Question on services/maintenance

Keep in mind all service intervals are miles or months, whichever comes first. Do you have any solid info on what was done previously to you buying the car? I would take a long look at what's in the scheduled maintenance for starters. And err on the side of caution.

This is my chart format summary of the US 3rd gen maintenance schedule:



I've just, as best I can, tried to replicate what's in the Toyota booklet, no revisions. I would advise though, change "inspect" transaxle fluid, to "drain and fill". Also worth noting, there's an in-depth brake inspection (not the visual look-over) every 30K miles, that a lot of owners (and dealerships?) seem to be skipping.

Also, my preference would be to change the oil every 6 months or 5K miles, whichever comes first.

 

it's really up to you.
i do 5k tyre rotate. oil every 10k or one year, whichever comes first.
air and cabin filters inspection/clean/replace myself, by the schedule unless i notice a problem.
there's nothing else to do, unless you live in an area and drive in a lot of snow/slush/salt, then you may want to look at the brake inspection/lube intervals.
also, if you are hairy, you may want to inspect the battery cooling fans once in awhile.

one caveat, i don't keep cars long enough to worry about how the maintenance i'm doing now will affect the car at 150,000+ miles. so i just follow toyota guidelines pretty much, which are designed to get most of the cars beyond warranty.

 

Your very low miles are a factor too. I mean: the miles or months thing starts to fall apart if the car is near-completely idle.

Honda has an in-dash reminder, a smart reminder which monitors variables and counts down, then periodically displays a code as to what needs doing. There is a proviso in the Owner's Manual, saying if no code is being displayed due to extreme light use, at the least change the engine oil and filter once a year.

 

exactly. that's why i do the oil every spring, even though i've only done 49,000 miles in 4 years, 8 months, and only 18,000 hv miles.

but some argue that every 2 years is fine.

 

You live in SoCal so they probably don't let you change your own oil without applying for a permit and filing an environmental impact statement.
I would get a detailed quote on the 40K service, especially since you bought the car used and it's still under the OEM warranty.
It would be nice to hear what they're charging these days, and if you tell us what they say we can advise from there.

If it were MY car, I would change the oil and transaxle fluid myself, buy and change the engine air filter and cabin filter, and yank the tires and clean and inspect the brakes....and document. Total cost probably less than $100. Maybe $150 on the outside (haven't priced OEM fluids and filters lately)
If you're at 90-percent EV then you're charging at home, which means that despite my snarky comment you really can DIY all of the maintenance. No shame if you don't want to, but you can still save money by doing the simplest things like cabin air and engine air filters yourself.
Think: Amazon.
If you want to split it up you can pay for an oil change and transaxle change (say...$200 for both) and pay a reputable third party tire place for a lifetime alignment and balance....and defer the complete brake thing if you're still on your first set of tires and there's more than about 50-percent of tread remaining.
Living in SoCal does have the advantage of not having weather or winter, and if you haven't chewed through your first set of tires at 40K, then you're not a candidate for early onset brake failure.

If you have the kind and honest people down at the local dealer do the 40K (snark alert) then tell them that your mechanic brother bet your attorney brother that they're going to fake the brake service and not notice the marks on the oil filter.

(not snark) It's about time to check for the "infamous" timing cover leak.
You REALLY want to find that before the car goes out of warranty!!!

 

For people that sell their cars before 100k miles, oil change interval doesn't matter

 

mine keep going to friends and relatives, so i try to use a bit more caution. don't want an angry Christmas get together.

 

Yeah, first weekend in April and October for me: oil and filter changed. I might start skipping the filter change at alternate changes.

 

+1

 

You'll get a twitch when the time comes, to open up that filter and change it. Just to have something to remove

 

What I do on another car, a Honda, where the official schedule actually relegates the oil filter change to every other oil change: remove, tip out the oil and reinstall. It's a regular spin-on though. This gets that last cup or so used oil out, win-win.

The Prius filter housing is a bit more of a pain though, you're likely right: I'll just carry on replacing the filter. I don't know how much abuse that O-ring can take too: it's a bit of a hassle.

 

Sometimes I advise people to change the oil at 5k and the filter at 10k for a Prius since it's a chore to get to.

 

No need to Jack up the car, just drain and fill

 

can't the filter be cleaned and reinstalled?

 

I'm very willing to do that with the cabin filter. With the engine filter I'd prefer to just check it, replace when getting pretty soiled. At 65K km's I'm still on first filter, for both. The cabin filter's looking kinda grubby, but the engine filter looks virtually new still.

 

same, but i mean the oil filter.

 

Oil filter is impossible/impractical to clean. My intent is just to remove and drain what's hung up in it.

 

thats what i do.