Salvaged Prius purchase - good experience so far, knock on NiMH

Hi all, new to prius chat and to prius in general. Just bought a salvaged (and put back together) 2008 Prius package 6.

So far so good, few problems (AC coolant was not filled after reconstruction but the seller happily had it filled and it's worked great since (over a month ago and I use AC once a day probably). The seller in this case was the guy who did mechanical and body work so I had a 30 day guarantee from him for any labor.

Anyyywaaaay - just thought I'd share.

I didn't pay very much for the car so I felt that even if something broke it was worth the risk. And it's a 2008 pk6!! So cool. I sold my 2006 Honda Accord EX V6 6 speed Coupe which was getting 19mpg even with some attempt to "be good" and being MT. I'm now getting 40-42mpg in Prius and I netted $2K between sale of Accord and purchase of Prius. I live on top of a hill and do lot's of 2-3 mile trips so I'm happy with that.

I miss catching rubber in 1st and 2nd (and sometimes 3rd in the rain ) but I'm not looking back - so happy with the Prius, I love all the whiz-bang gadgets even after a month of playing.

Best feature so far: Front seats have concave rear surface so baby-seat fits behind my seat (I'm 6'3") better than any other car I've tried so far -another reason to buy a Prius!!!

Did I mention that I love my car???!!!!!

 

update on Salvage Prius experience

Well, no major problems yet but for full disclosure to those considering Salvage Prius, here are problems encountered so far:

Air Conditioning did not work: (My fault for buying car on cold day and not testing)
Solution: Seller apologized profusely - they had forgot to recharge after repairing car and quickly serviced for free at his shop: He used special non conducting oil and ran system on vacuum/drier before adding new coolant. System works great after several months and many 100 degree F days in traffic. Whew!

Very slow coolant leak on Inverter side. Haven't found leak yet, it loses about 1 tablespoon (15ml) every month. I occasionally smell faint antifreeze smell. Verdict is out on this one - may be problem in future but so far not a problem. Keeping fingers crossed.

Brake fluid leak. This one is more scary, but not unheard of in Prius's weird braking system. (In other words, might be due to accident, or might be coincidental) I don't think I noticed leak originally because the friction brakes are so rarely used. In four months, I've lost about 1/3 pint of fluid or ~150ml. Finally set off warning light so I refilled. Leak appears to be in Brake Accumulator/ABS Pump assembly - hard to tell. NO DTC thrown, no leaks at wheel cylinders or at master cylinder.
Original seller has agreed to look at the car and diagnose problem for free, will negotiate repair - stay tuned on this one.

No other problems. I've found a few missing plastic anchors for bodypanels/bumper skirts probably from replacing during reconstruction.

Final thoughts: Don't buy a salvaged car if you are going to worry about these kinds of problems. The brakes are of course a more serious problem but the Prius is designed so well with so many failsafes that I'm not overly worried. When the fluid got low enough to trigger the first idiot light (red brake light), the whole system still worked. I foolishly ignored this, thinking it was the parking brake switch being stuck. A week later, all the idiot lights came on (ABS/VSC/Brake) and I lost power brakes but had master cylinder (manual braking) which worked perfectly. I hardly noticed to be honest, but then I wasn't racing down a mountain road either. Had I popped the hood and topped off brake fluid, I would never have had a loss of braking. Note: The brake fluid reservoir still had lots of fluid in it, but for some reason, the Prius computer didn't like it getting too low (maybe to avoid air).
Two lessons here: Pay attention to the idiot lights and don't be an idiot!!! Inspect your car thoroughly after buying salvaged. Some problems can take a month or two to surface, like slow leaks.

 

update - brake fluid leak was a fitting that wasn't tightened down. Problem solved. Well, we'll see.

 

I was told by the guy I bought mine from (who has another 4 for sale!) that in his experience, insurers are much more likely to total out a Prius - he could only speculate as to why but said that there are tons of them totaled with very little damage. He buys only non-frame-damaged. For the so called expensive parts, he buys others with more severe damage. i was just checking out one of his latest acquisitions - hit in the side hard. Side air-bag was interesting to see. car did a good job of absorbing impact, or so it seemed.

A good example of expensive parts: Inverter - up to $3500. But taken off the smashed prius - free. Well, sort of. he paid about $3000 for the smashed one which comes of course with a complete driveline intact. engine, tranny, inverter, battery, etc. all perfect, but the car is cheap from insurer because it can't be rebuilt.

 

I've heard the inverter can cost $3500. That alone might kill the deal

 

Update for November: New problem with salvage car. The 12V battery is not doing so hot. Leaving door open kills it in about 30 minutes. Running radio with car off takes about 15 minutes. I left it on 1 Amp trickle charge overnight which didn't seem to help anything. I took battery out and left it on a 24 hour desulfating 1 Amp charger (probably just half wave rectified AC with no smoothing cap) . Maybe it helped, I do not know. Car can sit for several days without the 12V battery dying so I'm not too worried. It's mostly annoying, but I never turn car off now if I'm listening to radio. It only pulls about an amp off the traction pack while sitting (and I have four of them!) in ready mode.

 

Update on salvage Prius: Finally replaced crappy battery with Optima yellow top. $140 w/free shipping from Amazon, $8 connectors from Sears for standard battery connectors. I'm loven it, can listen to the radio for 30 minutes (at least) without HV power.

No other issues to report, everything works great with 18K miles, now getting 48mpg on 60 mile (each way) commute and 3 extra traction batteries, but no charging (charger exploded when a diode shorted, haven't built a new one yet).

 

They are installed, or rather wired in parallel. I use the BMS+ device to use the extra battery power and charge with a simple homemade charger using basic diodes and capacitors to double/rectify mains voltage to 240VDC.

Range is about 10 miles no gas burned or 25 highway miles and get 75mpg.