 2015). These are made to go more than 150k miles. If you change out a perfectly good part, you can put a brand new one in from a bad batch and end up with problems (not even taking into account of human error with installation)