Waiting on my '13 Wagon to get here

The brake booster program is not a recall. A recall is a safety related issue that is performed regardless if it is broken or not. The brake booster program is a customer support program that is mailed to registered owners.

This kind of program is voluntary on the part of Toyota and is dependent on certain conditions, usually the system has failed, specific codes are present, not cleared and any mileage or time limits have not expired.

Salvage title cars are excluded as are cars where someone installed a used brake booster which has failed or was the wrong part. Lots of folks get a customer support program confused with a government mandated recall.

To make customer support programs more difficult, some dealers would rather not do them at the reduced profit Toyota pays them. In the end many v owners have received free brake booster systems installed by the dealer past the standard warranty periods. Often because the customer mentioned the Prius v customer support program #20TE07. If you keep this car you have until 150k miles for this repair. After that it is $2500 - $3500 depending on the dealer.

 

Does it burn any oil?
I thought you could take it back..... I guess your going to learn the hard way. Hybrid battery could go out tomorrow....

 

Sorry got this mixed up with a different post.

 

with the price of cars these days, a new head gasket, or even rebuilt engine still puts you way ahead of the game, imo.

 

Unless you need a traction battery and master cylinder with accumulator.................

 

that would be the trifecta!

 

But this isn't a horse race............

 

A trifecta is a winning bet. With a gen3 you have to sell short. A decent hedge is to buy under market.

 

They had to tear everything off the engine to do a head gasket so its possible something was not replaced 100%. Some codes take a period of time after a power disconnect.

What exactly did they do? Did they rebuild the head? Or just the head gasket?

 

Concerning the hv battery, I would drive the car a few hundred miles first to see if a series of charge discharge cycles helps. I am sure the car was sitting for several months.

Your battery replacement options are simple; used or new. Most battery replacements from $500 to $1600 are used batteries with one or more bad cells swapped with a better used cell. It might work six to twelve months before you have to test the warranty. That kind of battery is worth maybe $600 if a local independent shop does the work. Local meaning easy to get to for repeated warranty work. By the way, Dorman from your local autosupply are used cells.

New cells from Toyota are around $1600 if you shop and put them in. Toyota new cells were recently on sale from a dealer in Florida for about $1350. The careful reader may realize new cells can sometimes be obtained for less than used cells. Don't be the guy who overpays for used cells.

New aftermarket cells from third parties "newpriusbatteries.com" or lithium from "projectlithium.com" are available as well. They are not exactly the same shape or fit but will work. I would get the lithium even though they are a single supplier barely out of beta testing. More power and mpg have been reported. New cells will last eight to ten years, used cells eight to ten months.

With that said, I would wait until the engine is solid before going down that road.

 

Or clean it, say at engine coolant change intervals: 100K miles or 10 years, and 50K miles or 5 years thereafter.