Questions about buying a 2010

welcome!

low miles on a 9 year old battery in florida might be an issue.

also, low miles might affect the egr clogging more, i'm not really sure.

for whatever reasons, older prius with lower miles seem to suffer from lack of driving. but that may not be the majority of cases, just what we see here.

 

When I got mine done, I called up about 4 different hybrid shops, and none of them had heard of it, and most refused to do it.

Ultimately for the EGR cooler and valve, I paid my local mom-and-pop's $200 to take it off and give it to me, while I cleaned it overnight, and gave it back to them to put on the next day.

The intake manifold/ egr pipe I did myself.

 

There's a big plastic panel under the engine bay, that tends to get damaged, fasteners lost, in particular with rushed service personnel. It's the second black plastic piece, going back from the front fairing. The first black plastic piece too, is subject to wear and tear: due to the low ground clearance it tends to snag on concrete wheel stops, curbs, and tear when backing off.

Our 2010's at 80K kms, approximately 50K miles. I've cleaned the intake manifold, installed the Oil Catch Can and cleaned the EGR circuit. A little premature maybe for EGR, but don't regret getting on it sooner than later. I've followed the Canadian oil change interval: 6 months or 8K kms. The car's using zero oil between changes, so far. Knock on wood.

 

No real issues to look for in a Prius with 50k miles. I would have the tranmission fluid changed, no more then $100 at the dealer. EGR should be done at 100k miles along with the coolant and invertor coolant.

I would recommend using Mobil 1 oil at a heavier weight then 0W-20 especially being in Florida. I use 0W-40 and have no issues.

 

The biggest issue on a low mileage Prius is the battery. At 9 years and 78K miles my HV battery died and had to be replaced.

It's not how many miles it's the age of the battery that really matters.

 

Replaced under warranty?

 

Nope here in Pa. the warranty only runs for eight years.

Dealer maintained so Toyota tossed me $750 and my dealer kicked in a few hundred off the battery.
$2300 with sales tax installed.

 

I'm curious about how many folks here with 2010s have had to replace their hybrid batteries?

 

Your chance of a head gasket failure more likely then a bad battery. But even that seems to be low. It’s all depends on how the engine/car has been driven and maintained.

 

That's what I figure. Mine is currently in the shop getting a new battery, thankfully under warranty, though the previous owner was in Arizona and the miles are kinda high at 145k so I'm not terribly surprised. My original plan was have the car for a few years and then trade up to a 2015 with less miles and more perks, but now having a new battery and planning to clean the EGR I feel like the car will have new life.

 

The Arizona heat will impact the life of the battery. Make sure you check oil every fill up. Also change the oil at 5K miles.

 

198k miles on our 2010 and going strong .

No replaced hybrid battery here.